Before destroying the circuitGROUNDS at EDC Las Vegas, Sara Landry made her return to the Bay Area with an intimate performance at The San Francisco Mint.
Just over a week ago, ravers from around the world gathered to dance again under the electric sky at EDC Las Vegas. This year boasted one of the best editions with a stacked lineup, brand-new layout, and epic EDC Week shows. As a result, it was easy to miss all of the other great shows that went under the radar with all of the commotion, like when Sara Landry finally made her long-awaited return to the Bay Area on May 18 as a part of Factory 93 and The Midway‘s collaborative event.
Before her incredible performance on circuitGROUNDS at EDC Las Vegas this year, she graced the Bay Area with a last-of-its-kind event when she took over the airwaves at The San Francisco Mint for an intimate set that transformed the bustling city into an underground haven. As the event sold out within minutes of announcing, the hype and anticipation grew with every passing day and before I knew it, the day finally arrived to get a fix of hard techno from the High Priestess herself.
Upon entry, ravers are greeted with the unique layout of The San Francisco Mint which uses the open-air courtyard space as a dancefloor. Of course, this venue has been home to plenty of different genres of dance music, but this worked best for hard techno shows. Walking into this space felt like walking into Europe where distorted screeches and pounding kick drums reign supreme.
The evening began with sounds from Linsdey Herbert, Alex Edward, and Adam Kraft.
Every opener brought a unique vibe to their set that got the dancefloor moving. While I wasn’t familiar with any of the openers, I was impressed by Lindsey Herbert’s style. Her set hooked me with everything from minimal beats to harder and faster records in preparation for Sara Landry’s set.
When the clock struck 8pm, it was finally time for the main event in Sara Landry! Immediately, the crowd’s intensity went through the roof as screams reverberated off the walls of the tiny courtyard packed with ravers from the front to the back. For a few seconds, the feeling of true excitement to see a favorite artist in the flesh took over my being as I joined in on the hype when Sara Landry made her presence felt.
For the next two hours, Sara Landry pummeled the crowd in attendance with rolling basslines, monstrous screeches, and punchy kick drums. Ultimately, what fans see online is exactly what you get from her in terms of energy and tempo. She threw in viral hits like “Thalassaphobia” by APHØTIC and the “Paper Planes” hard techno edit making the rounds at shows worldwide.
Fans were also treated to loads of new IDs, including her newest record with legzdina, “pressure,” which combines the wild energy of the current hard techno trends with rap vocals best described as hot girl summer. This track is an early version, so we’re sure it will evolve as time goes on, but this is undoubtedly a record to keep an ear on for some time to come.
While Sara Landry is branded as hard techno, she perfectly captures the spirit of a similar genre bubbling in the States.
All throughout her set, I couldn’t get one thought out of my head: American Hard Dance is hard techno. By that, I mean that the current “hard techno” sounds that are sweeping the dance scene are essentially what the style sounded like in its early days. Mixing different genre elements like the rolling triplet basslines of psytrance with the monstrous screeches of rawstyle resulted in hard psy, which was pushed to the limit by American producers years ago.
For two hours, Sara Landry dropped records that sounded and felt exactly what American Hard Dance felt like back in those days. The excitement of hybrid genres, the out-of-the-box ideas, and most importantly, the rebellious spirit of these records truly set it apart from anything else being made at the time. Now in 2024, American crowds are being treated to those same concepts under the name of “hard techno,” even though one can argue that it’s not truly hard techno.
As an advocate for the genre, experiencing this set in the middle of a dedicated crowd made me extremely happy. While the term American Hard Dance has never been over with fans, the spirit of the genre has never been stronger in the scene – even with people who have no idea what it is. Further, artists like Sara Landry are taking this sound worldwide and exposing everyone to this unique scene that has been bubbling for more than a decade in the States.
After a wild experience at Beyond Wonderland SoCal, I’m glad I had the opportunity to experience Sara Landry in such an intimate setting. The atmosphere, venue, and banging tunes contributed to one of my favorite experiences as a hard dance fan. Although Sara Landry may never play a show at a venue this small again, my excitement for future events with this same vibe has grown exponentially, and I hope they keep popping up as more fans are put on to the sounds of hard dance.
