Friday night March 15, Babylon was host to one of the best dance parties of the year, thanks to Silkken Laumann and the Hilotrons.

Ottawa’s Silkken Laumann (not the rower) teleport you back to the eighties and the new wave explosion. Fog machine blarring, crazy lighting and psych-house jams. They are quickly becoming one of my new favourite Ottawa bands. The band is comprised of lead signer Rolf Klausener, Adam Saikaley and Pat Johnson, all of whom some may recognize as the folk band the Acorn. These are men of many talents. Such a fun act to see, do not miss the opportunity to break out your dancing shoes and be blown away by these guys.

Headlining was the Hilotrons front man Mike Dubue joined by Adam Saikaley. Following the great performance from Silkken Laumann could have been a daunting task for many bands, but not for this Ottawa duo. Opening with a bunch of awesome sounding mixes of tracks off the new Hilotrons record, they got the crowd right into it. They quickly filled the stage back up by inviting Rolf and Pat from Silkken, as well as Paul Hogan from the Hilotrons to join them. The show then became a crazy freestyle dancey jam session. Mike informed the crowd that they were about to improvise in E minor at 120 bpm. They were so tight you could barely tell they were improvising. Once finished with their 120 bpm session they reved it up for a 140 bpm jam. To finish up the set, the stage cleared out except for Mike, who concluded with a beautiful rendition of Runaway Heart.

Once the live music wrapped up, the Visions dance party was in full effect. The 5-headed DJ super team of I8A4RE, Matt Tamblyn, Gregular, Silkken Laumann’s Adam Saikaley & Pat Johnson, had non stop beats raining down the crowd. You could feel it in your shins.

To top it all off, the show was a fundraiser for Arboretum 2013. Arboretum is a is a boutique music, arts and food festival in Ottawa. This year the festival is scheduled for the weekend of August 16 and 17. Last year’s festival saw Andrew Vincent, Cadence Weapon, Catriona Sturton, Jokers of the Scene, Ohbijou and many more hit the stage.