Robbie Kowal, also known by his professional names Motion Potion or MoPo, is an American DJ, record producer, and concert promoter. Known for blending electronic music with the genres of funk, hip hop, and psychedelic rock, he first started mixing live in 1995. Kowal was born in Boston, Massachusetts. After moving to his current base of San Francisco in 1997, he co-founded the concert promotion company Sunset Promotions or SunsetSFin 2001, which became known for producing festivals such as the SF Funk Fest and North Beach Jazz. Since then he has helped found and/or produce festivals and concert nights such as All Shook DownMusic Festival, Sea of Dreams NYE, Ghost Ship Halloween, Loveboat Halloween, North Beach Jazz, Festival of the Golden Gate and Mojito Café. According to the Los Angeles Times, in 2006 MoPo was the first DJ to play a silent disco in the United States, and since then he has founded Silent Frisco, a headphone dance concert production company. In 2015, Silent Frisco and SunsetSF merged to become HUSHconcerts, an event production company that now contributes to more than 1000 events per year, Motion Potion tours frequently, and is best known for crafting intensively researched tribute sets, typically related to artists headlining a festival at which he performs. Among the themes he is best known for include Radiohead in Remix, Talking Heads Dance Party, Santana in Remix, Janet vs Michael, Beasties/Beatles/Beck, Prince's Purple Reign, and Metallica in Remix. This propensity for deep dives has seen him booked repeatedly at numerous festivals. From and from 2002 to 2004 was the first and only DJ at Bonnaroo. He is also the only DJ other than Bassnectar to have played every year of the Electric Forest Festival). The San Francisco Weekly has called MoPo "the godfather of the silent disco," while SFist called him "one of the nation’s foremost purveyors of the 'Silent Disco' concept." He periodically produces music, and in 2008 he released a series of three EPs titled Electric Nostalgia Vol. 1-3. In 2017, MoPo released a Radiohead-tribute remix album entitled 'Subterranean Homemade Alchemy' to raise awareness for social causes championed by the band.
Notable performances
The following is a list of selected notable appearances by Motion Potion as a DJ:
