Reply to I don't care what anyone says, mobile DJ'ing is MUCH harder than any Club/Bar DJ'ing!

Mobile DJ's unite!

After DJ'ing in an after hours house club for my first 7 years, and doing the mobile DJ'ing for another 7 years now, I can honestly and unequivocally say that mobile DJ'ing is harder than anything in the club/bar scene.

Back in the club scene, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. It was a house club, and I was a house DJ. If that wasn't easy enough, people were there for one reason, to party. Some did drugs, some drank, some did both...But pretty much everyone was completely destroyed. In terms of the music, nobody really seemed to care whether it was popular, underground, old, new etc. as long as it had a 4/4 time signature. People only went to hear some variation of house music, and as long as you played it, you were good. To me, this aspect made track selection almost a no-brainer. It's not like anyone would go to a house club and complain that there was too much house.

Now for mobile DJ'ing...You have to bring your own system which is already a pain in the ass. Sometimes you end up at a venue that's 100 years old (like an old mill) where there's no elevator, multiple levels, stairs, etc. Then you get into a room where it's the most ridiculous layout you've ever seen, and you have to figure out where the speakers go, tape down the cables, etc...So you've already sweat your ass off and burned away 90 minutes and you haven't even started playing yet.

Once you start playing, you get all kinds of requests. Everyone believes they have the best taste in music, and in order to properly showcase any skills you have to find a way to put it all together and make it sound good. Sometimes you get someone who wants to hear quick mixes and cuts from song to song, meanwhile other people will complain that they want to hear the whole thing. I could write a whole book on ridiculous things people have said. On a whole, people bark at you all evening , "turn it down, turn it up, I hate this song, blah blah blah" and you have to do what you can to appease them or risk being called a crappy DJ'ing and not getting any referrals....Everyone has their own opinion, and they're all different, and in my honest opinion, they all stink.

Then you get to pack it all up and drive home...