By Les Goodrich

This year’s festival in Detroit was once again organized by Paxahau and what an excellent job they have done managing this event since 2006. This year saw some seriously convenient logistical additions for festival attendees, improved sound / stage design, and a lineup that seemed to satisfy both starry eyed ravers looking to hear a name their friends would recognize as well as the more audio-focused techno/house scene core that have built  & supported the scene from its beginning. And as anyone from Detroit is quick to remind us, this is the city where techno began.

First, Paxahau has implemented what I would consider some groundbreaking festival processes and technology that not only worked well, but made some of the historically difficult efforts as smooth as a 6am deep house set. A few days before the first day I received an email explaining that I could get my wrist band the day before the festival began, to avoid the long lines. Since I had arrived in Detroit on Friday I did exactly that, and strolled past the will-call lines the next day feeling like a VIP (which of course I am). They also had a 99cent iphone app with all stage schedules, set times, dj bios, afterparties with maps, and a cool “I am Here” text message you could send with an arrow to show your pals where you are on arial photos of the festival grounds. Nice.

Once inside the festival there was an afterparty booth for obtaining wristbands for any Paxahau ticketed afterparties, again to avoid lines at the club. I told my friends [two other DJs from Chicago] about this &  we got our wristbands Saturday afternoon for Richie Hawtin’s legendary Control party that night. The only issue came when we got to the club & almost couldn’t get in because the doorman thought we were trying to get BACK in since we already had wristbands, & there was no Re-Entry. But, being professionals, we easily explained our way inside to hear Magda then Richie push the function-one soundsystem in the crumbling City Club at Leland Hotel to 120 decibels of tight bass and techno funk. No laser lights, no strobe lights, in fact...No Lights! Just Techno that goes bump in the night. Pure Detroit underground style!

As for festival highlights, Aril Brikha’s live set pushed the Made In Detroit stage soundsystem to new levels of bass and had everyone smiling and dancing. Also Detroit locals Brian Kage & Luke Hess teamed up under their ‘Reference‘ moniker & seriously rocked the Vitamin Water main stage on the last day. Representing Beretta Music, the Reference set was one of the best crafted & deployed sets of the entire festival. They truly rocked (and rocked with) the crowd until they aired out the entire plaza with a well dropped pumped up version of “show me love” that united the crowd like no other DJ’s that I saw did all weekend. Also Franki Juncaj (DJ 3000) mixed a grooving driving vinyl set of tech-house that sounded amazing.

In addition to the obvious, there were some nice surprises if you were in the right place at the right time. One right place was the Soul Foundation party at Grand Trunk Pub where Brian Gardner & the SF residents that hold it down in Chicago’s Darkroom every 2nd Saturday, brought some soulful Chicago House to The D. Also, Eddie C & Recloose closed out the 24 hour, horribly named but seriously stacked ShitShow2 with an unexpected few hours of the emerging minimal-deep sound that is creeping out of some underground studios as of late.  Finally, we were blown away to see Kevin Saunderson take the stage at the Vitamin Water Uncapped party downtown Sunday night, & close out his unannounced secret guest set with none other than “Good Life”. If that doesn’t qualify as a Detroit Techno weekend experience I don’t know what does.

My own Detroit2011 live promo set is also available on our Music page. Thank you Paxahau & we cant wait for next year!