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)
And if you are curious about my LED outfit, you can read more about it on my led peacock engineer medium post and if you'd like to read all my festivals or dreamstate, or clubbing posts, please click on the links higher on the page to get taken to those categories.
I'm not much of a day party person, and even less of a beach party guy, but I was in Vegas while Tiesto was playing at LIV at Fontainebleau, so why not? :)
After walking through the night club, the pool was outside:
The first time I went to the Sphere, got to see the default letters from earth, and it was ok, but not super exciting, on top of being short. I was worried when they were selling tickets far in the future with no information of what the show would be, how long it would be, and honestly any information whatsoever.
In the end, turns out the actual show was 2H and had a bonus random 1H DJ show at the end, although it wasn't cool that you got no pick on what the DJ would be as that was unannounced until just a few weeks or days before each show happened. That part, was honestly not excellent.
On that topic, the DJ set we got at the end was underwhelming, but the fact that it was house music, probably had something to do with it :)
But let's go back to the show, the sphere itself is of course cool, no matter what, even if it's not the first time:
the doors opened at 22:00 for 23:15 show
Let's get to the mainshow itself: before it started, the waiting music and visuals were quite good:
And then the show started and I have to say it was excellent. There was virtually no trance, but great selection of best of EDM tracks from the last 20 years, which I pretty much all enjoyed. Finding those tracks alone must have been a very tricky job, and they did well:
props to the live orchestra that played for some amount of tracks
plus live performers, but they were super small from the best position to see the screens
bus yes, they were small
the visuals themselves were a great trip in memory lane, very well done
insomniac won over tomorrowland in their visuals even if both were great
Summary of IG videos:
And here is a longer collection of clips from the show:
After the show was done, around 1h40, there was one hour left with 2 DJs, which was nothing in comparison:
even if those were the best visuals any DJ has ever had
sphere entrance security was thorough but they only seemed to care about metal/weapons, which was cool
sound was not too loud during the show, but earplugs were recommended during the DJ sets
the DJ sets were not a bad addition, but not knowing who was playing when, was sad. I missed Haliene who played the day after I came :-
when used properly the sphere is a super impressive, both insomniac and tomorrowland provided video bits, they were both very good, insomniac provided more and I preferred those
this show did use it properly, both for its 1h45 main show/movie
and the 1h of DJs afterwards who got the best visuals you can get anywhere in the world :)
the drink prices inside was absolute murder, $80 for 2 drinks, including literally changing my tip from $5 to $10 behind my back, was absolutely unacceptable and plain theft. Come on Vegas, if you are trying to rob and scam your customers almost everywhere, how long do you think they'll come back?
My friend Mark Estes just asked me for my favorite trance tracks ever. This gave me a chance to go dig out an Email I wrote at then work in 2003, just a few 22 years ago :) and how good most of those tracks still are today
I quote:
Aquanuts - Deep Sea
Faithless - Single - Salva Mea - Remix
Fragma - Toca Me
Hybrid - Finished Symphony - Oakey Creams Mix
Id&T Trance V.2 CD 1 - 15 Nu NRG - Dreamland
Insigma - Open Your Eyes
Jan Johnston & BT - Sunblind
Jan Johnston - Flesh - Tilt's Going Home Mix
Jan Johnston & Freefall- Skydive - Original Mix
Joker Jam - Innocence
Lost Tribe - Gamemaster - Community
Paul Van Dyk - Politics of Dancing CD 1 - 07 Tastes So Sweet - Iio - Rapture
Paul Van Dyk - Politics of Dancing CD 1 - 08 Sippin Soma - So Alive
Paul Van Dyk - Politics of Dancing CD 2 - 03 Ralphie B. - Massive
The Thrillseekers - Synaesthesia - Community Mix
Tilt - Invisible - Oakey Havana Mix
Transwave - Phototropic - 05 Land of freedom
Tukan - Light A Rainbow - Wippenburg Remix
Honestly, all of these tracks are still really good today and I put a good amount in a new list I just made today:
Iio Rapture
More than Love Craig Connelly Remix
Waiting for the Night ft Fiora
Craig Connelly feat. Jessica Lawrence - How Can I (How I first fell in Love with Craig)
ALY & FILA - It's All About The Melody
Aly & Fila feat. Jwaydan - We Control The Sunlight
In case you didn't know, it's been shown that ADHD folks lack the same amount of dopamine that most people get naturally, which can be partially fixed with drugs like adderall. But indeed, EDM has also been shown to help, and it's been clear to me that Trance music definitely hits the spot for many ADHD folks in numbers alone :)
A few reference articles:
Captured Malta in 2024 was loads of fun if you forgot about the thailand-like hot humid weather last year. Thankfully the weather was more bearable this year: still pretty warm during the day, but not nearly as humid, which was the roughest part in 2024.
The lineup was another mix of Rong and Euphoria Malta: some bigger name DJs as well as plenty of lesser known DJs who were quite capable of playing lots of lovely trance for us to enjoy.
This year, the main 3 days were at Gianpula Village, which itself has a choice of 11 stages, and I not only didn't mind the mostly single location, I thought it was more convenient for staying nearby and not have to go all the way across the island to different clubs each night. Personally I like Ginapula and it provides enough variety in a single location, that I was happy to keep going there every day.
Given the 3 trance festivals in Malta we now have every year, I'm going to continue the little game of comparison:
Most days: Euphoria wins with 6 days
Most hours of trance: Euphoria wins again with 68H. Captured actually has the least of all 3, but let's be clear that it was still more than plenty.
Boat Party: I'll state that once you've done it once (and I've done it 3 times now), it's not essential. Captured actually won because the boat was bigger and nicer
Time of the year: while it's true that May for Rong and Euphoria is nicer and milder weather, september may be a more convenient time for you and for US folks Captured is a win since it's not right before or after EDC Vegas
DJs: Rong definitely is the most expensive of all 3 and brings more bigger name DJs. However Euphoria goes to show that you don't need lots of big name DJs to have lots of fun. Captured sits in between both, and can be a bit of the best of both worlds
Emma Hewitt: Only Captured offers a lovely live trance vocalist. I absolutely love live sung trance, so huge huge plus for me
Venues: all 3 festivals have pros and cons, but on convenience, Captured using mostly Gianpula Village was s plus for me. If you prefer to try different clubs most days, Rong and Euphoria will take you to more (but also means more daily transport and no central hotel)
fake money/BS tokens: Rong: yes, and that sucks, Euphoria and Captured: no, and thank you
Seeing Ferry Corsten and others play vinyl when they never do so normally: big win for Captured
Most DJs/Stages: Rong won that one but at the same time, I don't really need to have more DJs I can see at the same time :)
Psytrance: another win for Captured, which was the only one to feature psy on at least one day (saturday). You might not care if you don't like psy, but I do :)
The only thing that wasn't perfect was the communication, lack of updates for DJ changes/swaps, and afternoon parties that were actually more fun this year given the weather was not as humid, but were only announced on a FB group in a post that FB censored for a while and in my case it only ever showed up 3 days later. Also, not ideal for people who are not interested in using FB, for them there was no way to get the updates. Hopefully they also get sent in a daily Email as needed in the future.
glad to be back :)
Day 1: Thursday, Boat Party and Club tigullio
we got a bigger boat this year
this was the older, smaller one
Thrillseekers and Space Brothers:
Day 1 video summary:
AFter the boat party, we went to club Tigullio
we were ready for Solarstone :)
more shirts :)
Day 2: Friday, Gianpula Village, Club Phoenix
Unfortunately, I didn't get the pre-party info for friday because FB never showed me the last minute post, so I missed it, so I went directly to Gianpula. There were 2 stages running that night
pool party was still open :)
first time meeting Three Drives!
Day 2 Summary:
Day 3: Saturday, Gianpula Village Triple Room Big Party
Saturday was the big day, 3 stages, biggest names, and psytrance! Party went rrom 19:00 to 04:00 and it was a lot! Actually no, it did start with pre-party around 16:30 at a far way hotel. After missing the rooftop pool party the previous day, I made it on saturday :) But it's a bummer it wasn't better announced and many missed it:
with wind on th root and in the shade, weather was ok
time to chill while listening to lovely tunes
After the rooftop party was over, time to go back to Gianpula Village.
group picture
big props to Captured for having the vinyl set room
what's better than having Steve play vinyl for us?
and psytrance!
Back to mainstage:
my favorite part again, Emma Hewitt
she sung a lovely set
And then, Gouryella:
And we ended with Craig Connelly
Day 3 Summary:
Day 4: Sunday, Recovery Party at Gianpula Marakesh
I expect sunday to be pretty low key since saturday had a lot of locals who came to party, but turns out Monday was a national holiday in Malta, so lots of people came to party sunday too, even up to 04:00 when Sam Mitcham closed. Sunday was single stage but honestly I actually prefer that. When there are 2 or 3 stages at once, and the other stages aren't crap music I don't like, it's tough because I know I'm missing out every hour.
Interestingly, Miss Monique went to play in some other club that night, which took some crowds away.
By day4 and after 6 festivals, my LED panels were starting to fail, so I had to field replace one, which I engineered to be a bit easier to do than last year :)
all working again, and ready for Orkidea :)
Marakesh was another room I had never been to, Gianpula has 11!
I could see where I was staying ;)
That night was actually a blood moon (moon eclipse), but it was very dim where we were:
Orkidea:
Andy Moor:
And Sam Mitcham closed the night by playing until 04:00:
picture with the man! Thanks Sam
Day 4 Summary:
Final Thoughts/Conclusion
I cheated and put them at the top :) That said, I can repeat that I can still recommend Captured Malta, it was loads of fun this year again. If you want a mix of bigger name DJs, while still keeping family feel and organizer that is also a DJ, then you'll have a great time at Captured. It's just hard for me to say you must go to one of the 3 over the other 2. Ideally you get to go to all 3 :) but if you can't, maybe the month where you can get time off will help, or if you like water activities, including diving, Malta water in May is cold, and much much nicer in September :)
Just like I had to thank the Euphoria folks for all the work and fun we got, I definitely need to thank Sam Mitcham and his crew for all the work that made Captured happen again this year, and the 4 great days of fun.
99 Instagram videos summary:
