And now..
for something way out of left field.
I DJ'ed a wedding.
Not in my wheelhouse at all. Not my first wedding, though. About 6 years ago in Oklahoma I DJ'ed a wedding as Barney Groove with my friend as Fred Funk. The marriage lasted 3 months. I was a little apprehensive I was going to bring that stigma into this affair, and I was also apprehensive about flying solo. Turns out, I SHOULD have been apprehensive about flying solo, but not for the reasons you might think.
GOOD GOD is there a lot of gear to lug to do this properly. Prior to purchasing some of my speakers, I rad a lot of reviews along the lines of "don't buy it's too heavy." In my smug arrogance I figured, hey, I'm a meatball. Most DJ's are skin and bones. I should have listened. Keg-carrying 3 50+ lb speakers, plus kettle bell carrying 3 20+ flight cases will wear your ass out...and that's just to get the gear into and out of the venue, you still gotta set it all up!
I was so sacked our that I took the I-can't-afford-to-lose-this stuff out of the bed, put it in the house, and left everything locked in the cab of the truck when I got home. Yay for crewcabs! It was noon the next day before I was fully unloaded, and re setup in the house. And honestly, if my buddy hadn't shown up to put his motorcycle back together, and made me feel guilty for being so damn lazy...it might STILL not be setup.
The second reason it sucks running solo is potty breaks. There's a way to get traktor to auto-fade in/out tracks leaving a large enough window to go pee, but I've never even tried to use it. Thankfully, this wedding was 80% people I knew, so I had a guest cover for me and do a fade out/in for me while I pee'd. Thanks Kevin, I owe you. Not sure how you repay someone for covering a pee break, but we'll figure it out.
As for the actual DJ'ing, it went ok. Nobody danced, BUT several people commented they liked the mix, and the bride and groom were happy. So, I guess that means I did a good job. Every DJ wants to think they're a superstardj (patent pending) and that the whole crowd is just going to go crazy for every track they play. In the real world, and especially in the wedding world, this just isn't the case. Some people just don't want to dance. I played 80s, I played hip-hop, I played classic hip-hop, I played the Beatles, I played modern dance, I played pop...NOTHING worked! Shit, I even dropped a country track requested by the groom's mom, and couldn't get anyone to dance. Oh well. The unfun part is that, because I was transitioning genres so frequently, I didn't do much mixing. At one point in the night, a long stretch between "events," I finally said fuck it and mixed 3 tracks. 3. I was "on duty" from 7-10:30....and I only mixed 3 songs. Oh well.
So now that the wedding gig is overwith, it should be back to business as usual. More prog house/trance, AND thanks to DJ Dan's podcast I'm going to start throwing out the occasional house/funky house (funky house is kinda redundant, wtf is house doing if it's not being funky?) mix.
I DJ'ed a wedding.
Not in my wheelhouse at all. Not my first wedding, though. About 6 years ago in Oklahoma I DJ'ed a wedding as Barney Groove with my friend as Fred Funk. The marriage lasted 3 months. I was a little apprehensive I was going to bring that stigma into this affair, and I was also apprehensive about flying solo. Turns out, I SHOULD have been apprehensive about flying solo, but not for the reasons you might think.
GOOD GOD is there a lot of gear to lug to do this properly. Prior to purchasing some of my speakers, I rad a lot of reviews along the lines of "don't buy
I was so sacked our that I took the I-can't-afford-to-lose-this stuff out of the bed, put it in the house, and left everything locked in the cab of the truck when I got home. Yay for crewcabs! It was noon the next day before I was fully unloaded, and re setup in the house. And honestly, if my buddy hadn't shown up to put his motorcycle back together, and made me feel guilty for being so damn lazy...it might STILL not be setup.
The second reason it sucks running solo is potty breaks. There's a way to get traktor to auto-fade in/out tracks leaving a large enough window to go pee, but I've never even tried to use it. Thankfully, this wedding was 80% people I knew, so I had a guest cover for me and do a fade out/in for me while I pee'd. Thanks Kevin, I owe you. Not sure how you repay someone for covering a pee break, but we'll figure it out.
As for the actual DJ'ing, it went ok. Nobody danced, BUT several people commented they liked the mix, and the bride and groom were happy. So, I guess that means I did a good job. Every DJ wants to think they're a superstardj (patent pending) and that the whole crowd is just going to go crazy for every track they play. In the real world, and especially in the wedding world, this just isn't the case. Some people just don't want to dance. I played 80s, I played hip-hop, I played classic hip-hop, I played the Beatles, I played modern dance, I played pop...NOTHING worked! Shit, I even dropped a country track requested by the groom's mom, and couldn't get anyone to dance. Oh well. The unfun part is that, because I was transitioning genres so frequently, I didn't do much mixing. At one point in the night, a long stretch between "events," I finally said fuck it and mixed 3 tracks. 3. I was "on duty" from 7-10:30....and I only mixed 3 songs. Oh well.
So now that the wedding gig is overwith, it should be back to business as usual. More prog house/trance, AND thanks to DJ Dan's podcast I'm going to start throwing out the occasional house/funky house (funky house is kinda redundant, wtf is house doing if it's not being funky?) mix.
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