its a rocky slope to be an opening dj.when your a trance dj and your asked to open for a trance dj your limiting yourself in just what to play.

if you open too slow or just not entertaining enough people are going to say you suck.ive seen plenty of opening dj's get criticized for being a bad dj but have seen them when they arent opening for someone and have been great.because they dont usually open for other dj's,they dont know how to really open or have the music TO open.

now a lot of times that falls on the promoter not knowing(or usually not caring)what or how the opening dj plays.this is especially true if the promoter is hiring his friend to be the opening dj,or if the opening dj IS the promoter and just wants to be the guy up there spinning.when you see the same dj opening for EVERY headliner the above is usually the case.

still,responsibility is on the opening dj also to know what the promoter or headlining dj want.but sometimes when you get a chance to open you feel that need to take it since it can lead on to being the headlining dj yourself one day.restraint to open is almost impossible in these cases.


now if you open with too much energy and excitement you run the risk of making the headlining dj mad, and possibly being blackballed by promoters or the club.this happened to someone i know at a club called natiions in DC which in its heyday was the biggest club on this side of the coast.

i believe he was opening for tiesto.he asked what the promoter what he wanted to hear.promoter said he didnt care.he said he was going to play with some energy to build it up for tiesto.promoter said fine.so he plays a banging set and not tiesto, but one of his handlers complained to the promoter and he was out from future events.

(great side story:getting kicked out of playing at nations gave him a chance to become a headliner at another large club,and when nations was torn down to make way for the new dc baseball stadium,he kept that promoter from promoting at the club he spun at while he was a resident)

i respect a dj who turns down an opening gig because they dont feel they can open well or just dont want to be an opener more then a dj who KNOWS he cant open but does it anyway.

my advice for a lot of these up and coming producer/dj's that are becoming headliners?dont forget when YOU were an opener.let the opening dj know what you want.

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Originally posted by bas By the way, Resident Advisor covered this pretty well. Link

Yeah love the quote by Lee about turning the music off...
And this was a good line in the article:

A good opener must have two things: an attenuated awareness for the musical progression of the night, and an extremely large and eclectic record collection. Craig Richards would concur. With a ten year residency at Fabric, London's most respected club, Richards is highly regarded as one of the best opening DJs in the world. Warming up a room is a position Richards fully embraces, "Over the years I have often opted for the warm-up slot. I find it a wonderful challenge which if played properly can result in maximum musical fulfillment."

Thanks for that Bas!
R

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Originally posted by bas This is exactly what the problem is. The opening dj is the opener, if he wants to be Captain Cool Cat and start headlining parties, put the time in, make some tracks start a label etc. There's a reason the headliner is the guest, the reason they're getting paid to fly all over the world and play music. It's not the openers job to do outshine the headliner, it's the openers job to make sure the party kicks off right. I for one LOVE being an opening dj, I pride myself on actually knowing how to open a party up properly. Death to shitty djs.

Exactly.

I also love opening. Setting the tone for the night and getting people to where they need to be for the rest of the night is a great feeling.

Not too long ago Dubfire bashed a DJ opening for him in San Diego on his Twitter claiming he was playing commercial house and remixes of mainstream tunes.

It's an art form all its own though. It really does take research and effort to understand who your opening for and how you can properly set them up.

Do it just right and you'll be just as memorable as the headliner without having to act like the headliner.

On a side note Randy I look forward to opening for you and Infected Mushroom on the 25th. I've got your Porterhouse mix on rotation and can tell it's going to be a good night.

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Here's a tip for the openers who aren't really sure how to open.

Go to clubs. duh. Watch opening sets. Watch what works and what doesn't and think in terms of the whole night (if a opener has a crowd going off and playing an amazing set, but the headlienr comes on and slows it down and all that and the energy is lost, the opener still failed).

Download lives of the headliners. try to find live sets vs. mixes as DJs can play different between the two. And frmo there get an idea of what you should play and how you should play for that headliner.

I think the problem a lot of terrible openers have is that they don't take time to look into who they are opening for. A lot of times they think they know that DJ, but often base what they know frmo the peak parts of their sets and not the beginning....where you need to leave off at.

Opening is more fun than playing peak time imo, and almost always much more difficult.

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Originally posted by ******** Seplling don't demonstrate intelligence and educatoin - knowing does.

Would a set with energy shaped like a sine wave form work well? As in there are parts where there are peaks, but always followed by moments where things are brought back down back to point A. And then a few more peaks and troughs, ending with a few tracks of trough (lower energy) section before the next DJ comes on. Wouldnt that allow an opening DJ to stretch their legs a bit, play some stuff that creates a vibe to remember, but also lets things settle back down so they're still hungry for more when the headliner comes on.

Instead of doing one long static energy set that inches up slowly, and sets up a DJ well energy wise but does not let the "warm up DJ" to shine at all. If I were a headline DJ, I would not mind if a DJ followed a set that is shaped in a sine wav when it comes the energy of the set.

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If you go up and down too much, you can really piss off the crowd. If you build it up well and thin bring it back down too much or keep doing it, it really zaps the energy and it's frustrating. Some openers do fall pray to that and it's like, a few great tracks....then they bring it down too much and it's like, "OK, time for a smoke" because it just makes that part of the set a tad boring.

If you are gonna do it, I'd just make sure everytime you come back down it it's not as low as the time before. You still want to generally build a set.

If you do it terms of pure BPM, maybe 125->129->127-->130. Of course, BPM isn't the only factor. You can play a set at purely 127 all the way through and have it go up and down just by the types of tracks you play.

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Originally posted by DaveT If you go up and down too much, you can really piss off the crowd. If you build it up well and thin bring it back down too much or keep doing it, it really zaps the energy and it's frustrating. Some openers do fall pray to that and it's like, a few great tracks....then they bring it down too much and it's like, "OK, time for a smoke" because it just makes that part of the set a tad boring.

I think that only happens with opening sets that are less than 2 hours, there's really nowhere you can go and nothing you can do in those 2 hours. Opening sets should be, at the very least, 2 hours. I've been booked for opening sets from 10-11.30 and I've asked if I can start at 9.30 instead, seems to work better actually.

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Originally posted by Dj Minaya Not too long ago Dubfire bashed a DJ opening for him in San Diego on his Twitter claiming he was playing commercial house and remixes of mainstream tunes.

Interesting. I know Dubfire has a dark side, but I also heard a recorded set of his from Pacha Ibiza which was full of commercial cheese. (I was surprised to hear that) But then again Pacha is a pretty commercial establishment.

I think that opening DJ's should have a similar style. house/house, trance/trance, tech/tech.

Vegas does a horrible job with opening DJ's. Tiesto Memorial Weekend 2006ish had a DJ that was playing old bs tunes. Kaskade @ Blush Halloween Weekend this year has a "local favorite" that played clusterfuck mashups. (I had to leave the venue and tell someone to text me when Kaskade goes on.) Perfecto/Rain Saturday nights do a good job with opening DJ's.

Locally, I've noticed OC's Ryan Sage does a great job handing the decks to the headliner. (adjusting the style/song to the headliner's style).

I know Sharam almost always stops the openers set and starts his from scratch. (Probably since he wants to start and end his set with his newest banger).

I also agree w/ Senior Chavez's take about avoiding bs/drama politics. So I'll shut up now.

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Well, I've seen it happy plenty of times with opening sets that are 2+ hours.

If you have a longer set, of course the better ones will use the time to go up and down in a proper, smooth fashion. But some openers just bring it down too quickly or too low when they do and it zaps the energy out of the room.

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Originally posted by gerard6975 good to see you man! it's been a while. oh, and we also met back at tentation and you were with Roman S.

yeah man, sorry about my memory... that was a few years ago. time has gone by so fast!

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