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)
So, every time I went to see a laser show, from someone else, including Gareth's Laser City shows (and honestly I preferred "laserface" to "laser city" as a name), my reaction was unfortuantely always "it was nice, but laserface 2018 was (so) much better. Nothing has come close since then". Until today.
Ok, Bill Graham is a very nice venue, so that helped, but this time was the first time that Gareth brought more lasers than 2018 and made a great show out of it, and it was super impressive. This is now the new benchmark as the best laser show ever!
warning, lasers will be in use, haha
Arrived early to meet friends and attempt to get a good seat for the show. To be honest, the 2 opening DJs didn't play anything to write home about, it was burning time for the next 3H until Gareth would start. I'm sure they're not even bad DJs, but I'm guessing they had clear instructions not to shine too much, bummer...
So it was a good time to meet friends and take pictures :)
maybe not visible, but I also had the new prototype of my thinner and flexible LED outfit
The 2 DJs I had never heard about before: Robot Sunrise and Vision V:
sold out!
and then the countdown for Gareth
And finally the real sho started at 22:20:
a lot more vertical lasers:
but I prefered this
One treat like previous shows, is having Annabel join and sing, and this time as per my previous feedback, they got the lighting right so that you could see them on stage, which was another nice improvemnt:
did Gareth manage to play live plus mix live by himself? If so, super impressive
The cyberpunk storyline was a nice addition:
The lasers got even prettier around the end:
The whole show was 90mn, it didn't last that long, but it was beyond excellent. Gareth didn't play as much trance as he did in 2018, but I didn't expect he would, times have changed and 7 years later trance is not loved by as many people anymore. On the plus side, I did like the music selection he picked, so that was all good.
The one question the engineer in me has, is whether the entire show was a playback performance on a pre-recorded track that was perfectly synchronized to the lasers, or whether Gareth found a way to play some, or all of that music live and still stay perfectly synchronized with the lasers (with Annabel also singing live and on key, which is always challenging in a loud concert environment). What do you think?
My answer is honestly I think it may have been live, at least parts of it, but I don't overly care either way, the show was flawless and really enjoyable, which is what matters.
well done indeed
elbow bump is the new fistbump :)
After the show was over, afterparty at August Hall (formerly Ruby Skye).
crew picture
Gareth arrived around 01:00 and played a bit random music, but it was a good way to end the night:
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