DJ Nightmare #1
Gnat
1,183 Posts
So last night I'm donating my DJ skills to a fundraiser for a women's capoeira conference. It's a dope warehouse in West Oakland; one of those shared living/work spaces. And it's not all hippies like I thought: a good mix of folks (okay, there's a lot of hippies, but they're the more urban variety as opposed to the crunchy-nug-I-live-on-an-isolated-marijuana-farm-and-run-a-cult type). At anyrate, they've got a dope line-up planned out and I'm looking forward to DJing.An all female Taiko drum team starts things off followed up by some dope capoeira. I play some raer funk between acts. Then, what can only be described as a drum-line marches in the room. Straight BEAT. The crowd loves it. I love it. Folks that were once sitting are now JAMMING and chairs make a natural progression to the walls. Spontaneous dance floor. 75-100 folks are losing their shit, including me. Damn. This is some shit. Damn, I better follow up and read this crowd. Got it. The last snare sounds, I give 'em a shout on the mic, and the crowd cheers. I launch into "Everyday people" and get whoops of approval. Yeah okay, fine: mad hippies. But I read the crowd right and gave 'em what they wanted. Dance floor maintains. I take a beer to the neck and keep on mixing. Mixing well too. Feeling good. I think to myself, "It's gonna be a good night." 5 or 6 songs pass.Then, in an instant: flash of blue light, puff of smoke, and that burning electrical galvanized smell.THE AMP dies...THE MUSIC dies...the dancing stops. dead.all eyez on me.oh shit. forced smile. "We're having technical difficulties! Y'all made it too hot in here! Whooo Hooo!" Laughter. inwardly losing my shit. trouble shoot list turns up with nada. do it again. nada. desperate. take suggestion from cute girl to turn the power off altogether and restart. nada. people are leaving. fucking fuck. scramble to find resident to see if I can find amp from someone that lives there. long minutes pass. finally a guy comes through. 10 more minutes of jerry rigging and we have sound with new amp. When my head finally emerges from under the table I look back up to the floor and there's 10 folks shuffling to a guy playing the congas. most have left. many are in the other room getting drinks. damn. this is the definition of having the wind taken out of my sails.the night returns (kinda) and the floor builds to about 30 at its peak. I play for two more hours. nothing like the energy before, though. The fact that it was a free gig is only slightly comforting. i kept my composure outwardly and some assemblance of a sense of humor. that was good. But all I can say is "ARRRRGH" this morning. looking for lesson in all of this: the show must go on?
Comments
Next time request one of these for the amp
hold your head up and move on.
@ least you learned a lesson: bring back up equipment.
bringing a backup amp with you every job really isn't practical in most cases.
ultimately, blame (actual not perceived) falls on the person who provided the system (assuming you weren't doing anything too stupid).
at my new weekly residency, the manager of the restaurant gave me a bag of ice early in the night.
apparently it was to sit on the amp.
what type of assinine shit is that?
i've seen some rigged shit before but let me fuck around and catch even a little bit of a shock and i'm coming for his pop's goldfronts (eduardo, sr. who is at least 50 has some of the toughest fronts ive ever seen a middle-aged man wear).
Bitch wouldnt spring for the needle/speaker though
yup. plus you can take pride in the fact that you stuck in there instead of just saying "screw it" and walk when the setup failed. that does suck, tho, to see momentum slip away like that...
did you at least get to talk to the cute girl more?
nope. let that slip too, wifey wouldn't have it and frankly, neither would i. and when i said "cute" i mean purely from an aesthetic point of view...no feelings attached...