Moonshine

I had my first DJ gig on Saturday. It was awesome. No, really, awesome. It was so much fun. Well, if you take away the crazy butterflies and all-around nervousness I was feeling, it was fun. :-P I can't remember any time before that I've performed something solo. I've given a few speeches before large audiences before, but those are a little different in that you're just talking, not really performing. Man, last night was crazy.

• First of all, thanks to everyone that showed!!! The party wasn't promoted heavily, so there wasn't a huge crowd. Ok, so the party topped out at maybe 40 max. :-P If there's a silver lining to that it's that I didn't feel pressure to perform for a large audience.
• The DJ platform was elevated maybe 3-4 feet above the dance floor. That was so cool. I was able to feel like more than a bedroom DJ playing outside with that setup.
• During the few moments of rest when I had my tracks beatmatched well before it was time to cue them in I would stop and look down at the people dancing on the dance floor. And it would hit me that, "these people are dancing to the music I'm playing." Wow. For me, there are few better feelings than seeing people dig my music. I love it. I didn't talk with too many people during/after the party, but Bill did, and he said most people liked what I was playing. Awesome.
• Spinning in a large room, with large speakers pointed away from you and monitors used to beat match, is way more difficult than mixing in your bedroom. I'm going to to have to practice outdoors more. Hopefully we'll make it a habit of throwing impromptu parties at Caltech (Dabney?) over the summer.
• As it turned out, screwing up multiple transitions isn't catastrophic after all. :-P On of my transitions was so messed up that I literally had to drop the volume on the outgoing track and up the volume on the incoming track nearly a minute before the mix was done. That was horrible. And yet, ultimately it didn't matter that much. Huh. Still, not acceptable, and I definitely plan on perfecting my beat matching as a practice.
• Bill came on after me, spinning some crazy breaks. Bill's really great at beat matching - much better than I am at this point. He also spins his sets around 6-8 bpm faster than I do mine. As it turns out, breaks can be spun that fast. House, or at least the kind of house that I like, starts to sound a little rushed at that tempo, but it works for breaks. I liked most of the tracks he spun. A couple were a little... eccentric for my tastes. A few I'd even put in my collection.

Anyway, it was a great first experience overall. I'm looking forward to doing it all again soon.