Random hypothetical question. Let’s say you have the opportunity to open up for someone like DJ Chuckie, Aftojack, Hardwell, Avicii, Steve Aoki ect ect ect. What kind of music would you play?
The reason I ask is because I’m an open format Dj but there may be a time soon where I get to open up a big show. Now if I opened up for an open format Dj I know to start off at RnB and hip hop and work my way up tempo, no problem. But I’m not sure how to “open” for a big house or Dubstep guy/girl.
So if you had 2 1/2 hours to open before a heavy hitter what kind of music would YOU play?
I’d probably start with Trip Hop, then move to Indie Dance, then funky house. With 45 minutes left I would start bringing the tempo up with some older Electro.
I would start off with minimal house/deep hard dubstep. Ie. UK produced stuff such as Depone, Skream, Benga. Set the mood. I would also ask some what the other DJ intented to play, making sure there was no crossover.
Once you get people dancing, keep them there, but not by playing serious floor rockers, thats for the main DJ. It’s my job to set the scene, not to rock the house.
ALL of your performers tracks, if you run out play them again
JK, if it was afrojack, try not to play anything that he has remixed (as far as you,wiki and google know)
He plays hard hitting dutch house and obviously his remixes of house and top40 songs, so i would use things along the lines of dancy progressive, electro, commercial remixes etc
Well if I was opening up for an Electro House DJ, I certainly will not be playing hip hop. That will not be the crowd for it.
I would play same genre.
If you are opening for Afrojack, don’t play his songs, cause 99% chance he will play it.
Try to stay away from the “hits”, you are there for warm up not headline.
Think of it this way, in your own sets, do you play all the bangers in the first hour or two???
your job is to open. play stuff that’s genre-appropriate, build the energy in the crowd, but do not play giant anthems/bangers/anything the artist has made or remixed. your main job is to not look like an upstaging jerk. if you do this job well, you’ll be asked back a lot more than if you do the opposite.
Glitch/Trip Hop with some slow dub samples, like everyone else said build up the tempo get everyone dancin and let them get the feel of things, drop a track or two you really jam and then step aside for your headliner
eventually some more progressive type stuff that headliner will definitely not be playing and that aren’t huge hits but are relatively familiar to people
I must be missing something, why would you not want to play one of the headliners tracks? Provided their not going to play it in their set, i would think it’d be flattering.
I definitely understand the “dont play heaters” or “just keep the crowd on the dancefloor” because thats what I do with open format but my point was what KIND of music do you play? I see some people saying minimal or tech house for the first hour-ish and then more genre specific of the headliner, just not the bangers.
Is playing the tech house type stuff pretty standard no matter who you’re opening up for?
Like, if Im opening for Dada Life, play tech house for a bit and then the last 45 min or so start playing the non-hot Electro stuff? Or like for Afrojack, hour or so of tech house-y stuff and then some non-banger dutch house?
Any big name DJ I ever played before that was any good at least didn’t care what I played.
I had a gig playing just before Tony Moran and I asked him during his sound check if he had any tracks I should stay away from as I didn’t want to interrupt his flow. He flat out said play whatever you want I guarantee you won’t play any of the tracks I have with me. Really nice and genuine guy.
Only advice is try not to go to hard as you don’t wanna wear the crowd out before they get what they came for. It’s hard to think that your not the center of it all but for the most part many of them are there for the Big Name DJs.
I warmed up for Nelski (part of Chris Lakes Rising Music) and the whole Rising Music label is my favourite label this year so when i got told i was excited but yet again a bit confused as my sets take a lot of inspiration from Nelski, Lake and Marco Lys etc.
In the end i kept it around 123-126 house music with hints of disco and didn’t play a single track anyone might know and it was a mega safe set..
What everyone else said. If you’re playing right before the headliner, then you might want to start ramping up the energy, but definitely keep it restrained.
Basically a good warm up DJ is someone who knows what not to play as opposed to what to play, show restraint and you’ll go a long way. The headliner probably won’t throw you any gigs but you can be damn sure he/she will probably say something to the promoter/owner and you should be able to build on that.
