I need to say I actually never was playing in a place where a all out fight broke out, someone got shot or killed. The closest I came to that was playing in the Private Place Lounge. Every once in a blue moon a issue would kick off. The people causing the problem would be quickly thrown out of the lounge and I could continue to play..
My partner was the one playing in dangerous places just to make money. One night he told me he was playing in a bar around the corner from where he lived at. He told me 2 fights broke out with these females on the dance floor knocking over a speaker. He said once things got settled he went back to playing. If that were me I would have packed up and been gone never to re
No I work in other venues as well. I haven't worked in a bar in about 2 years. I got burned out from the last place I worked at. I need to say that God blessed me dearly to not have been playing in a place where a big fight broke out, someone getting shot or killed. I just know about places where these things did happen.
My partner told me about a place he played in around the corner from his house where one night 2 fights broke out on the dance floor with these females. He said they knocked over a speaker. After things got settled he kept on playing. If that were me I would have packed my gear up and left never to return again. The next night he said someone got shot outside. Once that happened the owner stopped the DJ from coming in playing there. He changed things up.
Then there was the place I first met him at. I used to go there to hang out and saw him playing there one night. He told me he got the gig there because someone had him do a birthday party in there and the owner liked what he did. So he got him to play there Thursday and Saturday night. The place was a mess but all my partner could see is he was making money. The bar was on Sherman Ave. in Newark. At the time cheap prostitute druggies used to walk the strip. The owner allowed anything to come in the place. You would go in the bathroom and people would be getting high. Bottomline the last night he played there a big bar fight broke out. I wasn't there at the time as I was at the union Christmas party. I got there to check on him and the police were in the place. They let me in because I was his partner. The manager lied and said the fight was the DJs fault. The police knew that was a lie and said we see this all the time. Letting under age people in the place and eventually them starting trouble. The barmaid wasn't carding all those people coming in there and I didn'tr blame her. This thing was the owners fault. All he could see was how much money he was making and not looking at the mess that he was allowing to come in the place. I won't get into why the fight happend. Just know it did. Those are just 2 examples. I have more but I will save them for not making this post too long.
Let me say the only time I ran into just a little small issue was in the Private Place Lounge about 3 times. Nothing to serious. Some people might get into a little incident and it would get quickly handled by the staff getting those people out of there. Then I would resume playing. The owner ran things in way to do her best to keep those people out that she knew would eventually look to cause trouble. I got a request once to play a song by 2 Chanz. The owner quickly had me take that song off. I was so happy she did that because I didn't really want to play it in the first place. Again I'm careful where I do an event or work. Also today like I said I'm not desperate for work. If I don't feel comfortable doing an event or playing in a place I will pass it up. Another DJ can have at it.