On Friday, July 18, at 7:30 p.m., the Techno Trolley will roll again for two hours with an all-female DJ lineup with Fort Worth’s Susie Otto and Austin’s Jenna Shaw.
Dallas’ streetcar system opened in 1872 and operated till 1956. At its height, more than 20 lines and 300 streetcars hauled folks from Oak Cliff to Uptown, East Dallas and everywhere in between. In January 1956, around the time of Dallas’ suburbia boom, the rails were closed. But in 2015, streetcars returned and today run seven days a week from 5:30 a.m. to midnight for free. Initially pulled by mules in the late 1800s, today the trolley is powered by electricity, and on special occasions, powered by beats.
The Techno Syndicate trio of Lex, Karen and Nick aren’t new to hosting electronic music events; they’re the team responsible for the Portal after-hours events at Club De Dior, various pop-up events throughout the city and the Techno Boat. Their aim is to book emerging and established DJ-producers and showcase the scene’s qualities such as peace, unity and respect. The Techno Trolley is an ideal representation of Techno Syndicate’s music and culture's first approach to events. With only around 30 tickets available for the Trolley at approximately $50 per ticket, the Techno Trolley is a break-even event for the culture.
“Music is the passion for us, not the money,” Nick a.k.a. DJ Manta Rey tells the Observer. “We do this to showcase the good side of dance music.”
The Techno Trolley is typically a holiday event, but this edition, the fifth voyage, is a pre-party variety ahead of DJ Jenna Shaw at Portal later in the evening with Manta Rey from 1:30 a.m. to 5 a.m.
Shaw is a busy woman. Fresh off DJ gigs at Coachella and Electric Forest, she’s a nurse by day and North America tour manager for Sara Landry as needed. Her DJ career is trending with consistent dates on the calendar, which is highlighted by a gig at The Caverns in Tennessee in October. When the Techno Trolley headline offer landed in her email inbox, it was a quick yes.
“I was so excited when I first saw the offer to play the Techno Trolley. I try to be selective with my gigs, but anytime I get a chance to play a unique venue, I jump at it,” says Shaw while fighting traffic in her current hometown of Austin.
Her first love is hard techno, but she’s moonlighting with psytrance and drum and bass, and those on the trolley and Uptown sidewalks should expect to hear one of trance’s most aggressive subgenres. Shaw will play from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and she understands that with only a 60-minute set, there isn’t much time to waste and is prepared to get right into peak 150 beats-per-minute sounds.
Otto will open and play from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. – her happy place is techno and tech-house at 132 beats per minute.
“I spoke with Jenna [Shaw] a few days ago and we discussed where we want to be from an energy standpoint when I hand the controls over to her, and she said 150 beats per minute, so that’s where I’m going,” Otto laughs.
The Techno Trolley is part of a unique venue and content creation movement in dance music, which in some instances has been pivotal in launching and boosting careers. Both Shaw and Otto have played sets in coffee shops, tunnels and kitchens. Paul Oakenfold trained for a year and stopped drinking to prepare for a DJ set at almost 18,000 feet of elevation at Everest Base Camp in Nepal. The Egyptian pyramids have become a common backdrop for celebrated sets from Aly & Fila and Carl Cox. And with Christ the Redeemer in the background high in the Rio de Janeiro sky, the Artbat set with more than 34 million YouTube views has become a legendary piece of audio and video and was a big part of their global surge.
But those venues are fixed, and mobile parties such as Love Parade in Berlin, Groove Cruise and now the Techno Trolley have made events spontaneous and on the go. The Techno Trolley is a rolling ambassador for dance music, and the sounds that spill out from open windows are seductive. Karen and Nick smile at the memory of a man on a bicycle who stumbled upon the Techno Trolley and instantly became a fan. “He was just out for an evening bike ride, saw the Techno Trolley and started following us,” Karen beams. “He followed us all the way to Klyde Warren Park, where we made our only stop for the restrooms, but we had no choice as he’d followed us for blocks. We had to let him on.”
Nick adds, “Two of the trolley drivers we’ve had are into dance music and one of them is even a bedroom DJ. What started as just a fun idea for us has been met with nothing but positivity.”
This edition of the Techno Trolley is sold out, but the Techno Syndicate team is committed to more Techno Trolley events in Dallas with the possibility of expansion into other markets where trolleys are found. The next Techno Boat event on Aug. 2 is also sold out, but look for more dates and expect an uptick in event frequency. Pop-up shows and club events will remain a fixture on the calendar, but like the Trolley and the Boat, the team’s goal is always expansion.
Keep up with Techno Trolley on Instagram and Facebook for the next event announcements.
