Super Bowl Weekend

In my time spent DJing clubs/bars, I've learned that some nights will be slow, some will be crazy, and generally speaking you can't control how many people come through that door. But what some DJs don't often realize is that you have a huge amount of control over energy. I have personally seen some really good DJs be rocking a room no larger than 30, and have every single person going ape shit. Contrary, I (and probably you) have seen some DJs playing to several hundred person rooms that everyone looks like their sleeping. There's certainly various contributing factors to the high energy such as: song selection, the proper quick mix or cut, things you can control as a DJ. But every once in a while it's the people that make the energy. There's only a few special nights a year when people roll into your spot a little extra early, a little extra wound up, and a little extra ready to fucking party. When you start to notice it's one of these nights, you need to prance on them immediately.

Saturday night in South Side was crazy. It's the biggest party spot in town, the Steelers were less than 24 hours from the Super Bowl, and our city was ready to explode. The streets were packed early, parking was a bitch, walking down the back alley to my gig I could hear people chanting, singing, & laughing. After a time check, and realizing it wasn't even 9:30, I had a pretty good feeling about what was about to go down.

Sure enough the place was dancing and singing when I dropped my first song. (Hip Hop Hooray) That instant crowd roar when the drum beat dropped, was all I needed to know it was time to get busy. On nights like these I think it's important to play as little "filler" as possible. I certainly didn't do my usual "chill" first hour. I just went straight to hits and the crowd was ready to party. Fast forward to 11:30. We were full. Straight Capacity both floors, door held. I sprung for some "Renegade" and dropped "Black N Yellow" right after the Renegade intro. I thought the place was going to come down. Fast forward to 2:00am. After finishing my last song the crowd starting cheering and clapping, within 5 seconds a "Here we go Steelers" chant broke out. I dove for my computer and dropped Gary Glitter's Rock & Roll Part 2, it was probably one of the best DJ moments of my life. Words can't describe how insane everyone went. The hands in the air, the jumping, the beer flying everywhere, it was incredible. Even my boss had a smile planted across his face. It was a special night, one you don't have every weekend. I did the best I could to keep the energy up and I moved through music quickly, but it was the people that made the night. They fed me and I just wanted to feed them back. It's the kinda night that makes you smile all night, the kind that gives you the chills when you drop that next song, it's the kind of night that reminds me of why I started DJing, and why I will continue to do this. After speaking to a handful of other local DJs rocking legit spots, I began to realize that many of them had similar evenings, and that reassured me that although the DJ helped, the people is what made the night. Thank you Pittsburgh party people, let's do it again soon!