It’s only been one day and the techno-fatigue is starting to set in here at the DEMF. Saturday was a day of heroes, both old and new, with Pier Bucci, Guido Schneider, and Claude vonStroke absolutely killing it on the Beatport stage. King Britt owned the main stage, working his way through acid, jackin’ house, disco, and closing it all out with the Best Song Ever (ever!), “I Love Music.” Seeing the ravers get down to that song is something special.

More on the night’s headliner Moodymann after the jump.

But I want to spend this post talking about Moodymann, aka Kenny Dixon Jr.. The legendary Detroit producer closed out the day's festivities on the main stage (Marco Carola destroyed eardrums at the Beatport stage). Moodymann "performed" with the band Pitch Black City, but the performance was late, then very very weird. Moodymann spent much of the heralded show sitting in a chair on-stage, letting the band and dancers do their thing. Hotties strutted around on stage, belly dancing at one point, working a stripper pole at another. The music was a mix of soul and R&B, and while it was fine, it certainly killed the momentum set up by Kerri Chandler with all of the breaks between songs. These breaks featured banter such as, "Y'all remind me of my girlfriend out there - all nice and wet," commenting on the damp crowd. The set overall felt like Prince on acid, meant here as criticism, not praise.

Then there was Soul Skate. Kenny Dixon Jr. DJing an afterparty at a skating rink. Even with the very clear advertising, I didn't really believe it was happening until I walked in the door. KDJ was playing classic soul, funk, and R&B, and people showed up in force (although most people there didn't seem to be festival attendees). They told people to show up in costume, and they did, with young and old showing up in vintage skate gear. The team skating competition took it over the edge, leaving me wondering both what year and city I was in. After a day of almost exclusively techno, it's just the variety the doctor ordered to prepare for another day of non-stop beats.