Ben Pao and Bell, Boyd, and Lloyd

Bell, Boyd, and Lloyd had their holiday party at Ben Pao. Brian and I dj'd this party, which presented some significant challenges. One was getting the dancing started. Dinner took a really long time, and I could see the guests getting antsy and some were leaving. Half way through dancing, I start playing more upbeat music and guests were bobbing their heads, dancing in their seats, or singing along. We couldn't move into dancing because the buffet was sitting on the dancefloor. We had to wait for it to be cleared. I started dancing off with Aretha Franklin's "Think," Jackson 5's "ABC" and then "September" by Earth, Wind, & Fire. Some people were dancing, but most were on the fringes. It reminded me of a middle school dance. I asked one of the staff if they could dim lights. That helped out a little. What helped out the most was when I went into Top 40. The songlist I was using for the night was from a couple years ago, when we last did the party. When I was looking over the list prior to the gig, I was picturing an older crowd because most of the song choices were 70's and 80's. The crowd that was there last night was all ages, but the group that wanted to dance was the 20's-30's. I played mostly Top 40 all night, with some 80's mixed in. My mixing was right on. My favorite was "Happy People" by R. Kelly into "Let's Get It On (steppin' remix version)" by Marvin Gaye into "I'll Take You There" by the Staple Sisters. Although "I'll Take You There" didn't quite work, I found out that it beat matches nicely blends well with the other songs. One blend that I wanted to try was the Casper Slide into Sexyback. I chose mixing the slide it into the Perculator instead, which the crowd LOVED!


Brian and I switched off and on for cocktails and dinner, playing some jazz standards. Once dancing hit, I was mostly on the decks. Brian and I would throw song ideas back and forth, always looking for the best song to go after the one that was playing. We cleared the dance floor a few times during the night, but brought it right back. It was a finicky crowd that either wanted particular songs, or Top 40. Once we narrowed it down by making a few mistakes at the beginning, we rocked the party into overtime.

--Jonathan Hood (Resident DJ)