My return to DJing was last night. Some thoughts:
I could tell I was a bit out of practice. It goes much easier when you know all the songs by heart and know exactly "Oh, this song starts off quiet, and the beat hits in at 12 seconds, and then fades out" and "OK, I just played Song X, that flows into Songs Y and Z really well" and whatnot. I suppose there's really only one cure for this, DJ more.
Speaking of which, a couple of my transitions were less than good, but this has the same cure as the above.
It was slightly odd DJing somewhere without booze. That was certainly the first time I'd ever spun and not gotten inebriated at the same time.
It kind of sucked that the Bureau show and the Tory Z Starbuck show were the same night. Stupid St. Louis, having nothing going on for ages and then everything all at once. Ah well. Despite this fact, we had a decent crowd, including Baudot
Hopefully they can kill the lights a bit more for next time. It was just a bit too bright for people to dance or listen to dark and spooky music.
Whenever I DJ, I always zoom in on those two people sitting there who aren't having fun, and obsess about them and try to force them to have fun, both with my musical selection and sheer force of mind powers. Last night's couple that wasn't having any fun ended up leaving, not having fun, they did seem to enjoy the Interpol song I played, and that was about it. I can console myself with the idea that they may have been fighting or they were turned off by the Anime Porn (see below), but it may have been they hated the music. Bleah.
Yeah, Anime Porn. So there's this big projection screen tv at Farrago, that was playing Hentai. I'm not sure which, Doomed Megopolis or something. One of those demonic tentacle rape movies. Not surprisingly, this became the focus of attention, which was a little odd because it was basically over my shoulder. So everyone would be staring, and I'd look over and there was some tentacle rape going on. A little odd.
I lost the setlist. I'm hoping Xbot nabbed it, but it's likely the coffee shop people threw it away when they were cleaning up and I was helping load the gear into Shane's car.
There were exactly two songs that I could just tell completely bombed. As a DJ, you deveop this sense of the room, without even really looking around, you can tell how things are going. Orgy - Stitches (Green Velvet Mix) and DJ Keoki (w/ Jello Biafra) - Every Home A Prison both completely tanked. Skinny Puppy - Dig It (Mark Welk Remix) seemed to just confuse everyone, but I love that song so hey.
On the other hand, a lot of stuff seemed to go over very well. Interpol, Corpus Delecti's cover of Suffragette City, the remix of Depeche Mode's Lie To Me, and other stuff that I can't think of right now. Even some of the stuff I'm pretty sure no one had heard of went well, like Photek. It seemed like I hit more often than I missed, which is good. It didn't hurt that it was a fairly small crowd and there was a table of my friends not far from me, so I could at the very least play stuff I'd know they'd enjoy.
2 Hours is almost too short for a DJ set. There were a lot of things I didn't get to, like The Cure, The Misfits, Muse, Underworld, Timo Maas, Franz Ferdinand, The Birthday Party, I Am The World Trade Center, Ladytron etc etc.
Anyways, despite the fact that most of the comments above are negative, I did really enjoy it and want to do it again. DJ foureightysix, now available for your bar mitsfahs and corporate christmas parties! So long as you plan on hearing a lot of NIN, Joy Division, Depeche Mode and whatnot.
On a side note, being a computer dork, I picked 486 as a sort of outdated computer joke. It didn't occur to me until both the lady friend and my mother mentioned to me that's the number of the morning after pill. Ah well, I'm still keeping it. I do have a strange urge now to make up t-shirts and stickers that say "Are You foureightysix?" But I'm sick like that.
Anyways, good times. Now, off to clean the place up a bit and get ready for the Orpheus game.
I could tell I was a bit out of practice. It goes much easier when you know all the songs by heart and know exactly "Oh, this song starts off quiet, and the beat hits in at 12 seconds, and then fades out" and "OK, I just played Song X, that flows into Songs Y and Z really well" and whatnot. I suppose there's really only one cure for this, DJ more.
Speaking of which, a couple of my transitions were less than good, but this has the same cure as the above.
It was slightly odd DJing somewhere without booze. That was certainly the first time I'd ever spun and not gotten inebriated at the same time.
It kind of sucked that the Bureau show and the Tory Z Starbuck show were the same night. Stupid St. Louis, having nothing going on for ages and then everything all at once. Ah well. Despite this fact, we had a decent crowd, including Baudot
Hopefully they can kill the lights a bit more for next time. It was just a bit too bright for people to dance or listen to dark and spooky music.
Whenever I DJ, I always zoom in on those two people sitting there who aren't having fun, and obsess about them and try to force them to have fun, both with my musical selection and sheer force of mind powers. Last night's couple that wasn't having any fun ended up leaving, not having fun, they did seem to enjoy the Interpol song I played, and that was about it. I can console myself with the idea that they may have been fighting or they were turned off by the Anime Porn (see below), but it may have been they hated the music. Bleah.
Yeah, Anime Porn. So there's this big projection screen tv at Farrago, that was playing Hentai. I'm not sure which, Doomed Megopolis or something. One of those demonic tentacle rape movies. Not surprisingly, this became the focus of attention, which was a little odd because it was basically over my shoulder. So everyone would be staring, and I'd look over and there was some tentacle rape going on. A little odd.
I lost the setlist. I'm hoping Xbot nabbed it, but it's likely the coffee shop people threw it away when they were cleaning up and I was helping load the gear into Shane's car.
There were exactly two songs that I could just tell completely bombed. As a DJ, you deveop this sense of the room, without even really looking around, you can tell how things are going. Orgy - Stitches (Green Velvet Mix) and DJ Keoki (w/ Jello Biafra) - Every Home A Prison both completely tanked. Skinny Puppy - Dig It (Mark Welk Remix) seemed to just confuse everyone, but I love that song so hey.
On the other hand, a lot of stuff seemed to go over very well. Interpol, Corpus Delecti's cover of Suffragette City, the remix of Depeche Mode's Lie To Me, and other stuff that I can't think of right now. Even some of the stuff I'm pretty sure no one had heard of went well, like Photek. It seemed like I hit more often than I missed, which is good. It didn't hurt that it was a fairly small crowd and there was a table of my friends not far from me, so I could at the very least play stuff I'd know they'd enjoy.
2 Hours is almost too short for a DJ set. There were a lot of things I didn't get to, like The Cure, The Misfits, Muse, Underworld, Timo Maas, Franz Ferdinand, The Birthday Party, I Am The World Trade Center, Ladytron etc etc.
Anyways, despite the fact that most of the comments above are negative, I did really enjoy it and want to do it again. DJ foureightysix, now available for your bar mitsfahs and corporate christmas parties! So long as you plan on hearing a lot of NIN, Joy Division, Depeche Mode and whatnot.
On a side note, being a computer dork, I picked 486 as a sort of outdated computer joke. It didn't occur to me until both the lady friend and my mother mentioned to me that's the number of the morning after pill. Ah well, I'm still keeping it. I do have a strange urge now to make up t-shirts and stickers that say "Are You foureightysix?" But I'm sick like that.
Anyways, good times. Now, off to clean the place up a bit and get ready for the Orpheus game.
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peace from switzerland