School & Teen Events 3 Different High School Dances

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aguilas583

aguilas583

DJ Extraordinaire
Aug 30, 2016
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This is more of a reminder for myself currently, but starting with last weekend, and for the next 2 weekends I have school winter dances I will be providing the entertainment for. I will post pictures and the gig logs here.

Quick notes though, I used the DTPRO-4000's I recently bought and if anyone is hesitant on them, I can safely say go for it. Very portable, start at a height of 5 feet which makes putting a truss and all your light fixtures on it extremely convenient, the stand has wheels to move around, and the 13 foot maximum height is amazing. The handle is removable as well to prevent anyone from accidentally moving it up or down.

Also, finally got to use the Alto Black 12's I bought during Black Friday, and I am blown away at the performance of the speakers. At high volumes, they were so crisp and powerful, and never got shrill in any way. I am using a rack mounted behringer EQ than has a built in sub crossover which helped but I am extremely impressed. I will post the gig logs in the next few weeks. It's always a good sign when on the spot the school said they are canceling their Prom DJ and want to use us from now since so many people requested us after seeing our performance.


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Good Job .. though someone singing over OutKast at the beginning needs some singing lessons .. :)
 
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looks great, my only concern is having students help you. I used to get asked that all the time but was always worried about the "what ifs".... if someone drops something, bangs the wall or even hurts themselves,,, never wanted to worry about that stuff...
 
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the getting out part,,, put it in your contract that you need how much ever time you need to take down. I hate being rushed and when I do, that is when I will drop or break something or hurt myself trying to hurry. It is usually the custodians that want to go home, and while I don't want to be mean, make them wait. and extra 1/2 hour is not a big deal
 
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Chuck The DJ said:
looks great, my only concern is having students help you. I used to get asked that all the time but was always worried about the "what ifs".... if someone drops something, bangs the wall or even hurts themselves,,, never wanted to worry about that stuff...
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I 100% agree on this. This is why we gave them stuff that wasn't necessarily "breakable". Cable boxes, subwoofers (since they have wheels and covers) and items that had a small likelihood of breaking. The only times I will ask for help is if the school let us in late, otherwise we always show up with plenty of time to do the job right.


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Chuck The DJ said:
the getting out part,,, put it in your contract that you need how much ever time you need to take down. I hate being rushed and when I do, that is when I will drop or break something or hurt myself trying to hurry. It is usually the custodians that want to go home, and while I don't want to be mean, make them wait. and extra 1/2 hour is not a big deal
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Usually we are good with the exit time as well. This was a unique situation since the school got their own gym location canceled last minute, hence they used the middle school. The custodian at the middle school wasn't the nicest of people and said he would leave at 12 and the dance ended at 11. I agree with you as well that rushing is never good. More likelihood of breaking stuff. I will probably add that clause in the contract now so I am covered and have more peace of mind. Thanks for the advice.


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maestro said:
Great set up! Man those Intimidator 255 IRC movers are bright. Those are the ones I want to get. Do you like them? Would love to see a playlist! By the way, how the heck did you get out in an hour?
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Thanks! I absolutely love them. IDJnow has awesome deals on a pair of them. I wish I could buy two more but I can't justify $1,200 for just using them at school events. They have removable gobos which is nice so I can use them at weddings as well hence I bought two to begin with.

I will see if I can copy my playlist soon. I just have an excel sheet and I pick and choose on the spot. Not the greatest strategy but I feel more comfortable being able to play and change stuff on the spot instead of a set playlist.

We rushed (carefully) while packing, the cranks stands literally take 1 minute to break down once the truss is down (which takes another minute). The slimpars up top we left the clamps on the fixture itself, and in the chauvet cases we rearranged the dividers so 4 lights with the clamps fit in each bag along with the power cables. That is our biggest time consumer setting up and tearing down so by doing this we save a ton of time. All of the other lights we keep the clamps on as well which is another time saver. The kids helped us once we were packed to take stuff outside the building. There were 20 student council kids at the end so each person took 1 item or two and we were out in 5 minutes once everything was packed. It was an insanely quick hour and I would rather not do that again haha.
 
aguilas583 said:
Usually we are good with the exit time as well. This was a unique situation since the school got their own gym location canceled last minute, hence they used the middle school. The custodian at the middle school wasn't the nicest of people and said he would leave at 12 and the dance ended at 11. I agree with you as well that rushing is never good. More likelihood of breaking stuff. I will probably add that clause in the contract now so I am covered and have more peace of mind. Thanks for the advice.


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While it's not what I enjoy, anytime I get an antzy venue person like that I try to just move everything outside, then pack up. On school gigs, I won't ask kids to help as it's usually more trouble than it's worth.
 
rickryan.com said:
While it's not what I enjoy, anytime I get an antzy venue person like that I try to just move everything outside, then pack up. On school gigs, I won't ask kids to help as it's usually more trouble than it's worth.
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That isn't ideal but I see why you would do that. Makes sense.

All the kids were done cleaning the decorations and sweeping the floor, and just sat there and waited for 45 minutes for us to be fully packed. I would not let them pack anything because I don't want something to break and because I am a bit of a control freak. [emoji51]. The school was extremely apologetic and the sponsor made the kids stay later just to help us move stuff outside once it was packed hence I took their help. Even though in my contract I have a section stating that any damage done by the school, students, or administration would be charged to the school, I agree and would rather have only us handle our own gear. Hopefully this is a one off situation.


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Great looking stuff, brother.

I agree on wanting to see a playlist. More of what you did play instead of the excel list. What ever works though. I just started doing high school dances, and love to keep up on this stuff.
 
So Cal Hugh said:
Great looking stuff, brother.

I agree on wanting to see a playlist. More of what you did play instead of the excel list. What ever works though. I just started doing high school dances, and love to keep up on this stuff.
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I will try to get a list together in the weeks to come. I still have to put together two more videos from the past two weekends dances.

It's strange because the 3 schools I did this month had completely different wants in regards to music even though all the schools are within an hour apart distance wise. One school wanted more EDM, another one wanted rap or as a students told me "grinding music", and this past weekend the school wanted more pop and top 40 with EDM and rap sprinkled in. 2 of the schools were new clients so for future events I can prepare better but I learned not to trust the list of songs they provide me because it's not all inclusive to the whole school and what the majority of the students want to hear.


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Busy with work but I will still post 2 more gig logs and the set list from the first gig log as requested. I have another school dance this Saturday along with a conference that we will provide lights and sound for so it's going to be a busy weekend. Here is a photo from our last gig 2 weeks ago. In the video I show a little more on how we built that stage ourselves. ffecfc9aef8fb595bcc5759f93e8f273.jpg


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aguilas583 said:
Busy with work but I will still post 2 more gig logs and the set list from the first gig log as requested. I have another school dance this Saturday along with a conference that we will provide lights and sound for so it's going to be a busy weekend. Here is a photo from our last gig 2 weeks ago. In the video I show a little more on how we built that stage ourselves. ffecfc9aef8fb595bcc5759f93e8f273.jpg


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For the gig pictured here, is that just your basic school dance I assume? does your setup differ any for their prom, assuming you do it too?
 
BlueLineDJ said:
For the gig pictured here, is that just your basic school dance I assume? does your setup differ any for their prom, assuming you do it too?
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This is my "big" school dance package. For Prom (we aren't doing their prom due to a scheduling issue, but we have their homecoming in October already booked) depending on the venue of course we would bring the same if it's for enough people. The top of the truss is 12 feet high and 23 feet wide on the truss so it's too big for some venues.


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