The third annual Sacramento Electronic Music Festival swarmed into Harlow’s and the Momo Lounge this weekend. From Thursday to Saturday, tremendous pulsating music attracted an overwhelming crowd to Midtown. Three nights of great music brought over three dozen premier entertainers to the stages. The festival had been in the works for months, and the promoters worked feverishly to bring a great lineup of electronic artists for each evening. Co-creators Adam Saake and Clay Nutting brought together great talent to perform this year. Although Thursday night’s crowd started off small, it grew quite rapidly as the evening progressed. Doors to the venue opened at 7 p.m. and performers took

Have you seen the line-up for this year’s Sacramento Electronic Festival? It’s chock full of electronic artists of all varieties, well known and upcoming, spanning three days--May 3-May 5--taking over both Harlow’s and the Momo Lounge. Founded in 2010, SEMF’s third year promises to be bigger and better than ever. Sacramento365.com sat down with SEMF co-collaborators Adam Saake and Clay Nutting to find out the behind-the scenes scoop. How did the Sacramento Electronic Musical Festival get started? Adam: It’s a grassroots festival and even though we’re approaching year three we are in no way, shape, or form even done building the foundation of this thing. We try to keep that in mind, try to

The Sacramento Electronic Music Festival (SEMF) 2011 held at the Townhouse Lounge on 21st Street had its third day of local, regional and international talent showcased on Saturday night. I showed up a little early and was greeted by Adam Saake organizer of the event. Adam, Clay Nutting and Tais Arises did an extraordinary job of putting on this 3 day event. (Adam Saake said let there be SEMF) Both floors of the Townhouse were used for SEMF. Each floor had DJ and lighting stations and a bar was fully equipped on both floors as well. Tais Arises was on hand as well announcing acts and getting the crowd into the show. I attended the show on Saturday and heard good things about the Thursd

Day 2 of the second annual Sacramento Electronic Music Festival continued at the Townhouse Lounge on Friday, featuring performances by Little Foxes, Boss Magic, Melee Beats and FAVORS, among others. The three-night festival showcases local and international electronic-centric artists, and the SEMF vision is "to continue to foster a supportive music community while attracting world-class talent to Sacramento, not just at the annual festival, but throughout the year." Friday night Roger Carpio and Shaun Slaughter were among the DJs who held court nonstop on the first floor with a wide range of music (New Order, The xx, Crystal Castles) and kept the sexy people of Townhouse sweaty all night

Electronic music artists from all over the globe will fill the Townhouse Lounge for three nights this weekend. In its second year, the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival (SEMF) will host 28 live acts, with bands playing simultaneously on two floors. Doors open for the Festival at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. Each artist will bring something different, said Adam Saake, the festival’s organizer. Some will incorporate synthesizers, visual projectors and laptop programs, but all of the performers will still fit under the umbrella of the electronic music scene. Saake said his motivation for starting SEMF was to give something back to Sacramento. Being a supporter of musi

If you cruise on over to Daedelus’ website and check out his list of upcoming shows, the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival is not listed. No cause for panic - he will indeed be there. Plus, the absence of events like an SEMF in the world of “formal” event lists is actually pretty common. What is worth taking notice of is the events that are listed. A trio of gigs in New York and Washington D.C. alongside Lotus, followed by a buffet of shindigs across the pond at various clubs and festivals. Oh yeah, there’s one other gig on the Daedelus page that isn’t listed – it’s some little gathering down in the desert we keep hearing about? While he would have to be considered the most widely k

Brazilian Baile Funk Queen Zuzuka Poderosa came to town straight out of Brooklyn. Zuzuka started a 4 day west coast tour at Sol Collective in Sacramento. Natalia Linares set up an interview with Zuzuka before her performance. The Sacramento Press: Your music is very catchy and is mostly in Portuguese. You do mix in a line or two in English; do you plan to do any recordings in English? Zuzuka: I’m starting to sing in English because I’m trying to get past the fear of, you know, being self conscious about it. There have been a few songs where I’ve thrown in an English hook which I’m going to do tonight. I try to do the same thing in other languages like with Spanish. I’m looking forward t

It was fitting that a fundraising event for the Sacramento Opera was held at the Hot Italian located at 16th and Q Streets. The Sacramento Opera will begin its 30th Anniversary Season in Sacramento continuing the Opera movement begun in Italy during the 16th century. The event hosted by Hot Italian was free and open to the public. It was held to raise funds for the Sacramento Opera. This eventIt included a live auction and raffle prizes. A live opera performance by 4 operatic singers was the highlight of the evening. Donations were taken at the door and tickets were given to those that donated and a raffle was held later to thank them for the donations. The biggest prize however was watch

The music scene was alive and kicking in Sacramento this past weekend. Saturday’s Sammies Block Party presented by the Sacramento News and Review was held at the R Street Corridor. Adam Saake and Tais were masters of ceremony and did an excellent job for this venue that has been hosted by the Crest Theatre the last few years. On Sunday another awards event was held at the Tropicana across from the Arden Fair Mall. Various awards were given in different categories. Several bands took the stage with Dance Gavin Dance closing out the show. A packed house rocked for several hours on Sunday night as favorite Sacramento area bands played to the delight of the packed house at the Tropicana dur

Rainy weather threatened many events this weekend in Sacramento but that was not an issue for a lower than usual turn-out during Third Saturday at the Westfield Downtown Plaza. I showed up before 2 and unfortunately missed Justin Farren’s performance. It seems I also missed a couple of designers’ fashion shows. Tais and Adam Saake, as usual, were quite entertaining. On this slow day they were able to keep things going and talked about upcoming events in and around Sacramento. They talked about Folsom Live which is scheduled in the Historic Folsom District on September 25. Folsom Live has grown in popularity the past few years. Thousands of people come from all around Sacramento for this a

(Tais and Adam Saake hosts of S&R Third Saturday) This month’s Third Saturday event, as usual, was very entertaining. Adam Saake and Tais once again were the hosts for the event. I said it before, and I’m saying it again, these guys should start a comedy act. Maybe next month, after September’s Third Saturday is over they can walk over to Front Street and take their act to Laughs Unlimited. This Saturday they introduced two musical acts, three fashion designers, a dance group and reminded shoppers about visiting the many vendors who had set up shop on the lower level of the Westfield Galleria downtown across from Macys. Zak Norlyn was the first musical act of the day. Although I only ca

Beats, beards and booze filled the Townhouse Lounge Saturday as the Sacramento Electronica Music Festival wrapped up its third and final night. The Sacramento Electronica Music Festival ran Thursday, Jan. 28 to Saturday, Jan. 30 offering a chance to check out Sacramento's vibrant electronica scene as well as experience something unique. Adam Saake, the event's organizer, said the event was born out of a desire to bring Sacramento's electronica musicians together. Saake knew many of the electronica artists in the area, but none of them ever played together. "The dots weren't connected, and there was never any electronica bill," Saake said. "We could do a really dope electronica festival.

Claimed to be a "design revolution in the making" by its creators, the Launch design and music festival is coming to the Greens Hotel this weekend for a collision of great music and even greater fashion. Michael Hargis of Vhcle and Adam Saake, who has been helping Hargis organize, have been tirelessly promoting for the past few months, passing out fliers all over Sacramento and at events like Concert in the Park and Design Downtown block party. The main coordinator of the event, Michael Hargis, said that it's hard to tell how many people will purchase tickets the day of the event but 150 tickets have been pre-sold and there is a guestlist with around 150 additional people on it. They hav