Your First Gig Experience

Now before I begin, I gotta say that it can be the most difficult thing in the world to MC and spin in front of 150 people. They're all staring at you and waiting for you to basically mess up.

The promoters on my team promoted the party as an top 40/dance event. So, electro pop. It was nerve racking, and I started to sweat. Could me, a bedroom DJ, go from spinning at small parties of 20 to now playing at a local bar that is now packed with 150 people? Somewhat, yes. I started in with something familiar to the crowd and kept the tracks light. It was a weird event, because it was mostly an Asian crowd that came for the karaoke every other evening (the place was a karaoke bar). It was a business that was going downhill and typically had only a few tables a evening . This evening , on the other hand, was packed and we were throwing a special DJ event.

I got up on stage at around 10:30, and mixed well into the next two hours with nothing but top 40, and the occasional hip hop. I'm a big EDM head, so it wasn't exactly the type of gig I dreamed of, but I couldn't complain. The crowd grew and grew. Soon, the people started to come up and request tracks I did not have. I was totally unprepared and my palms instantly got sweaty. I was working with two CDJ 900s and a DJM 800 mixer, no DVS... ALL USB RekordBox. Tough tough.

I quickly tried to read the crowd, and noticed that they much preferred hiphop, something I don't usually play, and something I don't usually carry. I was petrified, but I had some tracks that would please. Around 12:30 was when I felt the fatigue, the folks were now looking at me for a good time. Little groupie girls kept bothering me, and dancing around me. Any other situation would have made me prefer this, but toevening was not the evening . I needed to focus. I screwed up PLENTY of times, but the crowd didn't seem to care much at this point with the amount of alcohol being passed around. At 1:00am, we had to turn people away due to capacity issues, people were enjoying the evening , but there were a few disgruntled patrons that wanted their songs and genres. Total jerks, really. They would walk up and randomly say things in my ear like:
"You don't have this song? You suck!" "We want more hip hop!" "Give us a booty shaking song!"

Some girls started to grind on stage and almost knocked over all my gear. I was not happy and was exhausted. I kept messing up and could feel the eyes staring at me, but the evening went on. I relied solely on my fader to switch the tracks by now, I wasn't even trying anymore. FINALLY AT 3:45AM, I got to stop. By now, I forgot what sitting down felt like, my ears were shot, but every one shook my hand and said that I played great tracks and it was awesome. The owner was very pleased and wanted us to throw another event, but I was too tired to even believe about it. I was embarrassed by my performance, but no one seemed to noticed the mistakes except some of the promoters. They told me I did a good job and thought that they must have been nuts, but I guess that's a good thing.

Anyways, I learned to always be PREPARED FOR ALL GENRES of music. You never know what you may be in for, and try not to be too nervous. Relax... enjoy all the positives, don't be too anal with your mix. Not EVERYONE in the crowd is a DJ and won't care for the smallest transition issues. Pay attention to the crowd, know what to play. Anyways, at least I got offers to work at other bigger bars and even a small evening club after the event.

This was my first gig, and now I'm wondering how was your first gig? Nervous? Bad? Good? I want to hear it.