damomoo

Give it up for the DeeJay!

I had a gig inbetween playing softball this weekend in Novato. I had to drive from Sunnyvale, go to Hercules and get the van and gear, and head out to Novato. (tongue-in-cheek racist joke here: Name the only town in California that doesn't want Mexicans... answer: "No-Vato". you know I got much love for my latino peeps, joke lang.) Anyways, the wedding was at Stone Tree golf course right off of highway 37 which was nice because the whole time I was thinking it's in Santa Rosa or Rohnert Park which woulda been pretty far. I had to do the gig by myself since Moe had one in Daly City. I got to the place at about 4:30 but the reception was supposed to start at 5:00. Luckily, the reception cocktails was not in the dining hall but outside on the deck and people weren't to be coming into the dining hall until about 5:45, plenty of time to setup. Unfortunately the hall was not the biggest and I had to setupin a little area in front of the dance floor, blocking the waitstaffs exit out of the kitchen. One nice thing was that I didn't have to overdo it with the setup as space did not permit me to do so.
The dinner went well. I played a cd that I put together of jazz standards like Nat, Frank, Tony, Norah Jones and the like. It plays for 70 minutes so I got to chill and work on my music for the rest of the night. (Quick note: the theme music for the bride and groom entrance was the theme for Monday Night Football, not the Hank Williams one but the one with the trumpet and symphony. I got a kick out of that one.) I ended up being the wed coordinator, making sure we were on schedule, letting the bride know what's next.
When it came time for dancing, the crowd was read to go. I busted out the standard, "Achey Breaky" slide dance. That still gets them to the floor, believe it or not. It worked at Bev & Gary's. I speed the song up a little, knowing that it'll get the song over a little earlier and it just sounds better. We did the cha cha thing, played some disco, a little hip hop and some 80s New Wave. I even got in David Bowie's "Modern Love" which I used to love back in high school. I need more opportunities to play New Wave like Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, OMD or UPSers favorite, Erasure. I was going to do a gig this weekend for my old high school buddy but it was cancelled. I coulda played that stuff at that event.
The bride and groom got a little drunk but kept on partying. By the end of the night they were all dancing and thanking me for playing all of their requests. Someone even wanted to hear "Funkytown". It's funny, ever since Gary put out that link with people's comments about DJs and replacing them with iPods, I've been conscious of it. I don't want to be the DJ that needs props to try and make the party fun. The bride grabbed the mic and yelled out "Give it up for the deejay!" That's all I needed to hear.

posted by DJ John @ 2:04 PM