Scene and Heard

SEMF Night Two/Three

Photos by April Fredrikson » The final two days of the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival built upon the hype created from its opening night by challenging the will to dance three straight days. The lineup was compiled with kindness as pulsation of house and electro let up briefly in exchange for ambient tones by Tycho and the jittery power crush of Paper Pistols.

Text by Blake Gillespie
Posted on February 04, 2010

Horse head.

Friday night was hosted by the F*ck Fridays crew of DJ Shaun Slaughter and John Droll. The resident DJs keep the Townhouse in an electric boog-a-loo every weekend. The second night also featured performances by Melee Beats, who set the tone with an infectious sound that put a buzz in the venue from the jump and the power dance balladry of The New Humans. Downstairs DJ John Carpio spun soul and hip garage records for the crowd that prefers to twist and mash potato to the funk.

Dana Gumbiner, stage name Night Night, summed up the slight drawback of an electronic music festival, "I'm just checking my email up here..." he joked from behind his laptop. The inertia of the festival was at critical mass for the majority of its clocked hours. Each night ran past 2a.m., but inspired energy is difficult to maintain. Maybe it was just my back of the house perception, but the Tycho crowd was the largest of the event, being a former Sacramento native doing big things on Ghostly International, but frustratingly sedate. It could have been those soft clouds projected across his visage, matched with the temperance of nursery mobile tones, that lulled the onlookers into a standstill state.

Even if it felt like momentum simmered, hopefully the effects of the entire festival will build anticipation for a yearly event, assembling larger names with each mounting year of success - hopefully.