Opening Sets

[mattus123]

Hey guys

got a fairly large gig that i want to impress at tomorrow night (fri)

going to be playing from 8 - 10:30 and have been told to have 'commercial and party tunes'

obviously ill play the commercial shit, but was jsut wondering how heavy i CAN go.. can i throw in stuff like 'atom' or 'epic' ?

[NeonIvy]

not particularly sure about atom or epic but bouncy stuff is always good dude, artists like TJR, benson, artistic raw.

i play alot of open sets and seems to work well for me depends what environment youre playing in though, maybe throw a track in and see how people respond to it

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Neon-Ivy/ ... 67?fref=ts

[mattus123]

ahh cheers dude

the problem im finding is where he draws the line at 'bangers'

would u classify jump smoker remixes too heavy for an opening set?

[NeonIvy]

ahh yeah i see what you mean

they might be a bit too heavy at the beginning, but as it gets later i think they'd be fine, totally depends on crowd,

some of their remixes are pretty commercial/party like so i think you'd be ok

dont quote my opinion but just in case cause yeah i just stick to bouncy to be safe where are you playing?

[OxyKon]

Drop alien tech to start the set

But in all seriousness I agree with neon where start it off easy then as the night goes on you should be ok to drop some heavier tracks, also depends on what genres the club is, etc

[mattus123]

its at candys, so it gets pretty filthy towards the end of the night

im playing 8 - 10:30 so i got quite a while up there, may even have to start with tech house or something (pretty sure club doesnt open till like 9)

my main issue is ive never been to a club before about 11, so i have literally no idea what an opening set does/should sound like

im guessing those jump smoker tracks will be better saved till around the 930 mark

[OxyKon]

Yeah tech house I wouldn't have a clue on, if it were me I would be trying some electro breaks stuff, crystal method, shit like that

[JonnyB]

if your on the main stage at candys, i would not go as heavy as epic.

i know tal is an anal WHALE about playing to your set times. im not to sure about what the music is like there now.

But when i used to play opens there, id start off with some real disco stuff for maybe the first 30 mins, then bring in more disco house stuff. then some jacking house stuff (hijack, TJR, Tom EQ, Kyle Watson that type of stuff) then for the last 30 mins id play some bouncy electro or old favorites like some daft punk or some party electro

But like i said, havnt been to or played at candys in around 18 months, so it may be completely different

[Mitch]

I wouldn't really be dropping any bangers.

Your job is to build vibe, not drop tunes that the whole floor wants to go nuts too. Nobody wants to dance hard @ 9pm so you need to build the energy up so they have a few drinks and by the end of the night you hopefully have a dfloor.

For commercial/party I'd be looking at the aria chart singles and dance charts (not club charts) and getting the tamer stuff / tamer remixes. Nothing too heavy

For party tunes anything that everyone will know is good. This is where I'd feel more compelled to experiment with some different genres. Rnb and hip hop genres have a lot of popular party tunes. However it also comes down to how comfortable you are with playing that stuff - maybe some 128 remixes of those type of tunes would be suitable

Saying all this though - never been to candys. I have played 10pm sets though

Hope this helps

[mattus123]

Top Advice lads!

Yea i know not to drop bangers, was just trying to work out where the line of 'bangers' is.

Looks like ill be spending my day updating my tracks

[andyman]

Play dat techy bouncey shit.

[overit]

my 2c: Early on is often when people are not smashed enough to get down properly to real EDM so stick to stuff with grooves people know or even lyrics they can sing-a-long with. This helps them feel comfortable enough to break the ice on the dancefloor, which is the job you have to do.

Also: Imagine you had the main set and think of all the bangers you would want to drop if things went exactly your way... then don't play them in your warm up slot.

If you do a good job as warmup you should get the chance to tear it apart sometime soon.

Garts for the gig man.

[SolDios]

I'd do all uplifting music like this:

To put people in a good mood/mindset for the night ahead

[DJEsse]

Best way to go about this is start off super chilled out. Find out what the guy after you is playing and work your way towards that very slowly as the night goes on... find his opening song or what he is thinking about doing and then you have a goal for yourself... if anything the last song you play should be the hardest of the night to set it up for the next guy that comes in. Djing is all about working together with the other people on the night. Not against them. Especially if your starting a night, you dont have any power so the last thing you want to do is piss off the residents.

[djrhysj]

Why dont you just ask the guy what he means by "bangers"?

Everything has pretty much been covered already though, keep it vocal, nothing to extreme, some cool mashups as well maybe?

[heyshep]

play Light Year

[legunner]

Play stuff from motorik etc. techno works well at the beginning of the night

[GREMM1S]

Always sneak in control variations

[legunner]

Always sneak in control variations

ALWAYS