Legacy of House Wedding DJ

So, I had this artist gig on Saturday at the Hotel Allegro. The bride and groom were Rachael and Dominic. A very sweet couple who like club music. Tiesto like stuff. What they wanted for their wedding was a club-like feel with a house set at the end with artists like Deep Dish, Basement Jaxx, and Chemical Brothers being among their favorites. I was looking forward to this gig all year (they booked me at the end of 2006). I don’t get to play techno, house, club, dance, whatever you want to call it (I like house, but you can substitute your own terminology) that often for weddings. House parties, actual HOUSE parties, are a different story. But for a wedding, it’s a real craft.

The guests at weddings come from different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, age groups, personalities. Music at weddings will typically span a range of genres. I would LOVE the opportunity to play all of dancing sticking to just house and hip-hop. That would be my ideal wedding gig. Hasn’t happened yet. Someday…someday…

Rachael and Dominic were married in the same room as their reception. For the ceremony, we played three songs. One song for the groomsmen and groom as they walked in, one for the bridesmaids and bride as they walked in, and one for the recessional after they kissed. The songs for the processional were timed perfectly. My favorite was for the bride; as she walked in, the song hit the climax of the song were it crescendoed as she walked down the aisle and decresendoed as she reached the end. It created a beautiful moment that would probably not be able to be repeated if we were to do it a thousand times. Coordinating the timing of people walking in to a song is difficult because of the different factors involved – speed of people walking, length that they walk, timing when each person ends to when each person begins, and not being able to walk through the timing until the rehearsal which typically happens the day before.

Another factor to this wedding is that it was an artist gig. I didn’t realize until we’re half-way through dancing when I got how much pressure I was putting on myself to do a great job and not fuck up. As it happened, I fucked up. A couple times. And I got really frustrated with myself when it happened. The mistakes weren’t anything disastrous, some horse clomping (when two songs are being mixed together and not matching up right), a cd skipped, and the sound went out for a few seconds. I wanted so much to do a perfect job, that it created a lot of stress for me. Most of the night I wasn’t having fun because I worried about other people having fun. How could I forget this basic rule of dj’ing? My best gigs are where I’m having tons of fun. That’s when I’m on, beatmatching like crazy, making creative transitions and mixing, and dead on when it comes to reading the crowd. This gig was probably a 6 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being my best. I had some pretty sweet transitions, people were dancing the whole night, but there were times when I songs weren’t coming to me and I would pick something last minute hoping it would work. There were also times when my beatmatching was up to my standards. I also played songs that didn’t go over so well. They were must plays, and I didn’t sandwich them in very well.

Learns coming off of this gig are to use my assistant, in this case Billy, to talk out what’s going through my head going into the gig. Talk about the expectations I have for myself, for the party, for the bride and groom, for the guests. Another learn is to go over the must plays more and think about what would go well before and after them to get an idea of where to place them during the night.

I’ve only had a few artist gigs, so I’m learning the pressure that these gigs bring. I feel like I need to be at the top of my game, and I should be, but I should also be at the top of my game regardless of whether or not someone books me specifically. The learn here is to understand what it takes to get me to be at the top of my game and to recreate it. Here, it’s talking about the pressure I’m feeling so I can move through it and have fun. Also, practice before the gig starts. Get into a groove early and notice where I’m getting out of the groove and what were the factors that did that. Then readjust the course heading to get back in the groove.

I think that’s about it when it comes to the learns coming off of this gig. Overall, it was a big success and I can’t wait to do it again. If you or anyone you know wants a house dj, let me know. I’m itching to get my hands on another one of these.

--Jonathan, lead dj
Assistant – Billy Rood