I got my first taste of electronic music, like most of you, in the mid-'90s underground San Francisco rave scene.

You remember the ones. They didn't announce the location (usually a warehouse) until an hour before the party started, or about an hour after the time I now usually go to bed. You'd get there at like 1 a.m. and get loose to some house and trance and German techno (so efficient!) and unz unz unz unz unz unz and not get home ‘til about the time I now usually wake up.

You remember, don't you?

After college I took a long hiatus from the scene, broken up only by occasional (and usually accidental or coerced, or accidentally coerced. Or in Nevada.) forays into the club scene.

I was reintroduced to electronic music in the summer of 2009 when I had the privilege of going to a few electronica-fueled music festivals, Camp Bisco and Trinumeral. My mind was blown, and my passion for the genre rose, phoenixlike, from the ashes.

Let me tell you, they are doing some amazing things with electronic music these days. This ain't your grandma's techno.

Thursday night, Townhouse hosted the opening night of the second annual Sacramento Electronic Music Festival. As an avid fan of the womp womp and the weeooo weeooo, I decided to check it out.

Midtown was draped in an ominous fog as I biked up to the Townhouse. It would have been nice to have noticed that I didn't have my wallet before I locked up my bike, but I guess that just wasn't in the cards.

Midtown was draped in an ominous fog as I biked up to the Townhouse a second time, this time walleted.

"Great electronic music festival weather," I offered to the small throng gathered outside, waiting patiently for admission. (They were letting in about four people at a time so as to ease the pressure on the ticket-takers, including event co-creator Clay Nutting.) Everyone agreed wholeheartedly.

I entered the bar at 8:40 p.m. I left at 1:30 a.m. Some observations/goings-on in the interim:

- Though I am a huge fan of the genre, I am not exactly an expert or an aficionado. Good electronic music for me is something like hardcore pornography was to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart: I can't define it, but I know it when I see it. And man I saw a lot of it on Thursday night.

- Fernie Fresh kept the downstairs bumping (womping?) along with a slew of other DJs. At times there were as many as three of them manning the booth at once, and the downstairs dance floor was peopled but not overly crowded all night, a nice respite from upstairs, which was elbow-to-elbow for most of the night.

- Pregnant was the first act I caught upstairs. A dude from Placerville, his guitar and a looping machine. I only caught a couple of his tracks, but they were pretty dope. I mean, he's got a ways to go to catch up with my man Zach Deputy, but I enjoyed it.

- When he was done I asked the dude spinning between sets if he had a schedule. "No, not really," he answered. "There's gonna be great music all night, just stick around." Prophetic. And a lot of it came from him. (He dropped "Computer Love" in there at one point. Always a good decision.)

- Thriftcar, from Auburn, was also dope. Two men playing (here’s where my lack of knowledge really comes in) MacBooks and several other things on a table in front of them. And one of them was a more than capable rapper. A friend of theirs mentioned that they "create beats on the fly" which, if true, makes it all the more impressive.

- Local act Sister Crayon is deserving of all the praise they have lavished upon them. And a lot heavier than I thought they'd be. Almost crunching at times.

- I was so fired up by Sister Crayon, and the other acts I'd seen, that I went up to a fellow I thought was organizer Clay Nutting (who I'd met for 30 seconds on the way in) and gushed about what a coup it was for Sacramento to have all this top-notch musical talent in town and how great the festival was for the credibility of the local music scene and yadda yadda yadda. He was also excited and agreed with me on all counts, before apprising me of the fact that he was in no way shape or form Clay Nutting. Turns out he was the Zach, the guitarist for. . .

- Tycho was probably my favorite act of the evening, and not just because of my bull in a china shop-like introduction to their guitarist. Beautiful, ambient melodies, driving beats, soaring, haunting vocals. They were fantastic.

- Daedelus was the headliner, and looked and acted the part. Dressed dapperly in a vintage suit, he came out and brought the house down. By the end of the set he, like the rest of us, was a sweaty disheveled mess with a huge smile on his face.

The best part about Thurday night?

It was only the beginning.

The Sacramento Electronic Music Festival continues Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th.  Doors open at 8pm both nights.  Info and tickets can be found here.