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)
While looking for transmission pre-parties, I found that there was a boat party, but unfortunately it left too early in the afternoon for my flight in on Friday (had it been announced earlier, maybe I could have gotten things to match, but by then it was too late), but when I looked around the other option was indeed Techmission, happening in the same arena than transmission the day after.
I'll admit right now that I'm not much of a techno guy, so my experience and opinion here is not going to be worth much. I'll also admit that I didn't know any of the DJs on the lineup. If you're a techno lover, I apologize to you in advance for my ignorance and lack of taste :)
The night was a good rehearsal night, and made sure my outfit, that just came out of the luggage, was working correctly:
Despite being late due a long as trip from California and the 2nd plane being late, still got to catch the end of the first DJ, Philipp Straub:
Next came Goom Gum:
My guess is the first 2 DJs were probably supposed not to out-stage the main DJ of the night, Paul KalkBrenner, but I'm sorry to say that I didn't find him very engaging. Some tracks, he didn't even mix, he just finished the previous track, then blank and then played the next one. But eh, I'm the wrong person to appreciate this kind of music anyway, and plenty of people in the crowd were delighted, so that's the important thing:
probably the most lights I saw during that set for a brief moment
glad to run into friends along the way :)
I'll say honestly by then I was quite disappointed with the visuals, I knew how good they could be and how good the would be the next day, but up to then, the AV guys had shown a lot of restraint (likely by request).
Anfisa Letyago was next and played techno that was more enticing for me, and the visuals started being cranked up by then, which was nice:
getting better
nice!
The night then finished with Broken Robot which was also a nice set, but not the most useful name to find since there were too many hits on google and instagram for it:
nice teaser for the next night
And that was it for the night, while not my favorite music, it was a fun evening nonetheless and good warmup for Transmission the next night.
Video Summary:
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