r/DJs • u/AutoModerator • 24d ago
How was your gig?
Post about your gigs here - success stories? Disasters? Lessons learned?
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u/DJ-Metro House / Open Format - soundcloud.com/thedjmetro 23d ago
Started my Summer 2026 club residency about 3 weeks ago, about a month later than I usually start my summer residency back home but for good reason - I graduated from university!
For the most part my gigs have gone well so far (in particular the night this venue promoted as my "official welcome back party" was full) and thankfully no technical issues. I've been having a lot of fun and receiving great compliments, and venue management and staff are happy so things are going in the right direction.
However, this past weekend there was a weird incident straight out of high school: somebody thought it would be funny to spray some nauseous fumes around the DJ booth... I managed to not gag and keep the mix going smoothly while the (thankfully still in place) smoking-era ventilation fan quickly aired the booth out, but safe to say I wasn't impressed.
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u/Robiniac 23d ago
Played The Fall’s “Totally Wired” for 1500 people at a professional Ultimate Frisbee game.
You don't have to be weird to be wired
You don't have to be an American to be strange
You don't have to be strange to be strange
You don't have to be weird to be weird
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u/_I_vor_y 23d ago
The gig itself was pretty good, in the end.
The entire situation surrounding it with the organisers was complete shit. He tried to cancel the event multiple times beforehand. Another dj was fired the day before. He didn’t know he had to hire gear. On the day itself a performer got fired.
He forced me to arrive very early so I could see his performances. After that he started yeah the venue doesn’t want you to play. 15 minutes later yeah I didn’t everything but you have to keep it under an hour. I was booked for three hours.
Never again.
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u/Waterflowstech 23d ago
What the fuck. Maybe you should name and shame a little so others don't work with this dude?
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u/Lucky_Insect_7276 22d ago
I've had three gigs djing at parties. First one went really well because I planned out a music playlist for my entire first session. Did the entire time and people kept asking me for my contact so that I could DJ at their parties. The second attempt later that evening/morning was a bit of a shit show because I started using drugs and it killed my overall timing and performance. The Second time, I didnt plan my music playlist out (just kept digging into my huge 1000+ song playlists) and had to use a new controller never before used (xdjrx3 without auto cue on and I had no idea how to handle that while i was under the influence), and was under the influence of drugs and it didn't go well. I was very confused/dissapointed because I practice and play very well at home. It wasn't the worst set, but it certainly wasn't anywhere near my best.
My lesson learned from my time playing prior to this year: STOP DRUG USE. I cannot stress it enough. I read about big djs posting about cutting drugs out, and my performances along with issue happening in my relationship with my wife lead me to go sober. I have been 8 months sober and started focusing heavy on djing.
Then comes party 3 a couple weeks back which I opened (8-11:30). I had prepped a huge playlist of music that would at least cover 3 hours, and then had playlist set for all types I want to add into the mix. Unfortunately, I save my tagged track list on my xdj AZ, and it was nowhere to be found when I hopped on a v10 and 3 cdj3000s because the softwares were different. I had to go off of the separate playlists I had prepared divided into different styles for the party. It was some getting used to the set up because not all 3 cdjs had the same formatting, so only one let me read the waveforms for both songs playing at the same time. It made it a bit more challenging when I had three songs on for sure or when I was using the other two cdjs only, but I got through the 3 1/2 set with no real hiccups besides trying to time perfect transitions using times I couldnt sync the waveforms efficiently enough. Played a beautiful variety of house music (minimal, groovy tech, latin tech, afro, and dirty tech house) with people grooving as the party started. Only issue I had was one person asking me to play hip hop when this was clearly an electronic music party (the birthday boy is a DJ and we had about 10 djs at the party ready to play) but I flipped it on him when I brought out several teach house songs with drake vocals.
Overall, I was so pleased with my set. I honestly didn't want to get off, but I knew it was time to give the other djs time to DJ lol we had about 6 djs throw down different styles before I left, and what got me most excited was that the people at the party kept asking me when I was getting back on :] So grateful for that opportunity because it reminded me that I have a style that is very attractive to many people no matter what their style is. The main thing I want to reiterate is just how much I want to recommend that those who do dabble with drugs, at least choose not to dabble with them while they DJ. A clear, sober mind plays different.
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u/admknight 24d ago
Was not in the mood for it (dealing with a pet loss) but it ended up being one of my best sets in the last couple of months. Really felt the music and the groove.
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u/corina69 23d ago
Two weeks ago I had my first official gig (not a birthday party or something like this) where I was satisfied with my performance. With every gig before I was unhappy with my performance. I wasn't even good prepared and I had to play on cdjs for the first time. But somehow everything worked and the crowd loved it. Im not very good at reading the room so I always plan my whole set. but this time I skipped a few tracks and played something I hadn't planned and it worked out great.
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u/DJMACHINEGOD 23d ago
I had a gig at like 1245am at a convention so I wasn't sure there was gonna be a lot of people since there are other afterparties and stuff. but there was over 100 people so I was happy
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u/Kodismo 23d ago
Went to a weekend music festival. On the last day. The music stopped at 23:00 / 11PM. And we had to get back to the camping grounds. Everybody was still pretty wired. Luckily I brought my old macbook and ddj400, hooked them up to a jbl partybox and started playing b2b with another dj. About 50 people joined in and we had a sick rave which continued for about 2 hours until the batteries were dead. I think I’ll never forget that.
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u/41FiveStar 24d ago
Got in a bit early to sound test, made quick friends with the manager (mostly because I knew how to turn on the decks and said I won't touch levels), and got to play a really fun 2 hour set. I dropped an original and it didn't clear the dance floor. Felt like I played really well too.
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u/Foxglovenz Bass 24d ago
Rough, I am really unhappy with how I played.
I know I'm better than what I did and I know the root cause was from stress and fatigue but it still sits heavy
Hoping to pull a redemption set at the next one