Ok, so I like electronic dance music, more specifically Trance. When I started in the 1990's, the US was a bit behind in that department.
Still, with San Francisco and San Jose nearby, I've had some opportunities to see some great EDM/Trance DJs. Back in the early 2000's, they sadly played club music in the US that was nowhere close to the hits they had composed and were known for, but over the years, as Trance started becoming more popular, those DJs finally started playing their good tunes in the US too, and maybe from 2004 on, it's only been getting better. Popsicle Halloween 2004 was really the beginning of great music parties in the San Francisco Area, and thankfully things have gotten even better since then
As a matter of fact, after another 10 years (2015 and beyond) the good news is that Trance has grown quite a following in the US, and places like the SF Bay Area, and while Trance has been declared dead a few times in the last 10 years, it's still going strong here.
Trance Family SF is definitely strong in the area, we've been getting more big trance parties every year, including many top DJs that come visit us what feels like every other week now (as of 2018-2019), and through those events, I made many friends in Trance Family SF. Thanks to you all.
Over those years, I got the chance to meet a few of my favourite DJs, including Armin more than once, and my last hobby has been to work on lights for my shirt and pants (version 3) and (version 4)
This was our first big TFSF party since the pandemic, over a year already. Both an outside party with Markus Schulz, and then the first indoor party (limited attendance) at Midway.
Chri5py opened up and Jonny Atom took over:
the whole crew was here to attend
hi findtherabbit!
And eventually Markus took over:
got to use my new outfit (still work in progress)
Markus was nice enough to take a picture with me:
The indoor party used tables with assigned seating. After Markus was over, we went in for the 2nd party, pretty limited due to crowd size limitations, but still, first indoor party, yeah!
A few of us hung out in the back to keep twitch working:
After 1h30, Niko took over:
And that was it for an epic day/night, really a first after a year+. "T'ill we dance again" was today.
Video summary:
Can't believe it was my first party of the year, but it was. Thanks a mil to David Lewis (Blurr) for inviting me. Thanks to Opel Productions for the party.
DJ Blurr running the decks
Syd came next
he came prepared for the cold, thanks burning man
plenty of burning man crowd, they were also prepared (yes, it was actually cold as balls)
Triode and Blurr, enjoying the party
As the sun was setting, Dave Dresden came on. Great to see club quarantine ouside of a computer screen:
This was not a trance event, but Dave played a bit for us anyway (thanks Dave):
This was also my first time to try my brand new high resolution outfit, now with 2 computers, and 4 times more pixels. It needs a bit of work still (plus a ridiculous amount of improvements I already have in mind for it), but it worked, yeah!
As the end of our trip driving across the southern states back to CA, we ended up in San Bernandino.
Yeah, festivals, it's been a while, we missed them. Park and Rave was nowhere close to what a real dreamstate would have been, and quite expensive ($360 for a single night per car), but eh, beggars can't be choosers. We're glad we had at least this :)
After close to 3000 miles coming from Dallas, we arrived an San Bernandino just on time for the show:
our vehicle was too big though, so we had to park in the back
I took my outfit, and found a few friends. Thanks to Bryan Keyes for adopting me in his box:
I even happened to run into Triode (but got in trouble for it and sent back to my caged area)
Thumbs up to everyone who brought some partying spirit:
I was not very close to the front, especially with our campervan that had to be all the way in the back so as not to block the view, but with a proper zoom, it wasn't too bad to take pictures:
The videso were more shaky on long zoom though (sorry):
I can say without doubt, this was the very best festival I went to this year of covid :)
It has been so long since the last show, 7 months for most of us. We now have so many talented TFSF menbers who took the decks one after another, before Christopher. The full lineup was:
Kailey Grace
Jonny Atom B2B Shane Alexander
Blurr B2B Taj [Vinyl Classics]
Christopher Lawrence
Unfortunately that day was one of the worst air days in the bay area with all the fires around us:
drive to SF was quite hazy
my tesla model 3 was able to keep the air clean enough with full recirculating
but outside was terrible
I was prepared, though :)
The midway did a great job setting up socially distanced areas for groups of 4:
Nice running into my friends I hadn't seen in person for so long:
hi shane
Afik, Alvin and Benjamin came to join me for our VIP table:
haha, my dinky lights looked like crap when it wasn't dark enough yet
Kelly was at the decks at 16:00, that was my first time seeing her play live and she did a fantastic job:
+
Shane Alexander and Jonny Atom were next, and did a quite enjoyable B2B set:
Blurr and Taj were next, another great B2B set, with fantastic vinyl tracks:
live on twitch for those who couldn't join
Christopher Lawrence was last. I'll admit that when I last saw him 10+ years ago at burning man, I didn't care much for what he played then. I much preferred his set this time, slightly unusual (for me) psytrance. It was a good way to end the evening:
And eventually it was time to go home after a fun 5H (likely a 21:00 sound curfew):
Yes, yes, it was just a few tables in the middle of a street outside in an industrial part of SF, in quite frankly unbreathable unsafe air, yes, we weren't really supposed to dance much and leave our respective little table area (there was some leeway), but no one cared. We all had a great time, and damn, it felt so good after 7+ months cooped up at home.
Thank you Ulrich, thank you Midway, thank you all the DJs who played for us. Can't wait until the next time.
Video summary:
I can't believe that it had been 10 years already, so our heroes from TFSF, including the tireless (alphabetically) Sony, Triode, and Ulrich, organized a crazy 72H Trance stream for us, with so many DJs, including live sets from clubs and a very windy hill :)
Needless to say that it's not every day that you see a set like this, actually I have never seen any event around the world with so many artists and hours. Even Lumi at its best was only 48 hours over 4 days:
Yes, even if you were there, you likely missed a lot, because life and sleep, but not to worry, it's almost all here for you. Before you ask how, I basically ripped all the sets from twitch while they were playing live and before twitch started muting them, and then re-uploaded everything to youtube (about 90GB).
Live from Corona Heights until the wind destroyed the generator and blew everything away, including Triode's favourite hat. You should watch the end of the set for how endearing it is when they were battling the elements and the dying generator. Next time, we'll make things simpler and broadcast for a hot air balloon:
A fun moment was when Triode's hat flew off just after he started:
I still don't know how it was retrieved as it looked like it was on its way to Alcatraz, but the two were re-united :)
After a bit of dead air, Ncturnal stepped up as "I am Spartacus" and took over the stream. Michael Bricker was next to help take over until we got back to our regular schedule (thanks guys):
Liquid Soul was the last set I was able to watch before having to collapse in my bed, and good psytrance is just what I needed before going to bed, thanks :)
It would be difficult for me to tell you my favourite sets, because they were many for different reasons, and it wouldn't be fair to a perfect set from a skilled DJ who happens to be playing music I happen not to personally like as much, but I'll make an exception by saying how impressed I was by Kepik's set, both because of the amount his music that was in there, and also because I absolutely love the Seven Lions genre jumping. Kepik, you're the man.
By then, the monster marathon set was on auto pilot with recorded sets during the night until Shane 54 on monday morning to finish the marathon:
And just like that, 72H were over. Thank you so much to everyone who volunteered for this event, including the huge list of DJs, we couldn't have done it without you, thank you.
I still remember this day at EDC where I heard John O'Callaghan play his then new track: Wounds That Heal, a track that really touched me then, and still touches me today. I knew I knew the melody but I didn't know why (sorry, it's not on youtube, click the facebook link).
It was after I went home and some googling that I figured out it was because of Kill Bill and this scene I love so much where she goes to get a Hanzo Sword and the melody is playing softly in the background:
And how about this beautiful interpretation of it:
The actual track is called Kaifuku Suru Kizu, here is the original:
All about Lily Chou-Chou is a Japanese movie which, well, is not required viewing (it's a bit "special"), but given that I've started watching movies referenced in trance tracks, I figured why not.
Armin's Balance tour finished in San Francisco, sold out in Bill Graham. He brought a lot of singing talent with him, it was a nice surprise.
In addition to terrible communication on the show's hours that changed multiple times after tickets where sold and were not even really confirmed until the day of, the openers were not officially announced either. To be honest, they were disappointing:
Elevven opened up, they went out of their way not to upstage Armin
Rodg was next, same thing, not an unforgettable set...
Then, Armin came after 2h30 and a quick setup to install a very cool addressable LED decor:
first time I've seen a trance duet, very cool
Video summary of Bill Graham (please forgive the bits with oversaturated sound, it's not all bad):
After a very nice 2h30 set, we ran out and went to Midway SF where Armin also arrived around the same time than we did, and he palyed for another while before Elevven finished the night and played better than at Bill Graham:
Midway Video Summary:
Definitely a good night, first time we see a double Armin set on a single day :)
Unfortunately, Mezzanine is not allowed/able to renew their lease, so they are closing forever at the end of the year. This was our last TFSF event with them, going out in style with Triode and Marlo. Too bad, as the venue had gotten quite nice:
I was at my company's Xmas party that night, but ducked out early to attend the most of the event, and it was worth it :)
Triode opened early at 21:00 and played all the way to midnight:
Marlo then took over at midnight and finished the night:
Triode and Marlo during Triode's Castles in the Sky mix
So, I'm Seven Lions fan, and figured it would be interesting to see his friends play at Mezzanine, but honestly it was very much a mixed bag, both in music type (a bit all over the place, including the crowds, some were rowdy), and DJ'ing skills.
Seven Lions wasn't technically on the schedule, so we didn't have an expect him to play a lot, but were hoping for at least 1-2H, and in the end, it was only 30mn, which was disappointing.
A few pictures:
Finally, Seven Lions came for a quick tease around 01:00 and went to hide again :) The guys who were playing there (not even sure if they were actually playing), didn't mix anything. It was just a track after another with no transitions whatsoever in between. Sigh...
Finally, he took over the decks at 01:15, for some nice tracks and proper mixing. It was quite nice, but way too short, especially with some of the substandard DJs that played just before:
Dreamstate in SF did not happen this year, which is unfortunate as two dreamstates are better than one :) , that being said we still had Dreamstate Socal, which only got better this year. This year was my 3rd Dreamstate Socal, and my only regret was not having started to go earlier.
Dreamstate Socal at the NOS in San Bernandino has a lot more room than Bill Graham in SF, which allows for multiple stages (4 of them 2 years ago, and 3 these last 2 years). To be honest, 3 stages are enough given that each timeslot often had multiple DJs I wanted to go see. The big change this year was the much better psytrance stage, which accompanied with the great DJs, gave lots of opportunities to listen to good psytrance.
So, psytrance, I know, it's a bit of a niche market, but with some DJs like Astrix, Vini Vicci and Blastoyz, I've grown fond: high energy triplets grow on you, especially with so many psy remixes of great tracks. If you want a sample, see Blastoyz at this year's transmission:
Anyway, back to Dreamstate Socal, great production this year, more DJs than you could see and enough eye and ear candy to fill two great nights:
welcome back, we missed you
luckily Jennifer was able to join me this year. Yeah!
The decors were great and the VIP areas were shiny:
If you didn't bring your own lighting, they had you covered:
Closest to the entrance was the well improved psytrance stage (the sequence). The visuals were fantastic:
And the vision, the indoor venue, while too small for the crowds, had fantastic lighting and lasers too:
there is no such thing as too many lasers
woot!
but getting in at times, was 'challenging', some likely got in after the set they wanted, was over :-/
The Dream (mainstage) was quite well done too:
of course they also had a few lasers, because why not? :)
For the LED/tech nerd that I am, it was great to see more people with LED panels, some were able to use some of the code that I published online and make their own improvements on top:
well done Rory
nice improved animations on Denny's totem
nicely done, not easy to make a good gif in only 64x64 pixels
and even without LED panels, there were other nice totems:
So, let's go on to the DJs for Day 1:
unfortunately the DJ lighting was busted on day 1 in the sequence, so you couldn't see the DJs
it had been years since I last saw Johan Gielen in 2004, sweet!
I do hate tall flags though, they've ruined so many of my pictures
30X zoom taken from pretty far in the crowd, hence slightly grainy
Haliene came to sing with Ferry, but unfortunately she was not high up and didn't get to sing much. Give her a higher stage to stand on next time
and Aly and Fila to close the night
Day #1 Video Summary:
The next day, we had a meet and greet where many artists were nice enough to come see their fans. Thanks to Rachel for getting me a spare ticket after mine was invalidated:
After a bit of rest before the next big evening, came day #2:
cool outfits
hard to capture persistence of vision on camera, but nice when it works
sweet
whoever you are in there, you rock for having taken all those pictures
psyduck is overlaoded
Then it was time for some tripets, vini vici and blastoyz, and they were both great:
7 lions even came to say hi
I went back to catch the 2nd hour of Above and Beyond, which I had found a bit disappointing the last times I saw them, including ABGT 350. They were however excellent this night:
that was indeed my thought after the gorge and ABGT, but they made us wrong this time, thank you
I finished the night with Abraxis. Seven Lions didn't mix dubstep in like I was hoping for, but it was still an enjoyable set:
still poor lighting on that stage, sorry
and just like that, it was over, after 18 incredible hours
Day #2 Video Summary:
Also, those 2 days was one more chance to complete my DJ and Trance singers picture collection :)
Thanks to my friends who were there to share the evenings with me and Jennifer for joining me:
