Hell just pretend to be beatmatching or something along those lines lol. Like put your cans on one ear and pretend like your nudging the next track back / forth. They’ll never know what you were doing was acting!
Drink something. And rock out. Really, just feel and respond to the crowd. Answer a question someone lurking might ask you.
Sometimes songs need to be played out. I get so frustrated when going to a show when people are speed mixing 100% of the time, or trying to do too much all the time. Really, just rock the fuck out man.
This situation should never arise. If I had time away from mixing, I’d look through my tracks and pick the next one (or next few)
Only other DJs care what you are doing…your average punter just wants to dance to some good tunes…
Personally i would never pretend to do something i’m not…
Dance, That’s why I love Music, it makes me move.
never pretend to do something.
Exactly. Because even if 99% of people have no idea your twiddling a pointless knob or fader, someone in the crowd is a DJ. And he knows. He knows. And I don’t know about everyone else, but when I rock a crowd, it’s great. When I rock a crowd and another DJ comes to the booth and tells me it’s rocking, Awesome!
Personally, I indulge in some fist / arm pumping and drinkage.
I did NOT invite two hot girls to get behind the booth last Saturday. STUPID 
! I think that effects like beatmasher 2 + filter can create some easy build ups that the crowd loves.
Great tips all around.
Everybody seems to encourage drinking, I wonder if I could DJ while drunk, sounds like I just made plans for next weekend, all in the name of science of course.
Though I haven’t really played live much, what I do in those times is find a song with a Quirky synth or something, loop it up, drop a low pass filter on and work the synth into the song. It can add an extra layer to the song without ruining it, and shortening loop size along with the song on buildups adds a lot of excitement. For the breakdown of the main song run the synth at normal loop size but add a delay, with the right synth it can add a massive amount of depth to a female singer or just basic beats.
plan out the next few tracks is one thing you could do.
i have the same problem. traktor makes it so fast to mix that there is HEAPS of free time. I’ve been meaning to get some cool accapellas and be a bit more creative but haven’t got around to it yet 
it’s true though re: people just want to hear the track, so don’t mix out of it too early. unless it’s a 10 minute prog monster and people are getting bored.
drink more.
also if you are about to play an anthem, you can give them a glimpse of what is coming by looping 8 or 16 bars of a breakdown synth of the anthem, and play it filtered during the breakdown of the playing track. It will give you something to do and build crowd anticipation, but only use it on a track you know people sitting down will stand up for.. but If your not doing anything you should be trying to amp up the crowd by connecting with them by enjoying yourself.
Just watch what Steve Angello does, he’s such a good DJ that he doesn’t even need to touch his mixer or CDJ’s to do transitions. He has more than you can imagine.
Drink, Dance (repeat)
Think it’s been mentioned, I’ll spend the time getting the cue right for the next track even if it’s been saved I’ll double check that and make sure the next track “feels” right and cut a sample of it in over the current track (if it fits) etc…
I don’t think Jesus pose can be suggested enough, plenty of hot girls at the bar, you could JO. ( gotta keep it pg so no explanation there) or go piss, preferably Not onstage.
Plenty of constructive ideas so I will add: bring a sandwich.
I brought a sandwich with me the other day and it kept me occupied for at least two hours.
You didn’t eat the sun dried tomatoes did you?
On a more serious note… Scratch? If that’s not your thing, and you already know what you’re going to play next, I’d probaby be searching for the track(s) after that, and auditioning them in the headphones. It sounds like you pretty much plan your playlist, which is fine but you don’t want to play the same sequences all the time (residency). Take the time you have to experiment with deviations from your plan.
i dance to the song
check my phone
check fb
txt my bootie calls
see which other girls r in the crowd that might be of interest 
I did not read the responses, was too lazy. Whatever I did skim over though I think you guys mis-understood slightly. I think he’s asking what he should do during performances if the crowd is watching him, so it looks like what regular people think in their head DJs should look like when they’re DJing.
My suggestion would be get a MidiFighter . It always gives you shit to do during performances!