Gig Review: Tangerine Dream (Sept 20, San Francisco, USA)

I’m bringing gig reviews back. Even if I have to go all the way to America to do it! (Lol). I saw Tangerine Freakin’ Dream in San Francisco, yo! So, not exactly an objective take…here we go!

Tangerine Dream

Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, Calif.

Wednesday, September 20

It’s really only been a dream of mine to see Tangerine Dream for a couple of years or so - I’ve been obsessively listening to their 100+ album back catalogue ever since we went into lockdown. It was part of the calm, the music just (finally) hit. It made sense. I was captivated, first by the soundtracks, and then by the classic albums, and eventually I went all in - enjoying the current line-up’s version of events. In some cases, as with the album that is the feature of this current tour, Raum, it’s up there with the classics like Phaedra and Rubycon, and Zeit and Stratosfear.

So, I couldn’t believe my luck that Tangerine Dream was going to be in San Francisco at exactly the same time as me!

And, at the Regency Ballroom too, a spectacular wee venue near the heart of San Fran, the one where I saw The Roots in 2012.

The last remaining member and founder Edgar Froese died in 2015. He of course was the leader of many versions of the band, even glorified solo performances/albums came under the Tangerine Dream banner - swelling out to a larger band with live drums in the 2010s and then reducing back down to a core trio. Now, with Froese’s blessing (and posthumous direction - he left unrecorded pieces as a foundation) Tangerine Dream is Thorsten Quaeschning (keys, synths), Hoshiko Yamane (electric violin, keys) and Paul Frick (analog and digital synths, laptop, keys). And the band uses Ableton Live along with synthesised and live instrumentation to deliver their mix of old and new on this tour.