Dynamic DJ Entertainment

Last night I headed out to a gig right past the border of Durham. It was a sweet 16 party for my good friend’s sister.

Setup

Unfortunately Nick was away on vacation so I had no van to bring all my gear to the event. My friend (the one throwing the party) came to the rescue and drove his truck all the way out to my house to pick up the equipment. We loaded up quite well started driving to his house.

About half way through the drive it started to rain. Now, this truck didn’t have one of those cool cover things. Luckily I did bring a tarp, so we went ahead and covered everything up. Thinking that all was going to be OK from that point forward we got back on the road and continued our trek to his house.

About 10 minutes after we covered the equipment the tarp started to flap everywhere and equipment started to get wet so we had to tie the tarp down. That worked for about 10 minutes, and then we had to get out of the truck again and re-adjust.

This same thing kept recurring over an over again. Eventually we did arrive at his house and I was able to start setting up. They wanted me to set up on top of the bar in the basement which was perfect. Once I got everything set-up I started jammin. I was actually encouraged to play the music at a pretty decent volume which was very nice because the room was quite small.

Guests arrive

After some appetizers, the guests started to make their way downstairs. Most of them were very surprised that there was a DJ there. This got the crowd excited, which in turn got me very excited. All through the night everyone danced and danced it was awesome.

At about 8:30 PM everyone went back up stairs for the cake cutting. The cake was actually very good! After cake they all once again came back down to party. They all were really getting into the music by this point.

After about 5 tracks I started to lose people to the couches like crazy. I got kind of worried for a little bit. Then I found out it was just a matter of everyone really tired from eating cake and dancing so much. So from that point on I just was taking a whole bunch of requests.

Conclusion

At 10:00 PM the music finished up but most of the kids rides weren’t here yet and everyone was getting quite bored because the music did stop. So I had the brilliant idea of getting on top of my subwoofer and doing a little bit of funny stuff. This little addition was greatly welcomed the kids absolutely loved it. This was an awesome event and I had loads of fun!

Below is a little footage I took of the event. You may also view this video on YouTube.

Photo 1 (above): Residents, as well as students that came to volunteer at the event, enjoyed dancing to a wide variety of music.

Last Friday, Dustin and I headed to Aversboro Assisted Living Center in Garner to disc jockey a prom for the center’s residents. The event was organized because many residents did not have the opportunity to attend a prom in high school. Theresa Gaddy, the center’s recreation director, said:

They never got to go to the prom because they were busy working in the fields… they were raised on farms and had to do farm work. (source)

12 or so students from Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh volunteered as beauticians and helped residents get ready for the event. Then, they accompanied the residents as escorts to the dance, where they talked, ate, and danced with the residents.

This was actually the second senior citizen prom that we DJed. Two weeks earlier, Dustin DJed a similar dance for seniors that Cardinal Gibbons put on at a local community center. That event was smaller, about half or two-thirds the size of this event. We had expected this event to be bigger, but we still had over 100 residents!

You can read more about this event and watch the video newscast on NBC17’s website.

Music

Many of the music selections we had picked out from the other senior event, but still this was a different crowd with a different dynamic and they wanted to hear different music. Dustin had pulled together a lot of old music, like Barry Manilow, but as soon as we started playing that someone came over and told us not to play “dead music” because it was depressing the residents. Dustin laughed, and said “Barry Manilow isn’t dead” (he came out with 8 or so albums in the last decade). Nevertheless, we switched up the music.

Not long after we started getting some requests. People wanted to hear:

• Twist (Chubby Checker)
• Stroll
• general 50s and 60s hits, love songs
• Beatles
• Beach music

I think 50s and 60s ended up being the optimal timeframe for music at this event. Love songs from this era were very popular, as were our standard line dances/ icebreakers (Macarena, YMCA, Cha cha slide). We played some soft rock at the beginning as well, but after about 45 minutes or so we mastered the crowd and were able to play the right kind of music. The goal of each song that we selected was to get people up out of their seats and onto the dance floor enjoying themselves.

We were able to get a lot of residents up, dancing, and having a great time. We did play Crank Dat by Soulja Boy, and I know the students enjoyed that (and at least some of the residents). There was one kid, this boy who had to have been about 7 years old, and as soon as we put on Soulja Boy he was out on the dance floor breaking it down. For the rest of the dance, this boy was on the floor, busting his moves, and making everyone laugh.

Photo 2 (above): Nick and Dustin take a break to listen to the music during the dance.

Reflections

I know that the residents of this assisted living center thoroughly enjoyed themselves at this dance. After Dustin, Al and I had packed up the van, we returned to the porch to talk with some of the residents. One resident told us he, too, had been a DJ in his youth. Regarding our music selections, he said it was understandable that we had trouble, because we didn’t grow up during this time. He told us about 20 times, “if I had DJed this event, I would have played more music for the old folk” (a large portion of the music that we did play was from the right time period… he just wanted more).

He told us that even if it looked like not all the residents were dancing, they were still having a great time because they love being around young people and they enjoyed seeing how much fun the student were having.

He also said that we should get leather jackets that say “Dynamic” on the back arched up with “DJ” in lettering underneath (sweet!). We gave him a business card, and he said that he would give it to his contacts in the radio business, and told us “if you guys hear your name on the radio, you’ll know it’s because of me!”