By Airec S.
Phoria was stacked with a triple headliner last weekend at Ruby Skye. It was an intense weekend and the packed/almost sold out nights were there to prove it; a rightful San Francisco greeting for three of the best names in trance.
Paul Oakenfold started off the weekend with a bang on Friday. I arrived a little after midnight and walked into a swarm of people jumping and grooving to the amazing sounds of Oakenfold. I was listening to his set from EDCLV 2014 on my way to work earlier that day, preparing myself for what was to come. Boy, did all that preparation go to the trash. Walking into Ruby Skye Friday night I was almost blown off my feet. After the first three songs, I knew that this set was going to be different then the last time I saw him in the Vegas desert.
There was just something magical about this set. It was the right mixture of trance. Oakenfold played contemporary remixes of songs like The XX “The Intro,” and weaved in-and-out darker trance and a little bit psy-trance. The organization of the different types of EDM kept us on our toes as we jumped up and down, pumping our fist in the air. Oakenfold would bring us up with some uplifting songs and then crash us with some hard-hitting trance.
My favorite parts of his sets were THE CLASSICS!!! Boy, he definitely helped me live my childhood rave dreams (the ones I had when I pretended I was at a rave when I was attending 8th grade dances) by playing remixes of “Southern Sun,” “1998,” “Big Sky” and that one song, I think it was . . . umm . . . DARUDE SANDSTROM!!! Everyone was in disbelief when we heard the mesmerizing da-da-dada melody of the classic hit. But when that da-da-dada dropped, everyone made the bounced.
It was nice to see a good mixture of people on Friday night. There were old-school ravers, new-school ravers, clubbers, EDM lovers, trance purest and even glovers giving light-shows. It was great to see all the people Oakenfold had in attendance. It didn’t matter if the person was there wearing fluffies, glowing cat ears or an expensive button down t-shirt, everyone was there for the music of Paul Oakenfold. And that was beautiful.
Also, a shout-out to our very own Niko Zografos and Jonny Atom for closing out the night. I know it must be hard following a big DJ like Oakenfold, but these two guys did it. Starting their set off with an energetic remix of “Beautiful Things,” their B2B carried that same energy that Oakenfold left off with and kept the club packed till the late of the morning.
By Stephanie Q.
Making an appearance at Ruby Skye for their tour last Saturday, double headliners TyDi and BT took the stage and gave club goers the time of their lives.
As one of the TranceFamilySF meet and greet winners, I had the opportunity to go behind the scenes to not only meet TyDi, but also play Jenga with him! TyDi explained that he would always play with his friends and would Instagram it, so at a show a fan brought in a sign that said ‘Play Jenga with me!’ and his manager loved that idea and began incorporating it into their future meet and greets. It may have seemed serious at some points during the game, but we had an amazing time hanging out, cracking jokes at one another, and playing Jenga with TyDi! Amazingly chill and funny guy and so happy that I was able to make it out to meet him!
Once entering the now packed dance floor, Jennifer Lawrence’s ‘The Hanging Tree’ creeped up, setting an eerie tone, but soon fired up the pace getting everyone dancing and singing along to throwback pop/rock songs like Oasis’ “Wonderwall” and The Killer’s “Mr. Brightside”. These classic throwback songs hit the hearts of those who grew up with them, looking as if there wasn’t a person in sight who didn’t know the lyrics of both. TyDi threw down other bangers with “Buenosaurus” by Heatbeat and his own tracks “Apollo” featuring Cameron Walker and closing out the night with “Redefined”. I have to admit, compared to his set from last year at Ruby Skye, Saturday’s show was a bit more poppy than what I was expecting. Despite the small drawback, the crowd (as well as myself) had a great time dancing easily to TyDi’s catchy tunes.
Next up was BT, the “Godfather of Trance” opening with one of Above & Beyond’s latest singles “We Are All We Need”, then playing his own tracks with “Skylarking” and “Love Comes Again”. Although BT moved away from trance after the beginning of his set the crowd fell in love with him and his wide variety of music, getting us to flow with “Palm of Your Hand” by Speed Limits and Jaco then ending the night with his own “Flaming June”.
Without a doubt, TyDi and BT gave Ruby Skye a night to remember and reminding us that trance is growing and constantly changing. As much as I love trance, I was definitely not disappointed with the variety both headliners had for us that night.
If you want more trance in your life, check out Phoria’s next event with Adam Ellis at Slide on Friday, May 15!
Guestlist: http://bit.ly/phoriaellisgl
Tickets: http://bit.ly/phoriaellis
Email phoriaevents@gmail.com for VIP Bottle Service