Greetings, weekend warriors! Ready to blow off some steam on the dance floor this weekend? Good, 'cause there's a ton of stuff on this weekend's Dance Card, from Paper Diamond at the Ogden Theatre to the Great American Techno Festival, which kicks off tonight and runs all weekend, to GATF, if you haven't seen it yet, which has an absolutely insane lineup featuring Kevin Saunderson, John Tejada and a host of other acts. And that's not it. Keep reading for the weekend's best dance bets.
See also: - Q&A with techno pioneer Kevin Saunderson - Great American Techno Festival lineup revealed - Alex Botwin's electronica is a Paper Diamond in the rough
Paper Diamond headlines the Ogden Theatre tonight for some glitchy action; Crizzly and Protohype will loosen up the atmosphere for the Colorado favorite (9 p.m., $19.75)
The Great American Techno Festival kicks off tonight with live performances by John Tejada and Rrose at NORAD; Little Mike, Ivy, Ejay, Bones, Tony Z, Brandon Brown, Papyrus and Ductape will also man the decks. (7 p.m., 21+, $20, free with festival pass)
Tract Fridays spends its first month at Bar Standard featuring electro-house heavyweights Vandalism bringing their live show all the way from Australia, plus Jin N Funk opening things up. (9 p.m., 21+, $5)
Icon of Coil brings industrial-driven electronica to City Hall for Deathwish. Also on deck are DJ Starr and Dave Vendetta. (8 p.m., 18+, $10-$15)
The Prototypes join Mystical Influence and Dodger in some Bassic Fridays action on Beta's main floor tonight; in the Beatport Lounge, it's more GATF action with DELA, Panos & Sentenza and Sergei Loginov. (9 p.m., 18+, $5-$15, free for GATF passholders before 11 p.m.)
On Saturday night, GATF brings the legendary Kevin Saunderson, aka "the Elevator," a techno legend straight out of Detroit to Casselman's; Mike Parker from Buffalo and Attentat of the local Make Mistakes crew will warm things up for what's sure to be a don't-miss performance. (8 p.m., 18+, $15-$25, free with festival pass)
Looking for a bass fix Saturday night? Rustie, Nightwave and Morri$ are making things wobbly at City Hall. (9 p.m., 18+, $15-$20)
Old-school dancefloor king Richard Vission will test the sound system at Beta on Saturday night; Cognition + T-Rav and Marshall Monica come along for the ride. (9 p.m., 18+, $10)
The Blend returns to the Meadowlark on Saturday night, welcoming the Dirty Funk Squad's Dylan into the rotation with resident Brick Lee and Lil' Magnum C (also from the DFS crew). (9 p.m., 21+)
The GATF action continues on Sunday with a showcase at NORAD featuring David Javate, Deepstrike Guidewire, Max Gardner, Patrick Gil, Daegon and Tess. (7 a.m., 21+, $5 with GATF ticket, $10 without)
Save some energy for the GATF closing party at the Hive, though, because the lineup is killer: Deepak Sharma, Oonaslim, Jason Short, Tiari, Alert, Deciprocal, Nutelli, the Real Wolfe, Scott Paradis, Sinistarr, Dirt Monkey, Just Ben, Aaron Lee, Joey M and Kevin Callison. (3 p.m., 21+, $10, free with festival pass)
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