I won’t pretend to be able to tell you how to do your job. DJ-ing is a personal thing at the end of the day and a set that works for me might not work for you and the other way around. Give 10 djs the same 2 hours worth of music and you get 10 different 2 hour sets and that is not taking into account the audience.
The only tip I want to give you here, is that people have asked you to play based on what you did in the past. I am not saying don’t ever change, but make sure you change very gradually. If they liked your genre-by-genre approach and suddenly you are doing something completely different for 2 hours, that might not sit well.
Maybe define a little 10-minute period (when they are good and warmed-up, say after the first 50 mins) where you can do a mini-set in a more eclectic manner. Watch very carefully how the crowd reacts and be ready to resume your “normal” way of playing as soon as you detect unhappiness. If it DOES work out and they seem to like your new approach too, have a second 10-15 minute mini-set ready for a bit later.
So your 2 hour stint could be built up something like this:
- 0-50 mins – Warming the crowd, setting the mood, picking up the tempo and energy in your normal way.
- 50-60 mins – Do mini-set “new style”. Monitor crowd. Bad reception = cut mini-set short and back to normal asap.
- 60-90 mins – Normal programming. Have the floor jumping.
- 90-100/105 mins – If first mini-set was a succes, run second mini-set (just continue normal is it wasn’t succesful). Again be ready to change back to normal if the crowd doesn’t react well.
- 100/105-120 mins – End with the last 15-20 mins in your normal fashion. Play a strong end shot and go out with a bang. They remember you by the way you left them. Don’t experiment with your “closing statement”.
Hope that helps.
Greetinx,
C.
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