I’ve got a 90min slot just before a headliner on the 28th. Never opening for a headliner asked him if there was anything specific he wanted from me, his answer “warm up music”.
Thats about as helpful as a french dictionary in spain.
Its a house night (which i know is hugely vague nowadays), what i do know is there isn’t going to be any dutch or tech.
Obvious choice i thought was to go down the progressive route, but i didn’t want my 90mins to be filled with elevator music, nor to i want to over step the mark. So any suggestions?
1 more questions, this will be my biggest gig to date, theres 3 dj’s. New guy, then me, headliner, then back to me. Surely shouldn’t the Dj’s submit a tracklist to each other?
Ive had to in the past but there hasnt even been a mention of it here (bulgaria)
flying by the seat of your pants always works better. cause then you and the crowd are on the same level.
i do ocassionally drop some preplanned mixes into my set, which i feel is legit to do depending on how the crowd is doing, rather than just hitting them right in the face with it as soon as i press play. so anything i thought id play (in a premade playlist, i probably wont (atleast not right away).
lol ive written several posts on this subject recently… haha.
When he says, start off light, he means, dont go out and play a whole bunch of bangers. like chris woods said, stick to progressive house, deep house, maybe tech house, dutch house if you wanted and just plain house, but make sure you dont play too many “big” tracks, because there are “big” tracks in all these genres regardless. A couple might be fine, but be sure to bring the mood back down a bit after you do. Theres nothing worse for a headliner to come on right after an opener or support whos gone all out, its f*cking frustrating, beleive me.
If you think of it like a book or a movie, your basically going to be the middle few chapters or the part in the movie just before everything is about to go down. The opener should be playing all the real toned down stuff before you, so you should have a little more leeway. pick things up little by little, but dont go crazy.
You should leave enough “headroom” for the headliner to be able to pick up the pace from where you left him. If you go all out before he comes on, hes got nowhere left to go. So just try and find a happy medium between the more downtempo “elevator music” like you say, and the full blown bangers… theres a middleground, you just gotta stick to that.
If your playing after him aswel, hopefully he ends on some bigger tracks, which will give you the creative freedom to throw in a few of your own big tracks at the start of your second slot, before winding things down.
also, i should of also mentioned to start by continuing the vibe created by the new guy, then take it from there, then gradually build the energy up to just below where you think the headliner will start from, this will help ensure he’ll get a warm reception from the crowd when he starts off with more energy, and he’ll thank you for it…maybe not out loud…
bring the energy down a notch for the five mins before the headliner comes on.
If you know who he/she is then why not look them up on soundcloud / mixcloud / youtube and get a feel for what they play. Dont play any or their hits or big remixes if they produce,
you’ll call it flattery but they’ll be hard pressed not to punch you.
if the new guy comes in all guns blazing, dont be frightened to drop the energy back to zero, an accapella and some reverb can work wonders if the guy before you decides to try out some hard house classics
Don’t overdo it. Try to keep it at 125-126 or under. Your not there to play bangers and bring the house down. You need to walk a fine line of engaging the crowd while not going to far. You want to be asked back or possibly offered a regular slot. Your not gonna make any friends by playing an over the top set. Yes the crowd may love it but the other DJs/Promoters/Owners will also taker notice. Do your job and do it well which unfortunately is to get the crowd started. Play your part make connections and work your way up.
From the sounds of it you have a awesome spot. Early in the night people aren’t expecting much so you can play out those off the wall tracks you wanna try out. If they bomb who cares. Then you get to take the reins back after the headliner. Yes the floor will not fill as much but you get the people who are either still hanging around to drink or still hanging around for the music. Hopefully you get more of the later. I used to love playing out from 4-7. It was the best time for me. I got the people who loved the obscure stuff and loved to dance. Yeah I couldn’t pack em in like they did down the street but they were a ghost town after 3am. Everyone had either gone home or they were out dancing with me. I didn’t get paid anywhere close to the headliners but man I had fun.
Also as far as setlists go I would talk to the other DJs if possible and just casually bring it up. If they think thats cool then go for it. Almost all DJs I know have a rough setlist in there mind and work around those 10-15 tracks. So they may not have anything to give you. I would get there early to try to talk to all the DJs about whos going on when and how much time your gonna need to setup. Then stick around for there sets. If for nothing else to not replay something later in the night. Hope this helps at all.
Theres a large chance that the headliner dj is gonna be building up his tempo to about 128-bpm /
What i do when im in your position is to set up my tracks into simple pairs / but choose the pairs after categorizing your music by “BPM”- that way they are all snugged up and wont be under much stretch (distortion)/ considering you have an idea where he is going to end up/ try to set up pairs starting at 125 n work up to 127/ maybe sneek in a couple 128 bumpers just for shitzngiggles… lol
This way you know which tempos you are going to be abusing and you will have a designated start and end/ after those variables are accounted for/ structure wont be such a large mountain to climb… Ya Dig?
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