Hello everyone!
Its been a long time since I posted here, as I have a habit of forum lurking.
This post is going to get quite lengthy, but I feel deeply compelled to share my experience with the community.
Prolog:
I have been bedroom DJing for about 2-3 years now and have developed a deep love and appreciation for the art. I would love nothing more than to do it professionally. When I set out to learn something, I let it rule my free time- and thats what mixing has done.
The Story:
Finally, after months of promoting myself on my personal Facebook page, a friend of mine hit me up and asked me to play a "huge" house party he was throwing. I quickly agreed. I then asked him what type of vibe he was going for, to which he replied "EDM". I showed him examples of the broad range of possibilities, as well as provided him with various demo mixes of mine so that he could give me a better idea of what he wanted. He decided that the best fit would be a mixture of Melbourne Bounce, Big Room House, and a little bit of Dubstep to slow things down. He really wanted this party to be high energy and unlike anything anyone had ever attended.
We set up a pretty sweet makeshift booth and things were looking great. I felt great, he felt great, everything was coming together. The night of the party finally rolled around and the first gig nerves had really set in. Hours before the doors opened, the charger for my macbook died. I then frantically searched our small town for a new one, eventually purchasing a charger from Staples for $80. I was only being paid $70 to DJ this party.
As guests started to arrive a car-full at a time, I instantly knew that we had made a grave mistake. These people were not going to like what I was going to play. The party goers ranged from scantily dressed "girl next door" German exchange students, to full on tobacco chewing, lifted truck driving cowboy types. There was no way in hell that I was going to please everyone there. The stress began.
12:30 rolled around and it was time to begin my 4 hour set. From the very first track I got looks of disgust and confusion. Time went by, dance floor empty, as I frantically searched for anything that I could drop to make these people dance. I had nothing. I was not prepared. I got so excited to play the music that I wanted to play- that the host wanted to hear- that I didn't bring anything that would work for these people.
Angry comments from the party goers ranged from German girls asking if I had some obscure hip hop artist that I'm sure no one has ever heard of, to "Do you play anything besides electronic music?". I was heart broken. Devastated. But there I was, stuck behind the decks for hours playing music that nobody wanted to hear. I had no other options because I had dug my own grave.
To top things off, some 'super cool guys' decided to smoke a bunch of weed in the garage I was playing in (its legal in Oregon now) which created a rather saturated environment, leading to a pretty bad "contact high". It wasn't even good stuff...
Moral of the story: Be ready. Listen to the never ending fountain of knowledge that is the internet and have a backup plan. I let my ego and my trust in the host get the best of me and it created one of the worst nights of my life.
Thanks for reading, and I hope that you can learn from my mistakes.
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