Tips for Opening DJs – Josh Wink, Hector Romero, Mike Huckaby, DJ Dan, Shiftee +

[mostapha]

I play a college house party same as a sweet 16…after a couple of hours, you can play what ever you like, because everyone will be too drunk to know what's happening.

Damn straight.

[alex20]

^ Yeah there's no doubt that playing Fraternity and Sorority exchanges is a shit ton of fun because you get to play any banger you want and everyone is already raging that it really doesn't matter all that much about the DJ (trust me I've attended far to many fraternity events and sorority formals with DJs you couldn't even beatmatch, phrase match, or use the faders correctly, yet we all still dance and party due to drinking and wanting to have fun).

Especially here in San Diego where house music is taking over the college party scene. As much fun as the first 4 gigs in clubs I've gotten have been (they are all 18+ top 40 type clubs so you can probably imagine the crowd type...), playing for people who really just want to go out and have blast at a college party is way more fun. Though, for what it may be worth, I usually know most the people at the fraternity and sorority events so it is that much more fun for me.

[Dwonka27]

So when u say set the mood and slowly progress are u suggesting starting of with very minimal style music (tech house minimal house) or adapting from popmusic in to an electro genre for example remixes of pop music that people recognize or something like unheard minimal house music? (mind you im opening for a club in 2 weeks). Sorry if u facepalm to this post

dwonka27

[elio_xh]

So when u say set the mood and slowly progress are u suggesting starting of with very minimal style music (tech house minimal house) or adapting from popmusic in to an electro genre for example remixes of pop music that people recognize or something like unheard minimal house music? (mind you im opening for a club in 2 weeks). Sorry if u facepalm to this post

No two shows are exactly the same, and there are things to consider which might change how you open. For example:
-What type of music if the person you're opening up for going to play?
-Is he going to start fresh when he comes on, or are you transitioning?
-And how long is your opening set?

Plus a lot of it depends on the venue, and the usual type of crowd. In Toronto, (from what I've seen) people usually fall in love with a club for whatever reason, and it's their "go-to" place, even if it's a different style of music. For example, there's a bar/club called Wrongbar that hosts a Dubstep/Glitch-Hop/Break event every wednesday, but it's such a great atmosphere that people go on Fridays also. So even if Friday night is more of a 128BPM night, you can still play low energy breakbeat and people will enjoy it. And then slowly as you near the end of your set, you can bring up the BPM and energy to what the main dj is playing. In every genre and BPM of music, you can find varying energy levels that suit your needs, whether be opening set or main. IMHO it get boring if it's the same 4-to-the-floor for 6 straight hours.

I'll give you an example:
I might have this earlier on in the set


and then bring it to tech/minimal halfway through, but keeping the energy moderately low


then you can bring the energy up more


and my secret weapon for a finishing track if the main is playing club bangers

[Dwonka27]

No two shows are exactly the same, and there are things to consider which might change how you open. For example:
-What type of music if the person you're opening up for going to play?
-Is he going to start fresh when he comes on, or are you transitioning?
-And how long is your opening set?

Plus a lot of it depends on the venue, and the usual type of crowd. In Toronto, (from what I've seen) people usually fall in love with a club for whatever reason, and it's their "go-to" place, even if it's a different style of music. For example, there's a bar/club called Wrongbar that hosts a Dubstep/Glitch-Hop/Break event every wednesday, but it's such a great atmosphere that people go on Fridays also. So even if Friday night is more of a 128BPM night, you can still play low energy breakbeat and people will enjoy it. And then slowly as you near the end of your set, you can bring up the BPM and energy to what the main dj is playing. In every genre and BPM of music, you can find varying energy levels that suit your needs, whether be opening set or main. IMHO it get boring if it's the same 4-to-the-floor for 6 straight hours.

I'll give you an example:
I might have this earlier on in the set

and then bring it to tech/minimal halfway through, but keeping the energy moderately low

then you can bring the energy up more

and my secret weapon for a finishing track if the main is playing club bangers

1st. LOVE the atmosphere with these songs
2nd. songs are very enjoyable
3rd. I totally see how u have experience knowing uve created what u could call a mini set in prolly a matter of minutes.
4th. do u base your sets off of certain songs kind of like a book have say 5 chapters(songs) and create around them or do u build up from 1st to 2nd to 3rd etc.

and thank you for the thorough reply its definitely appreciated. btw just bought each of these songs

Dwonka27

[shr3dder]

So when u say set the mood and slowly progress are u suggesting starting of with very minimal style music (tech house minimal house) or adapting from popmusic in to an electro genre for example remixes of pop music that people recognize or something like unheard minimal house music? (mind you im opening for a club in 2 weeks). Sorry if u facepalm to this post

dwonka27

I wouldn't get to hung up on the term minimal, every genre has it's own toned down version, if it was a hard dance/trance night (*shudder*) it'd be suicide to start with minimal.

Like someone said drop the BPM by 10%, slowly build it up, know what the next guy or next few guys are going to be playing.