Party Over Hear!

Jaci and Billy had their wedding reception at the Holiday Inn (insert Chingy song here). The party freaking kicked booty. Everyone was in good spirits as they arrived and it kept getting better as the night progressed. Jennifer assisted me and it was her first dj gig. It was a great gig for her to train on. Even though it was a great gig, it was really intense and I'm glad she was there to support me. We had a lot of guests asking for songs, and some of them were very persistant. They'd always come up while I was transitioning, too! AAARGGHHH!!! I was getting super annoyed with them. I don't play slides. Doesn't matter how many times you ask me. I'm not gonna play it. Maybe if five people ask for it. But not one person asking five times. Here's a sample conversation from the evening (I took a few artistic lisences with the conversation):

Guest - Do you have that Cha Cha Slide?

Jonathan - No, I don't. I'm sorry.

Guest - Are you sure you don't have it?

Jonathan - Yes, I'm sure I don't have it.

Guest - You know the one I'm talking about, right?

Jonathan - Yes, it's the song that goes, "How low can you go..." It's also called the Casper Slide. I typically don't play that song which is why I don't carry it with me unless the bride and groom specifically request it.

Guest - But it's a wedding.

Jonathan - You're right. It is a wedding.

Guest - How can you dj a wedding without the Cha Cha Slide?

Jonathan - That's what I'm doing right now. I seem to be doing a good job with it, too.

Guest - But it's a wedding.

Jonathan - I understand that. I usually don't play typical wedding music like slides.

Guest - You don't play ANY slides?

Jonathan - That's correct.

Guest - What about the electric slide?

Jonathan - Sorry. The bride and groom hired us because we don't play typical wedding music.

I could keep going with the conversation, but you get the idea. It didn't go quite like this, but I wanted to get out my frustration. I actually got out of this conversation after a few lines because I knew it was heading in this direction and I had a transition coming up. This is where I asked Jennifer to step in and talk with her. Sometimes, people just want to talk with someone. Their date is being a dork and not dancing, not having any fun. We're behind the decks having a blast, making the party happen. We're cool and attractive, so they come up to have a conversation. Sometimes I have time and patience. Most of the time I just want to play great music.

Cocktails were in a seperate room where we put an extra speaker and had some classic jazz playing. Once the dining room opened up, we switched to Frank Sinatra and other rat pack stuff. As dinner wound down, I noticed a shift in the energy in room. I couldn't quite put my finger on it in the moment, but I knew that it was time to start dancing. The bride and groom did their first dance before dinner and they didn't want a formal mother/son, father/daughter dance. I had thought this might make it harder to go into dancing, but it ended up being kind of easy. I think I noticed when the right time was to do it and went with it. As I'm breaking the moment down in my head, I remember seeing people getting up from their tables, walking around, the volume of the room got a little louder, people had stopped eating, some people were looking around. I was like, "Bam!" this is it. I threw on some more recognizable rat pack, announced the dance floor open, and BAM!, people start coming out. It did take some work to keep the floor going. Shortly into dancing, the guests organized a group photo outside taking a lot of the dancers away from the floor. When they came back, the floor was packed the rest of the night. I played a wide variety of stuff with a heavy concentration of hip-hop. I was having a blast seeing what combinations I could come up with. My sets mixed generations, going from Billie Jean to Funky Town to Disco Inferno or Don't Stop Til You Get Enough into Crazy by Gnarls Barkley. The guests had tons of fun. I had tons of fun.

--Jonathan Hood (Resident DJ)