I was invited to one of their party at Montreal's ToHu last thursday. I took a bunch of pictures (mostly of half-naked paid models, ahem) but I won't be able to post them until I get my hands on a Windows or Mac machine, since Apple has no support for Linux, and it's the only platform I use right now. So no pictures for now, but I can manage to write up a quick recap of the party.

First, when you get at the ToHu, they make you sign a waiver basically allowing them to use your drunk ass face in their promotions. That's fine by me and the friends I had with me. In we went, only to be greeted by an army of pseudo-journalists taking pictures (with obviously empty cameras) of our group as we walked down the red carpet, by the APP cup, by the pseudo-interviewer and into the main room. That was rather fun, and somewhat impressive. Molson is paying a bunch of hot chicks to stand around with empty cameras and flash people. With their cameras, that is... But then, it's when shit got impressive budget-wise.

When we got in the main room, we were greeted by incredibly tight outfits wearing girls. I mean, girls wearing incredibly tight outfits. They gave us a bunch of APP gear. We felt like tools for a minute, but we played along and wore the bracelets, headbands and shirts anyway - it's not like it was a formal or BCBG kind of dress code. Then we saw what was in the main room: a bunch of APP logos projectors, 2 beer stands and a bar (YAY!) a bunch of girls dancing on podiums (wearing the same OHMYGODTIGHT outfits the greeters were). There was also a ring in the middle of the room. A fucking ring. The boxing kind of ring, with cables and all that. That's where the DJ was spinning, and we figured some event was gonna happen there - we all secretly hoped for a tighties mud wrestling match. It was a really cool setup.

So we started mixing up with the crowd - some would say scouting - and we slowly headed towards the "bar" which really was just an elongated counter selling chips (?), chocolate (??) and beer (!!!). The beer was obviously Molson (Dry), and we would've been insulted if they had tried to sell that for more than 3$. Fortunately, it was 3$ for 575ml bottles. Not bad. I don't care what people say though, paying 3$ for any kind of Molson beer is still stealing - but we played along, again.

So we had our beers, our swag, and our game faces on. We started looking around... and we found a body painting booth. It mesmerized us for a moment, we took some pictures and then moved on. There was a total of three body painted attention whores girls at the end of the evening, wearing only a G-String. So that's when stuff got rather normal. We chatted, looked around, and waited to be drunk so we could pretend we knew how to dance. Meanwhile, we got to have a peek at Molson's target audience. A bunch of hyperactive kids, mostly. People jumping around, making a train (!) around the ring and screaming "Woo Woo!" like some kind of unnatural Salt-N-Pepa, La Bouche and Quad City DJ's threesome.

Keep in mind that the objective of the night for many attendees was to obtain medals. There were referees, recruiters and coaches of the APP in the attendance, and they distributed medals to party pros -- basically the noisest, most annoying, hyperactive fools that could do stupid shit to get their attention. With 5 medals of any kind, you had a chance to go party it up in Prague. For some, that was a good excuse to act like attention whores, which provided entertainment for those who didn't.

Now let me describe our group. I was with NVI coworkers and friends Nicolas Cliche, Nicolas Cossette, Samuel Lavoie and "Stephane" (who obviously requested anonymity). The average age of our group was 24, maybe 25. We're not old. We're no strangers to parties. We found a group of girls claiming to be 18. They looked like they were 12, it was crazy. If I'd see that outside a club, I would make a mental note never to go. It's not the crowd I'm looking for. Maybe I'm a bit picky, but I prefer places where people dress nice, and know how to party with some dignity and class. That's just me.

So we spent the night dancing and drinking beer. At some point during the evening, maybe 1 AM, the "event" started. The crazy hyperactive VJ from MusiquePlus, Izabelle Desjardins (thanks @nicolask7), was the host. They called a "DJ Battle". I got excited, thinking they'd have locals or renowned DJs on a spinning duel, but it ended up being rather static. Still, it was fun to see Marie-Mai, Stefie Shock and Sans Pression come down the stairs dressed as boxers<, complete with the bathrobe-looking thingie, and jump on stage. There was one more guest, but I didn't care enough to remember his or her name or gender. The "DJ Battle" was basically a pre-made iPod mix from each of the contestants. Not their own songs, just random crowd movers. Stefie Shock was no match for Marie-Mai's hotness, who advanced to the "second round" against Sans Pression, which happened about an hour later. SP ended up "winning" basically because a bunch of guys kept chanting his name, which I found myself doing. Marie-Mai was hot though, it's a shame we didn't get to see more of her -- in every possible meaning. A day after, I wondered where the guests had spent their night, because I certainly haven't seen them mixed up in the drunk crowd.

So that was basically it. After the second round, we went out for a smoke and when we came back, the room was pretty much empty. We danced until 2:40, then we got tired of it and left. Molson was curteous enough to provide each of us with a 15$ taxi coupon, which is the thing that I will remember, I think. Associated with Molson anyway.

All in all, it was a fun night. I'm a bit disappointed by Molson though. They invested a LOT of money in props, guests and hosts, but they neglected the point they want to push through to their audience: the party. They relied on a few hired bodies (fucking hypers) to drag people in the party, but I'm guessing they succeded only to some extent. It was no different than your average club where you come across 16 years old getting hammered for the first time. I expected more, I don't know what, but I did. Or maybe I'm just too old for Molson's target audience.

I'll post my pictures soon. Meanwhile, Molson reps promised official pictures would be online Monday at ProDuParty.com.