DJ On Fire

This Friday just gone was the first time I had headlined the monthly party I play for.  I had top bill and the closing set.

We had a guest called Mr Bit, whom I was imagining to play rather tough techno, so I was planning on playing techno too.  He didn’t – his sound was closer to tech-house with some of his own productions.  Both him and Martin did really well, and had the dancefloor moving nicely.

It was rather on the busy side.  The Turtle itself didn’t seem that busy, and town was very quiet.  But our basement was busy.  Co-incidence?  Or has word spread?  I suspect more of the former, combined with good DJ sets that kept passers-by downstairs.

I came on to a busy dancefloor, and played some Maceo Plex style tracks before moving up into techno, and picking up the BPM a bit.  After 30 minutes I was playing some fairly tough techno.

It cleared the room.

At first I thought maybe people had gone for a cigarette, but they were not coming back and more were leaving, so I backtracked back into more of a tech-house/house feel and it worked.

The crowd came back, people were dancing again and all was good.  But I was rather hot behind there so switched the fan on.

It only worked for a few seconds and was a bit smelly.  So we put it on a higher setting.

At which point there was a strong burning smell, we noticed smoke starting to pour out and flames started leaping out of the fan.

Insert joke about the DJ being on fire.

My what-the-fuck-do-I-do-here reaction was to blow on it.  Which actually worked.  I did then notice the fire extinguisher but I didn’t need to use it.  However all the power behind the DJ booth cut out.

Again, I had cleared the dancefloor.

It took 10 minutes for the management to fix it and I just couldn’t get the vibe back.  People were giving me high-five’s for causing a fire but I just wanted to play music.

I was disappointed in my set overall.  I take it as part of my DJ apprenticeship.  I did learn quite a bit – I cannot get away with more than a couple of tracks of techno.  I need to prepare more.  I need to practice more.  I should take a hand-held fan.  Musically I know what works down there, but I don't yet know everything that doesn't work.

I like rating things and I wouldn’t rate my set higher than 4 out of 10.  That said, I got plenty of compliments and my very own DJ groupie for the night whom I probably should have asked for her number.  Thankfully I am much better at DJing than I am with women.

I need to practice both more.

Next up I shall be doing the warm-up on Friday 15th May.  I’m thinking dub techno.