House of Rockets - Week 4

I'm starting in on my 4th weekly installment of House of Rockets and I thought I'd give a wrap-up to let everyone know how it's going.

I initially set out to mix from about 8pm until midnight but it's become more like 7:30pm until about 10:15pm.

Nobody showed up to dance the couple of times I played and I think these are the main reasons why:

1. I didn't really promote myself (no flyers around the COB, no asking friends to come out [Digital DJ Tips creator/writer explains the usefulness of bringing your friends to your gig in this article]).
2. It's on a Monday night, and even in Iraq people want to get to bed at a decent time for work the next day.
3. The venue is a bit hidden so with a bit more #1 perhaps more people will come out.

I have since posted more flyers and gotten some people to come out.  Namely, my commanding officer came (he just happened to be writing an MWR article) to talk with me about my hobby and to snap a few photos.  This is the best one he shot:

Wearing my favorite hat, mixing on my netbook.  Bigups to Coffee Times and the Rices for the bumper sticker.

At one point there were about 11 people dancing which totally made my night.  Early on in my set, I had dropped Subway pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese on my uniform and had tripped over nearly every cable in the place (was basically having a clutz night), but seeing those people dancing made up for everything.  I felt a brand new energy when people started dancing and smiling at what I was playing.  It was weird.  I had already worked a 13 hr shift that day, was in combat boots and was dirty from a workout I had done earlier and yet, if they had kept on dancing, I would have kept on spinning.  It was neat.

A couple things of note from that night:

• Some people who are on the dance floor have NO PROBLEM coming right up to you and pretty much demanding (putting on a poopy face) that you play their favorite Adam Lambert/Britney Spears song.  This one lady actually busted out her iPod and looked at me as if I could run it into my net book and make it work.  I wanted so bad to help her out but had no idea how to make it work.  So, instead, I played the only BS song I had:  Hold It Against Me.  It didn't really go with what I was playing, but she went nuts over it.  So, hey, cool beans.
• As you can see from the photo, my pc was set atop a bar of sorts.  One person decided to set her dixie cup of juice right next to my setup.  I left it alone because I was having so much fun, but I couldn't help but imagine what kind of disaster that could turn up to be.  I'm glad we can't drink alcohol here for this reason.
• On the other side, I think if people were allowed to drink it might loosen them up and make them feel more comfortable getting on the dance-floor.  That's all I'll say about that.
• I love to dance to the music too, so I find myself jumping out from behind my pc and dancing along.  I just can't HELP it.

There's more to the night, but not much.  My next House of Rockets (HOR) is coming up in a few days so I'm working on getting my set-list done.  The more nights I mix the more I figure out which tracks and what style of music I like spinning the most.

I'm also being given a guest slot next Saturday night alongside a hip-hop DJ so I am UBER excited about that.  First I will get to spin during prime-time; Second I'll get to work with someone instead of alone.  So cool!

I will be posting another mix here soon. Upload speeds are snail's pace around here...

Love.

House of Rockets - My First Gig!

Greetings from the sandbox!  This post is about my first "House of Rockets" night in which I played/mixed house music in a small venue here in Basrah.  Even though I was the only one that danced - or showed up for that matter - I had a good time and learned a few things.

My ho-made flyer

I arrived at the room (I can't call it anything more than that b/c it's so small) around 7pm for my set that was supposed to start at 8pm.  I plugged everything in and booted up my little netbook and was off.  After about 15 minutes of warming up and goofing around with effects (wanted to get this out of my system before "everyone" started showing up) I tried shutting down background applications/processes to free up my processor.  I'm running a 1.6 Ghz Atom processor, so I need every bit of juice to mix two tracks in VDJ7Pro.  In my fervor to free up my processor, I shut down the main audio application on my computer.  The sound went out and I was left with slightly ringing ears in a small, quiet room.  Felt capital D, dumb.

So, one shutdown and reboot later, I was being a little more careful about which processes I was ending.  I still haven't figured out exactly which ones to stop so as to still be able to run VDJ well, but hey, I'm running a Mini, what can I expect?

On the "decks"

After I got everything back up and running, I was feeling good and on the lookout for my first "punters."  (It's just fun to say/write that word)  I was feeling good about my mixing.  I still need lots of practice with blending well.  Turning the EQ knobs with a small mouse pad is really tedious and not condusive to my dancing while mixing, so I'm looking forward to (a) a new computer and (b) a midi-controller.  What usually happens is rapid and sometimes abrupt EQ kills and crossfader jumps.  But I was having a good time.

I continued to mix for the next couple of hours.  Over those couple of hours I noticed a few things:

(1)  Some songs really do go together well.  Some REALLY do not.
(2)  Little electrical glitches WILL happen.  Best to just roll with it and hope your system doesn't totally crap the bed.
(3)  Knowing a song inside and out is paramount to any skill in beatmatching, EQ switching, sampling, or effects cueing.  Both Phil Morse from Digital DJ Tips and Murray Lunn from BeginnerDJ both told me this before my gig.  They were certainly correct.  I feel like this is the area I need the most improvement.

As for the "punters," they never really showed up.  A few people stopped in to see what the noise was all about, and proceeded to leave quickly.  For some reason, I don't think Monday nights are that conducive to people dancing to House for a couple of hours.  Hmm...

I'm looking a bit ghostly in this shot.  Not intentional at all!

I was only phased for a short while.  Most of the time, I was really liking the music coming out of those massive speakers, so I got out from behind my computer and just danced.  Doing that took me back to the Hong-Dae disctrict in S. Korea when I was a younger man dancing for 8-12 hrs in a night fueled only by a vodka&juice cocktail and some rockin' DJs.  Club MWG, you will forever be in my heart.

All in all, I feel like I had a good time and am looking forward to doing it again tonight.  I've listened to my set list many times over now and feel at least a little more confident in picking a song that will mix well next on the "decks."  Special Thanks go to my wife for supporting my dream from 8k miles away, Phil Morse for his wisdom and kindness, Murray Lunn for his tips and enthusiasm, Will Stoffer for providing me with the opportunity/time/space to do something I really enjoy doing, all of the various artists who made it into my mix, and Amelia for being so stinking cute.

I've embedded a short snippet from that first gig for you to enjoy and comment on.

Cheers until next time.

Love.


House of Rockets - 17 January 2011 by DJRedsamick