Tiësto’s trance set was the talk of Dreamstate SoCal 2025. Fortunately for those who couldn’t attend, he didn’t even wait one week to upload a recording.
Last weekend, Tiësto cemented his return to trance with a performance at Dreamstate SoCal, the largest US festival dedicated to the genre. Undeterred by the potential holiday engagement dip, the Dutch superstar has already coordinated with event promoter Insomniac to share a recording of his set at the The Dream Stage on Saturday, November 22.
Uploaded to YouTube, the set recording pairs high-quality audio with a montage of overhead, crowd, and stage shots. The video is split into chapters, one for each track, all of which can also be perused in a tracklist format provided in the description.
Tiësto (real name Tijs Verwest) started the performance with his FORS collaboration, “Bring Me To Life,” which he released the day before his set after hyping it up with an online countdown timer. He then threaded together his trance classics like “Nyana” and “Delerium” featuring Sarah McLachlan with contemporary tracks like “Azul” by Funk Tribu and “What Music Felt Like in 2007” by DJ HEARTSTRING and Baugruppe90.
Importantly, none of the tracklist entries are unnamed IDs. This offers a glimpse of what’s to come on his upcoming album, as he front-loaded his set with titles like “Lost In The Ocean,” “Tears In My Blood,” “Beautiful Places,” and a remix of “Lueur” by Worakls that do not appear anywhere in his current discography.
Verwest got his first taste of DJing in 1985, playing new beat and acid house. He released his first music on Noculan Records under the names Da Joker and DJ Limited in 1994, adopting the hardcore sound popular at the time. In 1997, he had co-founded Black Hole Records and turned to trance, catapulting him to international superstardom by the turn of the millennium.
During the EDM explosion of 2010-2015, Verwest gravitated toward the big room sound of the time, famously telling DJ Mag, “Some of the old trance guys still have a following, but it doesn’t feel like anybody really cares” in 2014. Any prospect of him returning to the genre seemed like wishful thinking, making it all the more impactful when he played an “In Search of Sunrise” set at this year’s edition of EDC Las Vegas.
Tiësto has yet to announce a title, release date, or full tracklist for his upcoming album at the time of writing.
Watch Tiësto’s trance set at Dreamstate SoCal 2025 on YouTube:
