Detroit Techno House

Detroit decided to depart from the warm sunny, blissful weather that usually occupies the late part of May. Windy, rainy cold nastiness was abound. Luckily, plenty of amazing electronic music managed to keep the crowds moving.

First up I caught the better part of Dabyre’s set on the Redbull stage. Banging, next level beats that had the small crowd on their feet, toughing out the first wave of rain. I ended up leaving a little before the end to catch some of Carlos Souffront on the Made in Detroit stage. An awesome, all vinyl set that blurred the lines of house, techno, electro and all things in between.

Up next was Erika, who threw down a memorable live set. Raw acid-tinged techno that was dark and moving at the same time. This was easily one of the best live sets I saw this weekend.

It started raining pretty hard at this point, so I dipped into the Underground stage for refuge. Half the festival goers had the same idea. Drumcell was absolutely killing it with hard, driving techno, turning the Underground into one giant sweat box.

After some time, the heat, smoke and general funk became a bit much for me, and I decided to seek some fresh air and different sounds. I caught the last bit of Ellen Allien’s set at the Beatport stage. She had the crowd jumping to some techno sounds despite the frigid wind blowing off the Detroit river. Cajmere was up next and dropped a set of slamming, Chicago house tracks full of Cajmere/Green Velvet original tracks.

Up next, I caught a good portion of Truncate on the Underground Stage. Hard, dark pulsating techno that resonated through the crowd.

I wish all the artists I wanted to see today would have been at the Underground stage because the rain outside was definitely not letting up and was starting to wear myself and others thin. Instead of being a wuss and going home though, we all toughed it out to catch a slamming set by Maetrik at the Beatport stage, then Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May at the main stage.

Despite the weather being pretty horrible today, the artists threw down some great sets and anybody brave enough to traverse the landscape received a treat indeed.