difficult crowds world wide/ your worst gig experience

haha this is great. I 've was booked to play at this "club" that I've never heard of before in a rural area, with the promise that bunch of music-hungry kids would "pack the place". After 4 hours in the promoter's car, we pull into the parking lot and I see bunch of Harley's parked outside. So bells start ringing in my head, but I say to myself: "maybe..."
We go inside, and no surprises there, bunch of bikerz and biker-hos sitting around the bar under a huge cloud of smoke. I immediately turn to the promoter and he goes "Lemme show you the system". Hey at least they had a DJM 600 and pair of 1200s. I am still in complete shock by the way, still trying to figure out how this is gonna work out without saying one word. :shock:
Then all of a sudden I see this group of maybe 50 kids show up out of nowhere in their complete rave gear! The promoter tells me to cue up and cuts the biker-music real quick. All heads around the bar turn towards the make-shift-wooden stage (they had the huge main speakers,with the monitors right on top, set up right next to the tables on the stage with me; not gonna talk about that, did I mention that the stage was made out of wood with nothing underneath :doh: ) So I say **** it and start banging it. After my 3rd mix, some bikerz start leaving and more kids come in, but there are still some bikerz in the place! Hahahaha, I will never forget this, eventually this big bearded guy,well in this 40s, walks right up to the stage and starts yelling at me to turn off the music! :shock: I look at the promoter, he tells me to ignore the guy so I comply. :lol:
Dude eventually gives up and leaves the place with the rest of the Harley crowd, and kids pack the place, other than the sound issues, we have a great night.
:lol: I will never ever forget that guy's face

ok heres another one.
i went to spain a few years ago for 2 weeks to do a very quick music technologoy course for some of the local djs.
after the course finished i had a gig at a local house club, the day before i'd realised i'd forgotten my floppy disks ( i was playing live back then with samplers drum machines and a full desktop computer !!) so i'd called london and got them fed exed over.
so i set up in this club and played my "halo " set which went down really well ( so far so good ......or so i thought )
so then we decide to go and really "party" if you know what i mean and we head down to this afterhours with loads of sketchy people and general sketchiness going on all over the place and i'm starting to get a bit weirded out by all these spaniards clapping me on the back and saying " hey amigo!!!!!!! " etc etc.....
then at about 4 in the afternoon!!!! i'm on the dancefloor completely out of my mind! and the guys i was with come up and say "would you like to play????"
i say "no thanks man i'm done" .
and they say "well we've been back to the other club and collected your equpitment ( id left it there for safety) and it's all over there" (pointing at this small stage)
so i go over and start trying to open all my flight cases and start getting all my leads out and disks and plugging things in and just generally pulling everything out of the boxes and putting it all on the floor in a total pile tangling all the leads up and completely freaking out because i just haven't got a clue how any of it goes together and i'm standing there scratching my head with a load of leads hanging round my neck and all my gear on the floor in a big pile
and they turn on the stage spots!!!!!
i'd been trying to do everything in the dark and evryone in the club turned toward the stage to see me sweating, with a hundred leads round my neck in a kind of " what the **** is going on?? " pose
and they all pissed themselves laughing.
it took about 10 minutes for me to plug the mouse into the computer.(i couldn't see the hole)

i did finally manage to get it all going ( i don't know how )
and played my set which sounded ok apart from me pressing the space bar 3 times during it and stopping it all.......

:oops: :oops:

i am a prize turnip when i get going.

:lol: :lol:

:clap: I wish I was a Sketchy Spaniard. ;)

i turned up to do a studo party only to find they wanted house and the lighter side of tec house instead of techno. So some guy offered to lend me his cheese !!! .. well i got his tunes and played on a landing in a stair well with no moniters and one speaker on the lower floor and another on the upper..well **** this so I double dropped hehe speckled doves !!! and ****in when on the rampage with some cheesy house doin all sorts of mixing and spinbacks. Um.. then one of the speakers blew and finally smoke started to poor out of the amp, so i threw on a long playing track, found the guy who's tunes i had borrowed, gave him them back... said ta and legged it. :roll: :lol: :lol: I met them all a couple of weeks later when i was playing drums in the bar and amazingly they all buzzed off it. top nightmare :lol: :lol: :lol:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jonnyspeed

lets say a big bag o' weed, too many pills and no monitors at a party of people who wanted something "lighter and more commercial" than Bam Bam, Liberator et al. well I was laughing at the end and pulled a really cute lady that night. So shit for everybody else - great night for me!

---

as long as you had a good time :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

few years ago a new local club asked me to play for them one night. i made it very clear i played TECHNO and made sure he knew it would be HARD! got to the venue and was Very happy with the sound system. started playing a few tracks and then somone told me it was Cambodian new year (my city has tons of cambodians and asians) i said ok so?? then they ask if i can play CAMBODIAN MUSIC for the rest of the night!!!!! i said you gotta be kidding me!! I TOLD YOU I PLAY TECHNO AND YOU KNOW THIS! "yes yes yes we know but everone wants to hear their countries music, we have cds can you play them?" packed my things and left..........
try to beat that! hahahahha
:roll:

:clap: :clap:
haha cambodian music!!!

excellent!

I'm not sure how many people this happens to, but when ever I would play outside in a remote location, tons and tons of moths would flow and bump the needle of my records. This happened about twice I think, and talk about really f*cking up your mix when people are diggin your set :doh:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AcidBastard

I'm not sure how many people this happens to, but when ever I would play outside in a remote location, tons and tons of moths would flow and bump the needle of my records. This happened about twice I think, and talk about really f*cking up your mix when people are diggin your set :doh:

---

this happens alot mate :lol: :lol: insects are one of the downfalls about playing outside :lol:

I am off to Austria with Charles Seigling in December so a little concerned after reading the posts..I hope its not like some of those experiences..

I would rather have 40 people dancing like nutters than 2000 people not dancing though.

class thread!! im new to djing so no really bad experiences yet, but im sure there will be :lol:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AcidBastard

I'm not sure how many people this happens to, but when ever I would play outside in a remote location, tons and tons of moths would flow and bump the needle of my records. This happened about twice I think, and talk about really f*cking up your mix when people are diggin your set :doh:

---

for sure. nothing like watching the needle skate all around the record but without making the usual scatching noise and eventually realizing that an insect had got stuck under it.

burning some of tha 'erb is a pretty good bug repellant though. ;)

At some russian festival in toronto where was just me,sound guy and some drunk ass was asking me to turn it down coz its to loud!!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ANDROID

At some russian festival in toronto where was just me,sound guy and some drunk ass was asking me to turn it down coz its to loud!!!!

---

Too loud? Is that even possible? :hmm:

Love the stories here, helps me get the stones to recant what I'm about to:

Few years back was slated to play a party outside detroit, so one would think there would be all sorts of clued up kids, right? well, there are gobs of C.U.K. in Detriot, but they sure as hell we're coming to THAT party.

I knew it would end in tears before even going on - - that much was obvious just from watching the crowd. But it was a friends party and besides, I had set up the bloody PA for the night and had to have it back to the rentals the next day, so there was no escaping the coming carnage.

I decide, "well eff it, I'll do as I please" and open up with some crazy whining, pounding Petite Prince track. Bad choice. Within 15 minutes the crowd is def. not dancing and starting to get violent looks in their eyes, as if I had been sent by a hall pass from Lord Lucifer himself. They start yelling that its "their party" and that I'm effing it up and worse. Then some dork actually crawls his sorry ass behind the decks and takes a needle off a playing record. Should have cold-cocked him in the flipping throat, but then, I am responsible for all the PA, right? Certainly could not afford a riot that destoys all the gear...

Looking for a graceful exit, in desparation I start talking to the crowd through my headphones telling them I'll wrap up if they just keep their heads. Meanwhile my friends, who were on the queue, were hearing people - - who were leaving the club - - saying, "there's some *&^% German in there and he won't take any requests!" (?) And telling people on the queue that the party sucks and so forth. So my friends get through the doors thinking they would catch the beef of the set only to find me in the bathroom looking stupid.

Oh yeah, about that time I looked in the mirror and to my shock I saw that my lips were pretty much black, so it looked like I was wearing black lipstick. Industrial anyone? Turns out the little bit of coca that we had earlier that evening had totally dried up my sinuses and so semi-dried blood had been dripping down into my throat. I was so nervous earlier that I kept licking my lips, which had effectively coated them with blood. "Erm, this IS the Skinny Puppy gig, right?"

Holy Crap, its no wonder they wanted to see the back of me. The worst part is that I had to wait around all night and then break down the PA - - sick joke that. But I did the best I could and didn't spit the dummy and make things worse for my mate who was promoting. What else was there to do?

:shock:

nighmare m8

not really a horror story but quite funny..

whilst playing at a free party this totall munted up bammer came up in front of the decks....

he spotted the dust that was on the turntable(yeh i dont clean my deks much) so started to wipe it clean....

then i think he thought he better take the deck somewher to clean it properly and lifted it up.....

it was the deck that was playing so the needle went zzzrrarraappaa across the record,everybody looked at the nobber and we grabbed the deck back and told him off, not that he ever knew what was going on...


Ahhhh free partys...

Anuther free party one.

After being move by the law from our original spot at 3am cos of noise complaints we get to anuther site(after EXTREME hard lifting).

Not long after we get setup again a girl climes the quarry clif face then realises shes high so freezes up ther.....the fire brigade had to be called so whilst they were ther we had to kill the music so they could use the walkytakys to guide the absailer down to her....

Next day it was front page headlines.....but no metion of the party...more a story how a girl was save from a clifface....hahahahhahaha.....dont believe the newspapers...

shoulve read....."dimwitted french burd gets too cunted at free party and gets stuck on the quarry face"

kangxi
love that story mate.
total embarresment
one of theose days when you say to yourself

why oh why do i put myself through this ?????

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ANDROID

At some russian festival in toronto where was just me,sound guy and some drunk ass was asking me to turn it down coz its to loud!!!!

---

hahahahaha andre i could imagine how happy you were.

I think the worst experience I had was recently during Movement fest, at a party that the Attack People and I were booked at. Highlights of the evening:

-Dodgy sound and decks.
-Filthy pitch-black venue in a shifty area of town.
-Another promoter was doing a jungle night and kept harassing us.
-Candy kids messed up on every drug imaginable.
-Practically having to threaten the promoter to get paid.

I'd go more into detail about the horrible promotion done for the event, but it'd be like shoving the dog's nose even further into the shit. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DJVirulent

I think the worst experience I had was recently during Movement fest, at a party that the Attack People and I were booked at. Highlights of the evening:

-Dodgy sound and decks.
-Filthy pitch-black venue in a shifty area of town.
-Another promoter was doing a jungle night and kept harassing us.
-Candy kids messed up on every drug imaginable.
-Practically having to threaten the promoter to get paid.

I'd go more into detail about the horrible promotion done for the event, but it'd be like shoving the dog's nose even further into the shit. ;)

---

Yeah, that gig was probably in the top 3 worst gigs ever for us. BUT, it was kinda funny when you look back on it.

this happened to me a week ago....not the worst but it sucked none the less!

i threw a wharehouse party on a rural property in some farmers shed. totally authorised and legal. decent sound system and lasers etc. 150-200 people showed, mostly just friends, no strangers.
12.30 at night the noise police showed up:(
they made me turn it down so that only the monitor was running, otherwise they pull the leads outa the back of the gear.
one farmer over in the next property was annoyed on a sat night.
not like ive thrown a party in that area before or that i do it every weekend.
i couldnt bloody believe it!
i get away with more volume in my lounge :cry:

so anyway, most people stayed and danced to the monitor whilst looking at the p.a stacks just sitting thr.
kept the party going which was the main thing but geeeezzzz.

playing a mix on the radio for the cd to suddenly stop and refuse to play

****ing panic stations

Louk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Louk

playing a mix on the radio for the cd to suddenly stop and refuse to play

**** panic stations

Louk

---

Harsh, I've been in a similar situation, me and a friend were doing a show on a pirate radio station, and about 2 or 3 tunes into the set, the right hand deck broke. It just would not do anything at all, so that was that, there was no one around to sort it and no spares or anything, so the set consisted of playing a record, then blabbing on the mic while swapping records on the only good turntable. It was quite amusing in a way, but what really annoyed us was when the next DJ arrived, who had been playing on this station for years, we told him what had happened and he said, "oh no problem there, watch this" and he smashed the **** out of the platter with his fist, and suddenly the power came back on, and the deck worked fine.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sash

old school mullet dudes.

---

Ha Ha!

Pauze :twisted:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Francisco Scaramanga

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Louk

playing a mix on the radio for the cd to suddenly stop and refuse to play

**** panic stations

Louk

---

Harsh, I've been in a similar situation, me and a friend were doing a show on a pirate radio station, and about 2 or 3 tunes into the set, the right hand deck broke. It just would not do anything at all, so that was that, there was no one around to sort it and no spares or anything, so the set consisted of playing a record, then blabbing on the mic while swapping records on the only good turntable. It was quite amusing in a way, but what really annoyed us was when the next DJ arrived, who had been playing on this station for years, we told him what had happened and he said, "oh no problem there, watch this" and he smashed the **** out of the platter with his fist, and suddenly the power came back on, and the deck worked fine.

---

pmsl :lol: