Hi all,
Finally after years of playing to myself I have this opportunity to play as a ‘filler’ dj at our company corporate gig, which will be organised by our platform staff.
It will be a live band event performed by repersentatives from various platforms/office based employees.
Basically what i need to do is to fill the dead air with music while waiting for them to set up their equipment, quick tuning or waiting for the next band to perform.
The audience will be oil & gas professionals, expected attendance is about 400 people aged between 20+ to 60+
While this is a primarily just a live band gig, but i treat this as important when it comes to selecting the right music, way of mixing etc… I know it would only lasts about 3-5 minutes before the next band, but we never know since this is our 1st time to organise such event (the old peeps realised they have worked soo hard throughout the year & it’s time to wind up..hence came up with this live band gig idea).
The gig will be held next month, I’m still collecting more info on this & will update this thread accordingly.
This kind of stuff is great for learning to read a crowd, but mostly pretty unrewarding. You’re doing very well if anyone sticks around to listen to your music in between bands, they probably aren’t going to dance. Standard set up time for a 3 piece band is about 15-20 mins if it’s all running smoothly, and the last 5 or so minutes of that you will have to compete with soundchecks. If the band is considerate they’ll try their best to play in time with your music (this is quite rare), otherwise you’re going to find it pretty hard (if there’s monitors) to very hard (if there isn’t) to hear yourself. My main advice is do NOT plan your set, and bring a very wide variety of music. You’ll have no idea what the band’s music is going to be like or how the crowd will respond to it. You can quite easily look like a dick if you play the wrong music. Read off the crowd, don’t be afraid to change genre or bpm if the crowd looks uncomfortable. Your job is to vibe off the room and blend into the background as best you can. If you get a set after all the bands are finished go for it and try and get people dancing.
Maybe go for something of more of a mature taste… ie. lounge music, jazz, soul, that kind of thing… nice and chilled out and sounds good even at lower volumes.
Try to get the band’s tracklist and see if you can warm up your band with tracks that are similars.
If they are playing rock, try some jazz with guitars for start, then some funky blues.
Ask the band if they want some particular 2 or 3 tracks played before them to set a good atmosphere.
Then between the band’s pause and the next start, play something chilly but not edm, so that the atmosphere build by the band is not lost.
After their show, start slowing moving from guitar/rock tracks to edm to the youngers and drunkers can join the dance floor.
End it with some more romantic stuff, so people can be together
Wow thanks a lot for your replies, this is really helpful.
Looks like it’s time to hunt for some ‘serious’ tracks, which is almost non-existent in my archive since i’m mainly a harder EDM person
Which is now comes to the 2nd question, where i can get HQ quality of classic rock/evergreen tunes?
I’m not sure if this might involved some dancing…i’ve attended several company event througout my career, most of the attendees only care to have some booze while chit chat with their old friends…the spouse/partners only come early in the evening to have some free food before they left. Unlike wedding reception/cultural festival where the party continues till morning..
To be honest i feel a bit intrigued by this upcoming gig. just because my colleagues know i love to dj & actually have a rather sufficient setup, too bad they never heard what type of music i play. they insists me to play on that gig (of course there will be no reward whatsoever, even the flight tickets & accomodation comes from my own pocket if i’m about to attend the gig, organised by us during the next off week)
I love playing in between bands … it’s all about connecting with the crowd, giving them something they unexpectedly enjoy. But yeah don’t get your expectations up; if you get anybody dancing you’re a rock star. It does happen, especially at the end, but it’s a pleasant surprise when it does. More likely you’ll get some head bobbing and a couple people coming up to ask you what you’re playing. For gigs like that I pull out the obscure funk, blaxploitation and porn grooves, that sort of thing, and mix it with downtempo percussive stuff… stay away from house or dubstep or anything excessively electronic sounding.
And yeah plan for at least 15 minutes between each band, sometimes more. Also plan on clashing with sound checks. Come out strong with your best stuff right when each band finishes; it gets annoying when you build up to your favorite song and you play it just as the singer starts shouting “check check check” into the mic or the drummer starts pounding off beat to make sure his skins are tight. I’ve had a few bands vibe off of what I was playing though, that gets really fun if they groove along with it rather than just shouting it down.
Thanks a lot for this in-depth insight of what to expect from this type of gig.
I’ll be most happy if this things happens as what have you describe
I do have some plan to play something uptempo (classic party tunes example like I’ll Will Survive or the Hawaii Five-O theme) towards the end of the gig & during the housekeeping period.
What about song transitions? are you mostly critical on technicalities of the mix or just play them end-to-end? or prepare the tracks with cue points on the most interesting part & ready to quick slam onto the next song?
Lastly, i never use iTunes because of a lot of limitation (I’m from Malaysia, & most of those digital record store have songs unavailable for sale in certain country, one example is Beatport)
Another option is to rip off classic tracks from my dad’s old karaoke VCD & be done with it.
[quote=“Luconia, post:12, topic:30852, username:Luconia”]
What about song transitions? are you mostly critical on technicalities of the mix or just play them end-to-end? or prepare the tracks with cue points on the most interesting part & ready to quick slam onto the next song?
[/quote]Have fun with the transitions and don’t worry too much about it. If you focus on being perfect you’ll waste your time because most people wont notice anyway, and you’ll miss your chance to connect with the crowd. It’s a good time to try mixing creatively without feeling the pressure to get it right - it’s way more important that you play good tunes that people will like.
[quote]
Lastly, i never use iTunes because of a lot of limitation (I’m from Malaysia, & most of those digital record store have songs unavailable for sale in certain country, one example is Beatport)
Another option is to rip off classic tracks from my dad’s old karaoke VCD & be done with it.[/quote]
I don’t know if it works in other countries but I use emusic.com and it’s great for stuff like this at good prices, but you do have to join and you get an automatic monthly charge that you have to spend that month or lose; some people don’t like that. I also use amazon.com for stuff like that too but that may also be restricted where you are.
Thanks a lot djproben Hopefully that gig will be a success!
It’s our debut event to organised something towards music, rather than the usual sports tournament..
Will keep you all informed. Thanks again!
Now that the gig management has been took over from us to the bosses onshore, it would be massive! i’m excited as well as feeling a little nervous inside..my 1st time playing to such crowd. the rented gear was over my expectations, CDJ900 & ‘disco mixer’ on the quotation lists..wow.
To be honest i never played on any pioneer model except from CDJ800 & DJM800, i wonder what’s the mixer on the event. Any input from the ‘easy factor’, preparation of tracks when using usb stick..do i need to analyse tracks on recordbox 1st for them to work properly & such?
I already have some insight of the tracklist, it must have a lot of variety..and must include this line dancing anthem
