Swimming With The Fishies

I dj'd a gig at the Shedd Aquarium last Friday. The gig was for Shedd's professional junior board, roughly 800 people. David and I were set up in the main entrance area, food and bars were located in the center and off into the wings. We started the night off with "beach" music like Beach Boys or Jimmy Buffett. The guests lingered mainly in the center or off in the wings. They didn't come into our room until about an hour and half into the gig. I don't like it when this happens because I'll start thinking that the music isn't good enough to attract people into my room. Realty isn't the case though. The bars and food were more attractive to the guests because they were only interested in drinking. It's very unsatisfying when guests just want to drink. When the bars closed, the guests vacated within one song. The bars close, I look down to change cd's, look up and everyone was out of there. All the same, we still had fun. David handled most of the requests - there were a LOT of them. I read the crowd and played the music. We hit pretty much everything, from 80's to hair bands, to hip-hop, to latin. People would scream when I'd play a song, then go back to talking. We never got a unified dance floor going. Most people wanted to drink and talk. The others would dance in their own little groups. It was like a meat market where everybody was there just to drink and hook up. We got really great reviews on the music. Handed out a lot of cards. It just wasn't that satisfying. I want to be appreciated for doing a great job and didn't get that. So the question becomes, how do I feel satisfied without looking to others in order to get it?

--Jonathan