An excellent example of wedding frustration.

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djcrazychris

DJ Extraordinaire
Jun 12, 2018
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Saw this interesting Gig log.... a poor dj just gettin wolloped with requests from the father of the bride... starting at about the 8:20 mark... lol

i somehow was born with a super human gene that allows me to shut down my feelings and smile and laugh through junk like this... however i think Bruce Springsteen is my trigger word.... one night i was doing a bar gig at a place that had brand new management...had 300 college kids in the palm of my hands....busting out an amazing dance set.... then this 50 year old guy in a tweed jacket comes stumbling up to my booth...demanding Bruce Springsteen... lol... now i love me some Bruce...when im driving in my car...singing along....living his life in New Jersey by proxy.....but nothing can kill a dancefloor quicker than pretty much anything from his catalog

So that being said...i just smiled at him and said ....i will do what i can....lol.... so he proceeds to tell me he knows the owner.... and so i say....oh ...cool...i know him too... im trying to make him a buncha money tonight... he looked a bit stunned ...and stumbles away....15 minutes later....he's there with the owner.... the owners standing behind him with that look... like..."im so sorry.... but what good is owning a bar if i cant tell the dj to play a song for my friend and look like a big shot".... i can sympathize with that... and i know the guy wasnt simply trying to show me whos boss....because he had begged my crew for our services.... i came with a full promotional team...7 bouncers...and 3 to 5 hundred guaranteed clientele...

At any rate... i mixed in about 40 seconds of Dancing in the Dark.... and never had the hassle again...

But this poor dj looked pretty miserable...and i feel for him... that dang Bruce....

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATi4gec59CU
 
I can so feel the guy's pain. There's nothing worse than when you get a bitchy bunch of bridesmaids who want to override and micro-manage your night. The FOB was a different matter. Just drop a bit of Bruce, when the guy who's paying that tab asked for it. It's simple. Stop with the "X DJ experience that I bring" crap and do what the client is saying. The bride didn't tell you "no Bruce" and you were obviously flipping genres/feels so there's no excuse for not trying to make the guy happy. Still, pretty cool of him (and brave) to go official and admit to his mistake.
 
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i wish he'd shown clips of the dancefloor during the 5 times he played bruce....considering he seemed to only post highlights of the times the floor was busy...those moments may not have made the cut...lol

the easy answer is to drop into any of bruce's ballads for all the slow dances

cc
 
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I also would have liked to see video of the dance floor while playing any of the Bruce Springsteen songs. We've probably all been in this situation to somne degree or another, at some point in our careers.

Fortunately, I've experienced very little of this frustration. But, I would have worked in a couple of Springsteen songs fairly quickly upon the request. Plus, I have had some fair dance response with Born In The USA, Glory Days and Dancing In The Dark. And the thing is I'm from the entire other side of the country from New Jersey, Washington State.

Even though I have played Bruce Springsteen occasionally through the years, he is NOT in a common rotation of play.
 
I did a December 2014 Wedding where the bride's family was from Jersey. I played like 6 or 7 Bruce Springsteen songs that were al requested by guests, and the dance floor was packed. It was at the end of the night, I cut 1 song short about 2 minutes into the song, and I had a drunk, very angry brother of the bride standing in front of my booth yelling at me that I am never to cut a bruce springsteen song short! I told him it was past the end of the night...he didn't care.

The father of the bride had me play 1 more song after that...ANOTHER BRUCE SONG. Ended up going about 18 minutes over with the lighting crew getting mad at me because they wanted to start tearing their lights down. ....That wedding was non stop dancing. It was featured in a Wedding Magazine actually which was pretty cool. I did get a tip on that one as well, but the guests were pretty demanding towards the end of the reception. ...I was attributing it to Jersey Folks when they get drunk.

I like listening to Bruce Springsteen. After about 6 songs though, it turns into having to TOLERATE listening to Bruce Springsteen for me.

I have done many 40th and 50th birthday parties in the past where Bruce songs were requested. More for listening, and not much dancing though.
 
So what do you or would you play from Bruce???

Dancing in the Dark would certainly be a go to. Born to Run, Hungry Heart, Glory Days, Thunder Road, Streets of Philladelphia are all good ones. Born in the USA I believe was requested at that reception. Probably only time I have played it outside of a July 4th gig.

I'm more of a listener myself for this though. I'd have to be pretty darn drunk to be dancing to Bruce.
 
The DJ is not that good. Managing people and their requests is priority #1 and he's simply not that good at it.

Th Father of the Bride is not an issue - the DJ's lack of experience with Springsteen music is a problem. In his own words: "I've never gotten a request for Springsteen before, never imagined anyone would want to dance to Springsteen." - DJs are not mind-readers - and this guy simply lacked the experience that would have helped him navigate this party.

At no point in this video is the dance floor actually full of people. There's always as many people still at the tables, etc. He had plenty of opportunity to be fully responsive to people and yet - his default position is that he knows best.

Time for this guy to develop a post-event evaluation form and carefully consider customer feedback. He seems to be surrounded by mirrors.
 
No the thing is for that event Bruce wouldn't work. For a different crowd it would work. I bet a lot of those young people weren't even born yet when he was at his peak. Not that he isn't still popping. It depends on the audience. Some may only know about him because their parents played him a lot.
 
I bet a lot of those young people weren't even born yet when he was at his peak.

Well, some of the artists I love were deceased before I was born. Glenn Miller was awesome but no longer In the Mood, Otis Redding was not Sitting on the Dock anymore when I was born, etc.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
No the thing is for that event Bruce wouldn't work. For a different crowd it would work. I bet a lot of those young people weren't even born yet when he was at his peak. Not that he isn't still popping. It depends on the audience. Some may only know about him because their parents played him a lot.

You would be an equally bad DJ for this crowd. There are people making requests and telling you exactly what kind of music they like. Nonetheless, there you are - insisting you know these people better than they know themselves. Good grief!