This is where it gets interesting. I knew I was excited to see the legendary electro and techno icon DJ Stingray 313, but maybe I was naive to think that I wouldn't be twerking for two hours straight. Feeling very pleased about the purchase of an oversized magenta fuzzy bucket hat, I excitedly buzzed around with my friends for the evening of intersecting techno that was about to blast us into another realm. Vancouver-based DJ Overland had been firing up the decks at the Cabin right before midnight and the vibes were feeling full of Detroit heat by this point. It was such a heartwarming handoff as Overland wrapped up her set and was greeted by a warm embrace up at the decks by Stingray himself.
The Berlin-based Detroit native was being chatted about my whole day leading up to this moment. I talked with friends about how I was going to be reviewing the show, and was gifted stories about DJ Stingray's memorable performance at the Vancouver New Forms Festival in 2012, full of glitchy bumping as I discovered on an old YouTube video of the set. I dished about my love for Drexciya (the Detroit techno duo that Stingray was part of in the '90s and early 2000s). Happy to be witnessing the Detroit electro magic that is DJ Stingray for the first time, I started telling everyone that my mantra for this show was going to be three words: ass, ass, ass. And this proved to be the case. Probably my favourite set of the weekend, DJ Stingray filled a fast dance floor — I was told by one of the friendly crew members that he thought he heard the track "Crack Ya Back" playing, which I still haven't been able to track down on YouTube.
DJ Stingray has such a unique blend of his techno roots flowing out of this set, I could really get a sense of his Detroit nature through bouncy electro, coloured with a sharp bass that grounds him in his current Berlin living. It was everything my festival stamina needed, and I guarantee everyone who was there feels similarly. This was a Bass Coast set for the books!