So don’t get me wrong, I’m glad i got a gig, but I’m stressing and it’s the night before and I’m just looking for some advice:
I’ve never played warmup before, only solo acts but i know the rules. No songs headliners might play, etc.
Here’s the quick story:
I’m a prog house/trance/uplifting DJ and i sent a mix to a local club. They hired me and told me to buy X tix at reduced price and pocket the profits. It’s a dubstep night though and i don’t know why they picked me to play off a prog house mix tape. The guy on right after me is liquid drum and bass and then it’s dubstep…
Secondly, they told me they’d tell me set times last week and didn’t. I emailed them today and they said they would get right back to me and didn’t… i read on one of the later support DJ’s Facebook two hours ago the set times. They never told me when to show up or when my set was… and on top of that they have me down at 8-8:45 even tho tickets say 9:00 show and only their website says doors at 8…
Sorry just had to get that out. Any thoughts/advice? I’m nervous and angry and feeling awkward too because I’m not in my place.
Of course… I’m not coming here to mindlessly complain about the venue or get yelled at. I’m trying to get advice/consolation because I’m new to this… this is supposed to be a place of learning and support. They didn’t give much explanation because my contact doesn’t do booking but he didn’t have an issue with it. Just said I got a early slot because they have a bunch of people on the lineup
It sounds like they’ve used you to sell tickets. This happens.
How comfortable are you playing to a Dubstep crowd? The place is gonna be empty while you’re playing, so use the time to familiarise yourself with a club setup/environment.
Not very. I’ve got a small amount of future house/bass house stuff but its not as much my thing. I asked to just bring in a controller since that’s what I know and they said sure. I’ve got like 15 friends coming for my set for sure and I know they like prog house which is what I wouldve played normally
You got played, buddy. This is a bullshit tactic that shitty promoters use to boost ticket sales (the other is “mix competitions” for warmup sets). They aren’t interested in your DJ skills. The fact you’re booked for before doors open is just so you stop complaining.
This is shit makes the scene so much worse, it makes my blood boil.
SOURCE: Run my own night and have seen this crap all over the place. As a note, we make sure we only ever have people playing that either get a cut of ticket sales, or are happy to be part of the group and work towards the success of the night. If a promoter feels you’re good enough to play their night, they should compensate you, not force you to buy tickets up front for the ‘privilege’ of a 45 minute set.
EDIT: I’d get over there, return the tickets and tell them to stick it.
Lol i would in principle wait for a better set but there’s not many clubs in this city and I’m a college student. My friends are looking forward to it even if it’s just a short little set. And jokes on them most of the guys I’m bringing are 18-20 so they won’t make drink money off them lol. It’s a 18+ event
happydan has got it right, I’ve seen this many times myself as well & even have been in your exact posiition
they are using you, but hey seems like you’re ok w/ using them too, & that’s ok
do the gig, do your thing, don’t cater to them too much (it would not really be worth it in the end even if you did) & make sure you & your friends have a good time
show up on time, be professional, play your set & maybe there is a better offer for next time,
if not no big deal, but at least you’re not burning any bridges
This’d be fine in principle, but they fleeced them for pre-sale tickets, effectively meaning @lmboyer04 has paid to play a set. It’s bullshit and the only way it’ll stop is if DJs start standing up to it. You’d never get a venue telling a photographer “you can take photos of our event, but only if you buy these tickets to sell to your friends. Don’t worry! They’re discounted…”
People use the excuse of there being too many DJs on the market, but if someone is good enough to play your night, they should be good enough to pay. And if they aren’t, that says something about the promoter’s standards.
Got there and the guy on just before the headliner and I talked for 30 mins and actually played B2B to an empty club after doing soundcheck and he barely knew how to use the CDJs so i taught him how to use the FX bank (it’s funny bc he left on the flanger on deck 1 for his whole set…)
Anyway the guy on right after me that i thought was playing DnB actually played dubstep like everyone else but he came up to me in my set and said he lost all but 30 mins of his music so i got to play an hour.
I only played 2 prog songs and wasn’t liking how the crowd was reacting so i dug deep for some old electro stuff like deadmau5 my pet coelacanth and Cthulhu sleeps etc And then played some oliver heldens style future house and ended with a drumstep tune I had. Nobody went crazy ofc till the next guy came on and dropped some hard dubstep but i got a lot of compliments after the show and people saying they actually preferred that housey type of stuff over dub lol.
Guy after also had to use my headphones bc his broke the week before so i left them on stage and everyone including the headliner used them so that’s a cool little thing!
Haha the headliner was fine and one other support DJ but yea generally it wasn’t too impressive. I guess that’s just what you get sometimes at a low level especially when the place is managed with a similar style. Wish we had some more professional venues around here but I’ll keep looking for now…
Musicians do not pay to play, and they do not play/work for free. If they do, they’re called victims.
That’s not paying dues. That’s not working your way up. It’s just supporting horrible people who don’t care about the scene or anything else that matters.