I am so bored

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

I am so bored

So let’s talk about our worst live gig experiences involving our digital gear.

Mine is a little old. I travelled up to my old stomping ground of Albany, NY to help open up my friend’s new club night. I was spinning on Traktor/Final Scratch. I brought up my turntables, mixer, laptop, whole deal.

I get to the venue early, unpack everything I have, and I realize I forgot my power strip. Well, it’s a show venue, lots of concerts and the whatnot, so I figured I’d just use theirs. Well, being my Scratch Amp and hard drive both had wall warts I needed an extra power strip. The only one left after I plugged everything in had no grounding plug.

Me in my infinite wisdom decided this was okay and I just threw it in and away we went.

Well, the gig starts, small crowd (it’s Albany, what do you expect for a goth/industrial night). I start spinning. “Holy shit” I think to myself. My turntables are set up backward. So my left channel is my right turntable. YAY! Time to get creative.

After a few songs I get kinda confused. It sounds a little weird. There’s bass and all, but I am cranking out the sound and my LED’s aren’t even blinking yellow. I’m cranked on the board, but it just sounds muffled. I look down and… my mic switch is hit over to “Talk Over”. I try bending it back but, well, that just creates chaos. So I hit it back and deal.

So later, I’m in the middle of this live mashup of a tribal power noise song (yes, that is a genre) and goldfrapp. My friend is on stage and we’re rocking out when all of a sudden the sound stutters… I get a blue screen of death and everything’s gone. My hard drive crashed. I frantically restart as another DJ plays a song… and get it running again. Five minutes later it dies again.

I proceed to throw a HUGE ego DJ bitch fit, pack up my shit and get really drunk.

Bad night all in all. And the last time I spun live on my turntables, although it had nothing to do with the gig.

Yeah… so anybody else got any nightmares?

2

LOL! I sent you a message a while ago because the same thing happen to me. Doing a house party only 25-30… the room was moving, playing something generic (combichrist i think) and I go to cue up the next track… nothing. I notice the screen won’t move, mouse does but traktor is locked. So I try ol’ alt+ctrl+del to see whats killing the CPU… mehhmehh digital skipping.

I freak and grab my mp3 player and put on a mix (DJ DvlsAdvct) and restart my computer. The blue screen of death for me as well.

I’ve tried a few things even reinstalling windows. But no, I guess my HDD doesn’t want life anymore. Overall the night finished nicely. Dead HDD and no DJing for me, awkward silence for a few minutes and me looking like a goon as I try to hurry and get the music back… fun

3

Definitely can’t match that one for horror value! This one’s kind of funny. Burning Man last year I was setting up to play my set at Ashram Galactica. It was my first Burn and I was nervous and very eager to play. The AG crew had all been amazingly nice. They’ve got CDJs set up in this giant silk tent that has a great vibe, and the DJ who’s spinning is dropping great stuff. I can’t wait to come in on it – only I can’t find a place to plug in. There’s not one available outlet. Not one slot on a power strip. Nothing.

He’s really cool and just keeps going and tries to help me out. I find a line that doesn’t look like it’s connected to anything. To be safe I track it outside the tent and to another outlet. If it’s running anything, I can’t see what it is. I run back inside the tent, squat by the DJ booth, and yank the line – and not only does the booth go dead, all the lights and power go out. The entire tent is being run through one cord, and Genius Boy has found it.

I plug it back in quickly, and now there’s lights and silence and a room full of people staring at a guy by the DJ booth plugging a cord in. They were very cool about it, but I had to go and really establish my cred by hosing their whole camp before I even spun.

I go to plug in and the mixer develops a short. It’s crammed into the booth in the dark and you have to lift it up to plug in, only whenever you move it the sound cuts off. OK, fine, I’ll just plug into a channel in back by feel. The current DJ – who by now deserves some kind of tolerance medal – loops his current deck while I feel around for RCA ins. I find the two that ought to be in the right place and plug in. I cue my deck on the phones – yah, volume’s good. I give him the thumbs up. He nodes and I bring my track in – and the walls of the tent actually shake as the track slams in. Of all the places I could have found, I’ve plugged into the Phono In and have a huge dB boost and horrible muddy sound.

Mostly it didn’t matter because by the time I got going, everyone had left to go hear Paul Oakenfold out at Opulent Temple anyhow.

4

@steveboyett

That had to be horribly embarrassing. Jesus at least there was still mildy good vibes.

5

It was indeed horribly embarrassing. Thank god it was at Burning Man – they’re a pretty forgiving bunch.

6

Glad I haven’t had one this far.

7

Classic thread i laughed my arse off at those two stories :stuck_out_tongue:

8

This is me winning :smiley:

9

Oh, and I really want to get massively embarassed while spinning Burning Man.

Cause then I’d be spinning Burning Man.

10

Burning Man is on the other side of the country from me. So I don’t think I’ll be there… ever. But everyone is kinda messed up: drugs, heat, dehydration, stupid what ever, you probably would get a good responce… or not I guess.

11

Wow, what an amazingly ignorant thing to say. You’re weighing in based on your lack of experience there?

12

Yes I am. Sorry, I’ve only hung out with 2 people that have went… and they fit that description. All apologizes!

13

meh, i don’t really care if there are drugs and sun and desert. I don’t do drugs or sun, but to fuckin spin Burning Man? I’d take that hit for the team.

14

There’s certainly no shortage of burned-out druggies at Burning Man (as opposed, of course, to the elite hordes of society-altering intelligentsia who flock to clubs), but in a temporary city of 50,000 people involving some of the most amazing art-meets-engineering projects I’ve ever seen, I don’t think any particularly reductionist statement can be made. Including “everyone is really smart and creative.” :slight_smile:

It is, however, a really cool place to DJ. I’m doing at least three camp gigs there this year and am very much looking forward to it.

15

If Burning Man is anything similar to the dutch Lowlands festival, then I think the vibe, crowd- feedback and energy is nothing short of amazing at BurningMan. :smiley:

16

haha lowlands. I’m going there next year. really looking forward to it
yeah for the dutch! : )

17

Nice one man! Get ready for a messy festival! :wink:

Have to warn you, it used to be better a few years ago. Commercialism is also influencing this festival in a bad way.