Etiquette or Guns at 10 paces

I’m relatively new to the DJ scene seeing how I’ve only been djing for a little over a year but I tend to agree with what both of you are saying. I understand that you’re supposed to warm things up for the Headliner but if the headliner sucks what was the point of all the work you put in. I read an interview with Armin Van Burren where he says that the warm up DJ shouldn’t hold anything back, and should feel free to go hard. I’m inclined to agree. Why keep your best tracks to yourself? I can see if you’re warming up for someone like Afrojack or Steve Angello where you don’t want to play tracks by that particular artist but I feel that you should go hard or go home. You’re there to get the crowd moving and make sure they have a good time. Why leave it up to someone else if your already there?

*I think I started rambling half way through this post so I’m gonna point out the main things

1. Don’t rely on the headliner to bring it.
2. Drop some of your best tracks (but don’t drop the headliners tracks cause that’s just rude)
3. Make sure you leave the crowd hype when your set is done.

PS Great debate I’m going to write this into an article on the main site and credit you guys at the end (of course).

I mostly agree with what you already said, but I want to add one point for consideration.

Where do you wanna go?

1. You do this whole stuff for fun, for refinancing your equipment, for being part of something. Then being fair and polite would be the right way for you.

2. You do this for a living and you want to be the next Armin van Buuren ;). In this case it’s getting tricky. On the one hande you can’t ignore your collegues but on the other hand you won’t be successfull just being nice. At least it’s highly unlikely. You have to advertise yourself strongly and this could include going all in. In this case it’s just business and business is never fair. Maybe to a certain point but when (lots of) money comes into play you should be prepared putting Mr. Nice Guy aside.

Interesting one, I think it depends on the statement you want to make, a good warm up DJ will structure there set to hit its peak just as the headline act is just about to step up, and i suppose if that means playing a track that is a banger then so be it. I remember playing a gig the first DJ was a trance DJ, he slowly built up a nice warm up set by midnight the floor was bouncing, he handed over to me with a full dance floor baying for more banging trance to which I swiftly started my set with a remix of a bossa nova type jazz track! As predicted everyone stopped looked up at me and 80% walked off the dance floor but within half hour the floor was full again down the right choice of tracks. So I would say don’t be afraid of playing the big guns, if the DJ is worth there money they will be able to whip any audience up into a frenzy!!!