Opening set!

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Opening set!

Hey All,

So i have been asked to do an opening set 2 fridays from now…and since most of the time i am usually the one on before the headliner i am able to bring out my bangers and rock the dancefloor. I havent really done any opening sets, and since i am opening for a decent headliner what the hell am i to spin?

I know I need to keep shit down a bit so as to not tire out the dancefloor before the headliner comes on but any suggestions?

2

Who are you opening for? What type of music do they play?

3

You must have something else than bangers in your music collection…

Opening sets are great to try new stuff you normally won’t play. Personally I prefer them over headlining.

4

Keep it chill, I made a little mix, based on that,

Stream JDUM music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud.

Take it easy, add a banger or two, not to many.

5

THIS! On repeat, it would be a proper warm up for the headliner

6

Why would you take accept a gig knowing full well you aren’t capable of doing the job right, but then come one on here expecting us to tell you how to do it?

7

He’s capable, just nervous, and asking for help. Because he has never opened. You don’t have to be such a d*ck/ those comments are better to be kept to yourself dude, this is a forum, where everyone helps everyone. And YOU are not helping.

8

+1

9

your telling me you would turn down a potentially career starting gig just because its stepping out of your comfort zone? hense why you approach a forum that has a purpose of helping and or discussing all aspects of djing

kay

10

There’s a blog post on this I think so check it out

11

Seitz just ignore that comment, apart that it is offensive to the person who approached the forum, its also stupid. Let him be, that’s what the angry do nowadays (The Social Network Quote).

12

Theres “bangers” in every genre. Im sure you will get the crowd dancing. BTW what type of music do they play there.

13

He just said he’s never opened and only has bangers, and he’s asking for what kind of music to play.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Sums it up perfectly.

Taken from the article,

"But there is more to opening a room than just keeping the tempo under 124 bpm and playing deep music. The signature of a great opener is defined by a devotion to the music he or she is playing. As Lawler explains, “you can tell when an opener is someone that has just gone onto Beatport’s Top 100 [to buy their] Deep House [tracks] and is trying to do it, as opposed to someone who loves and collects the music they are playing. You can always hear passion in a DJ’s set.”

Opening really is an art, not something you can learn in two weeks by asking what tunes to play as it’s more than that. This is the time where you build tension and anticipation through out your set not with FX and controllerism, but with proper tune selection and programing.

I’m all for going outside your comfort zone, but if you have no idea what you’re doing it’s going to cause more harm than good, and it’s only going to be magnified when it’s a bigger event and it will leave a sour taste in people’s mouth, especially the promoters and other DJ’s following.

Best advice, tell them now you’re going to pass on the gig and start doing opening sets at smaller, local spots to build that experience and record collection and really dive into playing those kinds of sets at home and recording them.

14

Almost forgot, you can go f**k yourself as well

15

The part of the opener is to warm up the crowd. Unless you totally train wreck you can’t go wrong. Your music selection in the right genre is not to overshadow the headliner so keep it simple and have fun.

16

This. It really is an art. I’m with Nephew…so far this is the best advice on this thread. I don’t know why you other guys are giving him a hard time — you’ve offered nothing to this thread?

I opened for months at nice spot before I got the hang of really constructing a good opening set where I could flow through tracks like I was playing the latest Top 10 tracks and people were having a good time. I found for me was to play some older classics people knew, songs that got girls in the mood to dance and squeeze in a decent new song here and there to keep them interested. I would create a build-up in my track selection and then at the peak the headliner would come on, drop a current track and it was a seamless transition into a bumping party. High fives for everyone.

At a minimum…you should go to a club early and listen to the opener. Either he does a great job and you have an idea what to do, or he sucks and you know what NOT to do. But don’t go in blind.

17

If you ever think that the headliner might play it, don’t play it.

Edit: You wana’ make sure that the bar is doing well as an opener. If half of your crowd is on the dancefloor and the other half is bopping their heads at the bar and buying drinks, then you’re doing a good job.

18

Well there’s no better way to learn to do proper warm-up sets than by doing it. So let’s ease off the hate faders.

19

Holy crap i never thought i would get such a mixed responses.

Okay first off, I gig regularly Thursday-friday and saturdays…normally i am with my crew of DJs and we all have our sets at specific times.
I should have made my first post more clear. My comfort zone is high energy Djing, this is the nieche i have been in for the last while and have just gotten used to it. This doesnt mean that i am playing all bangers straight for 2 hours but i do keep a rather high energy level through out my entire set. I know the importance of opening and that is why i am here looking for advice from other DJs that have gone through what i am going through right now.

on a side note…to all you haters…I DJ because I love the music…I DJ because i love to dance…and I DJ because I love the hype and energy, so thus my sets reflect all of the above. Now i am having to step out of my comfort zone because I was asked by a good friend of mine that owns a rather BIG BIG BIG promotion-producing company if i wanted to open. Typically when i DJ with my crew our sets work out to be something like this:

Hustle - Opening with tech house transitions to Electro
Prospect - Electro with some bangers maybe a bit of progressive and sets the stage for me
Mpyre (me) - Electro to Complextro and Big Room Electro mixed with some Dirty Dutch
Hidden Agenda - Bangers straight through to end the night and if he feels like it he will drop some dubstep.

This is usually our sets that we do.

Now to all the haters…I have more than enough musical knowledge and a GREAT collection of music from bouncy tech house to brostep and everything inbetween.

The reason why i am asking for advice is because I have never done opening sets before.

I am opening for a one of the bigger local DJs in town and stepping out of my comfort zone. I actually spent all night last night working on my play list and am going to start with some bouncy Tech house and transition into electro house.

Thanks for all the postive advice and to all the haters…well cry about it Im gigging and chances are you probably arnt…just sayin :smiley:

20

GREAT Article!

Thank you for this! The opening set i am doing is at a smaller venue, so this is the perfect time for me to build this type of experience.