That's the last time I DJ a wedding !!!
Pony
2,283 Posts
Im not even sure why I agreed to DJ this wedding party tonight. It always SUCKS! I have limited current hit selection (top 40) and don't have serato/final, so everytime I spin at a wedding party I bomb hard. At one point the father paying for the whole thing came up to me and asked if I was new at this (I've been DJing 10 years!) then he said "because you SUCK!", then I said "I'm sorry" then he said "me too". lolBasically this lounge/resturant/bar hired me (I DJ there quite often and it's usually a great time). But the people getting married rented the space. Next time hire an all-request DJ shit-head.Fack!
Comments
Yes, perhaps it's best to leave these gigs for folks willing to put in work.
Hate to say it but Aser is dead on point here. DJing weddings DO suck (even if the scrill is good) but the gig, by nature, is all-request. Seriously, how many "non-request" wedding DJs are really out there? (Not saying they don't exist, just saying they're few and far between).
EXACTLY.
My CLUB gigs are almost exclusively vinyl-only 60s-70s obscurities or CD-based strictly Indian music, and we hardly ever honor requests. But when I'm hired for a WEDDING I let the bride & groom dictate the playlist as much as they want. If you have to play crap music, so be it; it's their day, not the DJ's.
Accept this fact or don't accept wedding gigs.
by the family, though, but by the club, which gave me the impression
he was told he could just do his regular gig. I hear what y'all
are saying, but give him a little slack, jeez!
And the Pops straight up saying "YOU SUCK" is pretty rough.
I think if it were me he woulda caught a mixer in the grill
if he talked like that to my face -- for real.
If it was his first wedding gig, sure, slack would be given. But dude he said it "always sucks" so he knew what he was in for. Whenever I get hired for a special gig like this, the first thing I do is get in touch with the people who are throwing the party and ask for requests in advance. That way I'm prepared, they're happy, and everyone wins.
And my post-wedding SoulStrut bitch posts are still just as interesting, just not as salty.
Seriously, I wanted to KO the guy sooooo bad but that would have been
If I see him on the street it's ON! lol
I actually do hear you on this point. In fact I just did a party this past Friday at PETA's home office in Norfolk VA and when I asked for requests a month ago, the woman in charge just said, "Just bring a cross selection. This will be a very causal event, and doubt anyone will dance. Whatever you choose will be fine."
Since at that point I didn't have anybody to go to for guidance, I just brought a complete mishmash of styles and hoped they stuck. Luckily I got a lot of compliments and people even wrote down some of the songs I was playing. Just for kicks, here's what animal rights people are especially feeling nowadays:
Gnarls Barkley "Crazy" & "Smiley Faces"
Da Backwudz "Welcome 2 Da Backwudz"
Nelly Furtado "No Hay Igual"
MIA "Galang" & "Bucky Done Gun"
Swami "Desi Rock"
Plus one guy dug the "60s stuff with beats behind it" I played and girls DID dance.
Though I must admit I got two requests for "oldies" (i.e. Beatles and Righteous Brothers or "something peaceful") that I wasn't able to honor.
Dude I mean you couldn't have predicted that a 30 minute Slayer medley might not go over well at a PETA function?
b/w
When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong
Unless you were hired as a "wedding DJ" for playing a fixed DJ set and you couldn't play their favorite music, it's not your fault!
If you ask me, DJs at weddings are kinda
I'd hire a band. Live music is best. You have to know the DJ that is supposed to play music on your wedding well. Otherwise, hire a band and tell the band what they are supposed to play!
I'm imagining the fight in my own private mind garden:
Ponyboy stepped out of his house and onto the street. Hardly a second had passed when Ponyboy's nemesis, DaddyDearest, the leader of the Socs, crossed the street in front of him. Their eyes met and locked. DaddyDearest smirked, "You're that shitty DJ that played at my daughter's wedding. You fucked up my good time. I work a 9-5 and took out a second mortgage on my house in order to pay for that day. I'm GONNA kill you."
Ponyboy squared off and retorted, "Old man, you just don't appreciate the modern soul raers I dig for. I'll tell you what, I'm gonna get the Greasers together and we're gonna have ourselves a rumble, dig? 5:00pm @ www.soulstrut.com ! It's on square."
This sounds exactly right.
That's so good you could almost make a movie based on it.
So multicultural, so edgy, and most of all, so Becky.
They practically wanted to hear nothing but Spanish jams that the family had brought so it was simple as fuck. We played some current and old classic dance jams here and there for unnecessary variety but it turned out great.
At that point I didn't care, my payment was the look of terror and embarassment on her face when 50 dancing fools simultaneously gave her the gas face and she ran for the nearest exit!
Beware the rath of the wedding DJ!
Bombay Bitches!
This is the greatest thing on the interweb in ages!!!
When I got married last year, my wife-to-be entrusted me with the music--and nothing else. I paid an all-vinyl DJ to play a 70's soulset: Motown, Meters and so on. But I made no requests, only broad strokes.
M'fucka rocked that shit.
Hard.
Nobody complained. If they did, I'd have told them to step off. My day, my money, DJ hooked me up.
That dad sounds like a real jerk...
the last random wedding i took on for money about 2 years back was the worst and final time for me. mo-fos were in the bar in other side of space ALL NIGHT and eventually i was like, fuck it, and told the bride i'm done, and packed my gear. of course then some drunk assmonkey was like "wtf?? you better refund the money man or i'll find you..." and i was like, "yeahm go fo yiself. you need a luden."
This is the first wedding I'm actually kind of looking forward to DJing rather than dreading.
whether it s a wedding or some other gig: just know your crowd! Usually, if I do weddings, I ask them to provide me with music that I dont have and they want to hear fo sure..and I only do it if I was recommended by someone close to me...always worked out well..but I rather play festivals like this, ha urbanrapublic.cz
Really a terrible look. Like the worst I've seen in a while.
Indeed.
I was sought out and flown down to florida to dj a wedding and I still had to compete with the ice luge for attention all night. But I wasn't mad. It is an ice luge, after all. And it worked in my favor as the night moved on.
TIP: If you have an ice luge at your wedding, put it next to the dancefloor, not outside in the cocktail area.
alias. this has to be a joke.
So, how did "Shock the Monkey" go over?
I was at a Polish wedding this weekend. All of the music was polish versions of jock rock techno hits performed by a trio that included keyboard, drum machine, and female vocalist. People were fucking loving it too. Worst shit I ever heard, but some of the most entertaining dance moves I have ever seen. Old Polish dude in a top hat doing high kicks to fucking techno. I must add this event induced one of the worst headaches I have ever had. Polish beer is good.