ive had this happen to me on several occasions, not particularly with 70’s 80’s stuff, but i was playing progressive/lounge house and one of the owners comes up and wants me to start playing full blown commercial, then 10 minutes later, when im playing a commercial track, he comes up to me again saying that the music was too heavy… i was playing “Hands” by the ting tings… HEAVY? WTF??? i just told him… look mate, im a DJ who plays my own style, if you dont like it, dont hire me again, theres plenty of hacks out there who will play for next to nothing and smash top 40 shit for you all night, but me, im not one of those DJ’s.
I went back to playing my own stuff, and the people werent leaving and seemed to be having a good time, and the other owner was very happy, just the older douchebag owner didnt like it.
Long story short, dont compromise your musical integrity, If you start trying to make everyone happy, it becomes a shitstorm, and like someone said above, if you want to attract a younger crowd, you shouldnt be playing bon jovi. Stick to your guns and eventually you will find a venue that compliments your musical tastes. Like soerensus said, figure out if you want to play there again, and establish with the owner before hand what music policy is going to be… THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. Either let him know your only going to play EDM, and make it clear, or if your willing to compromise, figure something out. Just explain to him nicely that if he wants to attract a younger crowd, hes not going to do it with Bon Jovi. Sure it might keep the older people happy for a while but thats not who hes trying to attract is he?
Lol and what padi said… welcome, and expect a lot of shit like this to happen. Just wait till you have douchebags coming to request the worst songs from the opposite genre your playing, right when your in the middle of a mix, and ugly drunk chicks who are trying to tune you and cant take a hint and wont go away. Or when drunk idiots come with a full drink in their hand to try talk to you and spill shit on the equipment. And wannabe douchebag dj’s that come up to you and want to have a full blown shop conversation about mixing with you or think they can give you coaching tips, “dont forget to tweak the EQ, and add a flanger” FUCK OFF IM NOT A FLANGE WHORE!!! or when they say they can do better. Yeah? well why aren’t you in the booth instead of me if your so f*cking good?
Worst is when the opener starts out with a bunch of “high intensity” bangers and leaves you no where to go, and has absolutely no progession in his mixing, just big track after big track, and chances are, hes going to play the few highlight songs of your set.
Its like “thanks mate, so much for a warm up”… i really dont understand openers who go all out like if they were playing a peaktime set, i mean, even peaktime you dont go all out like that FFS, you need to give people a few occasions to wind down and go to the bar, and no one wants to here all the big songs at 10 o’clock.
Oh and cant forget other DJ’s who jack your mixtapes… walk into a local club… WTF? THIS IS MY SET I GAVE THEM!!
anyway… sorry about the rant… lol… some of the shit ive had to deal with gets me wound up.
but just stick to your guns… The percs do outweigh the negatives in the long run, especially if you can get a residency somewhere descent.
but i still bring my maschine so i can control effects and hotcues, since you cant exactly do that with timecodes… lol