On Djing...

what kind of venue is it?

It's actually a very long but narrow room with booths either side. The strip of hardwood inbetween could be used for dancing, were one so inclined. I'm not sure how London licensing laws about people "swaying rhythmically to a beat" may constrict us, or not.

And did I mention it's in Camden?

call it chalk farm, it sounnds classier.

I really shouold sort out that place for yoink!

Spot on. My description was obviously v. accurate!

First three,

If you can scratch well(or not), here ya go:

1. Start it up with a sexy hip hop joint or a downtempo track. Nothing bangin', just sweet yet attention grabbing. Make it a track that people aren't exactly familiar with but you wanna make them curious. You must scratch/mix something with it you are sure of your abilities though.
2. Mystic Moods' "Cosmic Sea" is a massive cut to ease into as a second song. Flip it and mix/scratch with something comfy.
3. When the ridiculousness goin' off, the crowd should be into it, then really go into funky overdrive with something like "Theme from Blackbelt Jones" or your holy grail blaxploitation of choice. The party should be off to a good start at this point.

Then when they are getting drunk and frisky and ready to dance,"More, More, More" and "White Lines" are never disappointing spins.

try to keep it interesting, that's my only advice.

i opened my last set with the books' "enjoy your worries, you may never have them again" with robert ashley's "in sara, mencken, christ & beethoven..."... tried to keep it fun and strange.

closed with a bird songs record that i was messing with into the long intro to the colette no5 DFA mix of casiotone for the painfully alone's "baby it's you"... for me it's just something that makes my hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

i really want to do this in some form or another and i think i have a potential foothold at an older gay bar in town. i know/am casual friends with the manager and i've asked him a few times about an empty monday night slot. he's been a little cool about it so far but encouraged me to come on a monday and hear what the later guy was playing. i'm not really hip to popular gay classics or anything but i think some italo and etc. disco wouldn't bomb? (crowd is older gay dudes and random hustlers.) the manager is an ex-cattle-showing country guy who probably wouldn't get too excited if i talked to him in playlist-ese, which is how i'm used to talking to people about music. but i really think the bar (one of the oldest landmarks in the city but kind of "uncool" now) might benefit from something a little more interesting than what it plays right now -- bring in a younger crowd, etc., but also keep its current clientele psyched to come out.

really my question is how should i make this happen? (obviously the first step would be to go there on a monday night and check it out and talk to manager; i haven't yet because of the holidays and assorted stress.) any things to say / pitfalls to avoid? i really want to dj somewhere, somehow, and right now this seems like my best bet.

in general though, how pathetic and gauche is it these days to do the mp3jay thing with an ipod? i think at this particular bar no one would really give a shit, but if i want to keep it up / do something else... i need to invest in a turntable and start buying vinyl right?

re general dj-ing advice: what's the best way for someone who likes music a lot and likes watching people enjoy music and has music he thinks people would enjoy to start playing enjoyable music for people in a public (or any kind of) setting? keep in mind i'm not very good w/ people or schmoozing but getting better and i feel like this is necessary for my future uh happiness. thanks

do you have a laptop?

download traktor and use that.

Based on my experience I'd give two general pieces of advice:
1) Get used to people making ridiculous wishes for a tune, and generally not understanding you don't have every record they'd like to hear readily available in your bag.
2) Get used to people trying to hit on you.

I've DJed mostly in university student parties though, maybe your club is a more specialized setting so these things won't happen so often.

I am a rock guy that came to the DJ game pretty late. It's a fucking blast getting to play my records for other people.

Here's a few quick tips:

1) unless you are going to do dance nights, you don't need to learn to beat match, scratch, or show off any other "skills"

2) FLOW is the single most important thing you can provide. Don't fuck with the audience repeatedly, even if you're playing adventurous music. At least use the "punishment/reward" concept if you must satisfy yourself

3) Don't be embarrassed to pick up a really cheap and useful book called "How do Dj Right". I read great reviews of it, and was blown away at how simple and correct its methodology is.

***

Other than that, yeah--don't use mp3s if you can help it. That's gay.

BTW, you don't need to own turntables unless you're going to do a lot of gigs at places that don't already have them. I do recommend investing in your own cartridges though. That will run you around $60 and will save your records from harsh needles on public decks.

Also, in case you didn't get it, my mp3 comment was a joke. I rely heavily on my vinyl collection because I don't beat match or whatever. So I fall back on two things: my great record collection and my immaculate flow.

:)

Oh yeah, one more thing I've learned: the more drunk the crowd, the less adventurous music the probably want to hear. If you're playing at some club centred around certain genre(s) it might be different, but in general clubs people just want to have a bit of fun and not expand their musical horizons too much.

i've got good flow, thanks. gr8080, no laptop :(. do you think a cheap-ish notebook/laptop w/ traktor or whatever is a better investment for all-purpose dance-ish semi-weirdo dj-ing than a turntable in the future?

tuomas, i'm not gonna be too weird. if anything i'm too sensitive to crowd moods--that is, if i take advice from upthread and don't do it drunk.

And Nate is correct about not needing specialized DJ skills: if it's not a dance or hip-hop club, people probably don't care shit about such tricks. Basically you just need to learn to use the crossfader and try not to follow one tune with another one in completely different tempo (no slow r'n'b jams immediately after a fast house tune). The only things people will notice are blatant fuck-ups, like accidentally pressing the pause button. Which leads to one more piece of advice - don't get drunk, even if your drinks are on the house. A few drinks might be good to ease the tension, but if you get too drunk the potentiality of such fuck-ups is very high.

(x-post)

thx tuomas, good advice.

p.s. manager told me cds were the operating media here so i guess that would be best (though i think i can get away w/ an ipod since the mixing "booth" is like above and hidden from anyone and i could probably find a stereo in and bring some jacks). what i really need to do is check out the set-up tomorrow and see how they're mixing em.

i'd stay away from using your ipod and use cds if you can. burn your best sounding files to cd at least.

ok thx

if you're unfamiliar w/ the basics of using a dj mixer (or even if you are familiar but haven't used the specific type the bar has) see if you can drop in before they open and mess around for half an hour or so, so you can get comfortable with the basics of going from one cd deck to the next.

even if you don't plan on beat matching, the more comfortable you can get with compensating for volume variances between different tracks, minimizing dead air between tracks, perfecting your general flow, etc.

also, bring your own headphones if you have a pair with a 1/4" jack.

also, nate otm. at least stop by the book store and spend half an hour thumbing through "how to dj right".

ok. i'm not a total mixer n00b but i'm unfamiliar with dual cd mixers if that's really what they have. this is great advice + making me think about what i haven't actually thought about yet because i'm too self-deluded and arrogant. i'll check out the set-up tomorrow if i can and report back for everyone's reading enjoyment. and i've got to grab that book; it looks really really helpful. thx nate!

dont forget to have fun, too.

dont get too caught up in pre-arranging your music ("i'll play this track and then this track and then this track...") the best part of deejaying, even at a bar w/o a dancefloor, is connecting with the room and seeing where they're at with regard to what you're playing and how that influences your next selection.

if someone makes a request and you have it, play it. if you don't have it, be honest, but use their request as a springboard to a different topic, musical or otherwise. if people are super annoying and complaining about what you're playing or making vague and non-specific requests, tell them that the next deejay plays the kind of stuff they're into and he goes on in an hour.

also don't listen to tuomas; if you get to drink for free take advantage of that shit! its a bar, not a dance club, right?

always play 'you make me feel mighty real' by sylvester.

haha yes! sylvester will not be MIA

yeah gr8080 i just need to check their set-up and make that work w/ what i have +++++ the flexibility axis. this place is definitely NOT a dance place. people are drinking, eyeing other men and occasionally playing pool. some nights the bar just plays an xm radio station. monday is 'oldies' night but god knows what that means (general '70s/'80s). if anything i need to educate myself on some mainstream (gay) shit from that era to keep the crowd alive. and i am NEVER one to turn down a free drink.

omg

amazing stories all!

the thing is I dunno if it was a request or if she just thought I looked like Zappa, which I get a lot when I don't get a haircut for a while

frogbs that is the funniest possible name that could’ve been written on that piece of paper lmaoooo

i can only think of one time where this has happened, a handsome guy was looking at me in a kinda lustful way. didn’t really engage with it in the moment aside from an appreciative smile. i later realized he was the partner of the guy who hired me for the event lol

I played my first ever set in London last Friday, supporting Greg Wilson at the launch event of our James Hamilton book, my mission being to recreate a set that James played in August 1979, using the set list and mixing instructions that he published at the time. It's not a set that I would ever have dared to play on my home turf, but to my astonishment and delight, everybody got fully into it, classics and obscurities alike. I'd say "dream gig", but all my dreams about gigs are based around everything falling apart, so yeah, all-time DJing highlight! https://www.mixcloud.com/miketd/james-hamilton-at-gullivers-18-august-1979/

― mike t-diva, Monday, February 3, 2025 12:59 PM (four hours ago)

Since I really enjoyed Mark Sinker's A Hidden Landscape One a Week, I figured I should throw some cash towards what sounds like another amazing and painstaking project from the ILX scene. Since I was too young/American to have ever seen an issue of RM in the wild during that era, it will all be new to me. And your provision of a soundtrack? Well, I had to buy it!

Aww, cheers for that!

So many good posts!

First the LOLs:

"the vibes are immaculate"

she was mouthing along every single word while she looked into my eyes.

I unfolded the paper and it just said "FRANK ZAPPA"

Then about "sex face": There's a terrible but very effective Dutch party cover song of 'Sex on Fire' called 'Sex met die kale', which translates to 'Sex with that bald guy'. A couple of weeks ago I was playing a great set so I figured, what the hell? At the chorus, a group of five very attractive women that had been dancing in front of my booth all night turned towards me and shouted the words right at me (I should mention I am bald). Best night ever.

I'm going to play your mix right now, Mike!

had a super fun night at the italian club tonight. played two hours of disco, mostly deep cuts to establish a vibe, then one of the other club member’s 13-year-old son (!) played a hip hop set (by request of the former club prez).

he was great! we had a stupid tech snafu when i was turning things over to him that took a while to resolve but he was v calm and collected, i think i was the more nervous of the two of us about it. but he commanded the dance floor for a full hour and looked so jazzed about it. kinda amazed that someone born in 2012 even knows who whodini is lol. then after his set i hopped back on and played a bunch of disco/new wave hits, felt like i was kinda on fire for awhile and i played about half an hour later than i was supposed to ha. but the crowd was feeling it! got so many lovely comments afterwards. so happy i have this place in my life.

aww that's beautiful!! very happy for you.

so in an embarrassing turn of events last night, everyone in the club knew that a new lady gaga album had been released on 2/3 except for me. so literally the whole floor was clamoring for 'abracadabra' at one point and i had to get on the mic and tell them i didn't have it. before i got on the mic, the promoter who doesn't like me came up to the booth and was weirdly mean about it. foiled by gaga again!!! i still feel a sting even though it was otherwise a very high energy night and i felt a lot of good will from the crowd.

oh yuck. it’s a shitty feeling to have the promoter turn on you. glad it was otherwise a good night!

i had a bunch of requests last night for stuff that i didn’t have but i wanted to play and i somehow managed to sign up for a Tidal membership in the middle of my set so i could stream those songs through Serato lmao. desperate times etc

ah yeah. it's a good trick. i didn't know serato could do that.

the promoter was so weird! she came up to the booth, she was smiling and said "the gays want to hear gaga" and i told her i didn't have the track and she literally said to me "oh no, what are you going to do, hide? run away?" and seemed to be relishing my discomfort. like uh what the fuck woman. that's when i decided to get on the mic and tell them i didn't have it. they booed. then i was like "but how about some TIMBER"? and played the kesha song lol. not great but i can't help but think (hope) they forgave me!

someone was requesting it with their phone again and i literally went out into the crowd to them and told them i didn't have it, sorry. she was like next week? i said of course. then some other requests for 'disease' a gaga single that came out at the end of last october. last time i checked the latest gaga song was "die with a smile" the zzz bruno mars ballad and then all in one night my lack of fealty to the recent activities of our lord and savior lady gaga comes back AGAIN to bite me in the ass. on a 'coyote ugly' theme night no less, where my preparation task was sorting through songs on the soundtrack trying to figure out to play, at the request of the promoter (during a particularly hectic week i might add). i even played 'cowboy' by kid rock in the interest of fulfilling the theme night obligations and lost half the floor, predictably.

still a lot of good will from the crowd. i played the charli xcx "sympathy is a knife" remix shortly after the gaga snafu went down which was emotionally gratifying :). i had a group of really cute lesbians up front who were very much in my corner.

a much more positive interaction that happened last night. so the silver fox lesbian, i'll call her angel, who first took a chance on me and hired me at this bar 4 years ago was there. i can't remember if i related this upthread or not, but angel has been seeing the owner of the bar, i'll call her victoria, for several months now. anyway angel comes up to the booth and asks if i can wish the manager, freddie, a happy birthday. freddie is a very sweet man who was always around and super sweet / supportive when i was djing on thursday nights. so yes of course i want to wish freddie a happy birthday but i can't remember which of the 30 channels on the new mixer the mics are wired to and they're unlabeled. so angel comes back after a few songs and she gets on her phone and texts someone to ask and tells me which channels they are and is soooooo chill and calm and beautifully parental about it :)

To make sure I'm always up to date with latest releases, I've set up a script on my PC that check the daily playlists of the most popular radio stations in my area and downloads every played song that's not already in my library from YouTube. In my DJ software I've marked the files in that folder in a different color, because obviously the quality from YT is not that good.

For live situations I have a very convenient little app called Simple Song Collector (Android only) that downloads songs from YouTube to my phone. I can then copy the track to my laptop and import into VirtualDJ.

I can also stream from my phone to my mixer via Bluetooth, but I don't like that, because I like to view the track inside my DJ software first to cut off long intros and check where the breaks are.

Sorry for the geekery, back to juicy dancefloor stories.

What does a track downloaded from YouTube sound like on a club system? I'd think the compression would make it sound pretty harsh?

I'm a mobile DJ with my own mixer and speakers, and I don't have a lot of experience with club sound. But I've been in map's situation before, and I would rather play a popular song in bad audio quality than not play it at all.
I doubt many people would hear the difference anyway - they'd just be happy to dance to their requested song.

Through necessity, as the tracks weren't available anywhere else, I played a few YouTube rips during my London set, which was through a decent club system, with a guy at a sound desk tweaking things. Honestly, you couldn't tell the difference.

There you go.

yeah YouTube rips are definitely higher quality than they used to be, I use 'em for requests and I doubt anyone can tell the difference. trouble is the volume levels tend to be all over the place.

To make sure I'm always up to date with latest releases, I've set up a script on my PC that check the daily playlists of the most popular radio stations in my area and downloads every played song that's not already in my library from YouTube.

This is truly impressive and I salute you. At the same time, I am very glad that the DJ-ing I do does not intersect with that world at all.

(n.b. I have in fact played a YT rip before, that street musician dude doing "Here Comes The Warm Jets" on acoustic guitar)

For YT rips, I record to Audacity in real time (I don't trust those automated services as the bitrate tends to be too low), compress/normalise, and save as 320 MP3.

(Very much a last resort thing, though.)

At the same time, I am very glad that the DJ-ing I do does not intersect with that world at all.

yeah, i'm sort of halfway between these two worlds. i've been doing ok with not bringing my laptop to the club and just relying on a usb stick. i feel like i play more connected, intuitive sets that way - idk it just feels better to me. they have a computer connected to spotify there which i should have just used for the gaga tune. i can usually fill about 50% of requests. my thing is, if it feels like the right tune, i do it. if it doesn't, i don't.

but this also reminds me - one of my repeat requests is something for someone's birthday. anyone have a favorite go-to birthday club track?

i wish i could just agree that a 320 yt rip sounds reasonably similar to 16 bit 44.1 khz on a club system, i swear i do, but my ears hear a very stark difference and i believe dancers can too on an instinctual level. especially in the bass. mud vs a clear stream ime.

but i've also played a yt rip before, chappell roan's snl performance from last november, and it sounded ok enough.

as far as being aware of new tracks, my usual haunts tend to cover my bases. ilm, billboard, spotify.

overall i'm pretty tech-poor and despise doing computer things.

my core, my heart music, will always be listening to and liking or at the very least understanding the appeal of the things i'm going to play. putting them on an itunes playlist and spending some quality time with them out on a run or whatever. connecting with the music. this introduces a bit of a time bottleneck, and i don't manage to listen to everything i get all the time, but if i'm not doing that regularly and getting excited about what i'm going to play, there just isn't a point to me. nb i'm not suggesting anyone here is not doing this, you're obviously all passionate about playing the music you love and the world is a better place for it.

map, I think that's absolutely fair comment on YT rips of current stuff - I've never done that, only on pre-digital stuff that's 40+ years old.

there is very little as frustrating as buying a CD from eBay so you can rip it in 320 only to discover it is mastered so quietly that you'd be as well with the dodgy rip

Since I started working for a booking agency last year, I get to play in many different places, from pubs to football clubs. Thursday I'm playing at a high school party for 12-15 year olds. Young kids tend to request lots of songs I'm not familiar with, so I like to be as flexible as possible and have as many tracks with me as I can find. Also, because having to download things on the fly takes me out of the flow of DJing.

Oh, and Mike, recording your computer sound and then saving it in 320 will actually give you worse quality than downloading the original M4A file using yt-dlp or some similar app.

xp ah gotcha.

quiet masters are a pain! i sometimes pull it into audacity and compress it, which raises the levels somewhat. more often though i just play the unaltered file with the trim pumped. i use my cue and headphones to get it loud enough that it matches whatever is playing at the moment - works well enough for me.

xp archcarrier i can see how your style of prep works for playing a huge variety of gigs!

map, for birthdays I usually play a short instrumental dance/techno/hardstyle version of Happy Birthday (pick your genre) that everybody can sing along to. It doesn't matter if it's corny if lasts only 40 seconds.

For an older crowd maybe a remix of Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday? But skip the verses, they take far too long.

in the past i've played 'birthday' by disclosure which is not really a happy birthday song haha but it does kind of work imo

xxxp map

will always be listening to and liking or at the very least understanding the appeal of the things i'm going to play.

for the italian club i was asked to play the happy birthday song in italian for when they roll out birthday cakes, and i found a kind of sublimely cheesy eurodance version of it for kids that has it in italian, english and spanish, with additional rapped italian bits in between the different iterations, i think it went down a treat. i followed it with raffaella’s “tanti auguri” which isn’t really a birthday song despite the title, but it’s a real bop. this is very hyper-specific to my particular situation obviously lol

xp haha that's how I discovered "Timber" from a wedding request playlist

For YT rips, I record to Audacity in real time (I don't trust those automated services as the bitrate tends to be too low), compress/normalise, and save as 320 MP3.

converting to a 320 is actually lowering the already low quality, though if it's pre-digital stuff that's 40+ years old , i guess that is ok.

but, a youtube rip of a modern club track will absolutely sound lacking on a good soundsystem. as map says dancers will just know on an instinctual level. playing high quality files really makes all the difference to people's overall experience. 320 minimum imo and ideally wav or aiff.

do you ever feel like the spotify era has made audience requests more ... absurd, much of the time

I feel like we need to prestige-ify the DJ booth 20% ... I love entertaining, personality based DJing, but I don't think entertaining needs to mean playing requests

I realize there are specialized environments where ie knowing the new gaga song is probably essential but ive started to take a slightly gatekeeper-y attitude as a DJ *consumer.* I saw a DJ I know and really like locally spin, and when he played "lady hear me tonight" I was kind of annoyed/disappointed -- ok not that a great DJ couldn't pull off a drop of that, but he was more interesting when he wasn't playing songs ive been hearing for 20 years and he didn't do a good enough job contextualizing what a crowd-pleasing move that was

I just feel like at this stage, what I want from a DJ is the process map describes upthread, 'these are the songs I would actually listen to,' essentially.

I think the exceptions come when you have those fast mix djs who are able to cycle through vibes quickly and create a good meta-vibe through accretion of intensities or something, like then its kind of fun where youre like whoa the jungle brothers then daft punk then an R&B song I cant remember then a house record ive never heard then mariah carey

basically there are no rules *if you're good enough* and if you're not good enough a good rule of thumb, post-spotify, is to foreground your own taste and personality (and channel the crowd-pleasing within that frame) rather than doing whats easily replaced by a jukebox

I guess what im advocating for is djs being more confrontational with the entitled consumer or something idk ... not literally always but as a general trend

Ouch, I had to rescue my set with Modjo last Friday! I was just losing too many of them with tougher stuff that would have worked in other circumstances, but it needed a hard reset to pull them back. So, Space Cowboy then Modjo *deep sigh*.

basically there are no rules *if you're good enough* and if you're not good enough a good rule of thumb, post-spotify, is to foreground your own taste and personality (and channel the crowd-pleasing within that frame) rather than doing whats easily replaced by a jukebox

― ok (D-40), Tuesday, February 11, 2025 12:22 AM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

haha yeah i really like this

I think Mike Dunn played Space Cowboy when we saw him a few months back (although it might have been a different Jamiroquai)(it wasn't great)

Ouch, I had to rescue my set with Modjo last Friday! I was just losing too many of them with tougher stuff that would have worked in other circumstances, but it needed a hard reset to pull them back. So, Space Cowboy then Modjo *deep sigh*.

― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 11 February 2025 00:39 (one hour ago) link

In your defense it sounds like it worked. I think I tend to play records that people like when they hear them but have never heard before. If you play stuff that is maybe challenging at first contact it may need some sweetener idk. It didn’t work for the guy I saw do it which made it look worse bc like — ok folks are digging the sound but not going crazy and then you play a blatant crowd pleaser and it has no reaction… feels more uncomfortable than if you stick to what makes you happy

I think I tend to play records that people like when they hear them but have never heard before.

I mean, that is what I’m *going* for. Ymmv if I actually succeed, lol

there's a special pleasure in mixing something people know but would never expect in the context in which you're playing it and having it go over. especially if it's something not deemed particularly cool. but yeah pulling the trigger on something that should be a crowd pleaser and then it falling flat sucks lol

Yea true I’ll fully admit I’m just at the stage where filter disco smashes are the equivalent of playing “in da club” or “candy shop” to me lol

I first started clubbing in the age of bloghouse and Hype Machine. I think in those days when distorted, scuzzy and cheap sounds were everywhere it didn't matter so much about sound quality because the music was deliberately bracing and harsh sounding. I remember going to see Justice live and it sounded terrible - just no bass, all midrange grind, and it really sold me on the importance of audio quality.

when it comes to requests I think there's a fine line between taking suggestions and just becoming a human jukebox. I can't stand Queen, I don't really know the Rolling Stones or The Beatles or care about them, and you would never catch me playing an Ed Sheeran or Rod Stewart song. When I play in the pub I play popular and populist, but I still think it's very much my attempt to be crowdpleasing in my own idiosyncratic, personal and lively way. I've batted off some terrible requests but I've also taken things on board - for example, I didn't really make time for Motown 18 months ago and now I try to make sure I've got something prepared since our crowd skews from 18 to 80 years old. I think knowing your crowd is key - if I turn up at the dance club with a USB of cheesy pop I'm going to embarass myself, and if I turn up at the pub ready to play grime and dubstep I'm going to have the place empty in 30 minutes.

When I did the Chappell Roan theme night a few months ago I had people coming up to the stage to ask for songs, and people waving song requests on their phone in large fonts for me to see. Some of them were things I was considering playing but some ideas were horrible. We had a few hundred people dancing hard and I remember someone really wanted me to play a Lana Del Rey ballad at peak time, which would have killed the room no matter how much she alone wanted it. You know were you can hear your sad maudlin music? Literally anywhere you want to play it after you leave the venue. I agree people need to trust the DJ more. You can always leave if you truly don't enjoy it.

the weekend before last I went to see DJ EZ and it was massively disappointing. I've seen him before and it was excellent and I had really high hopes for this but it was dismal. The warm-up DJs were playing interesting and exciting stuff when we arrived around midnight - instrumental UK garage, UK funky, some kuduro and baile funk. But then - I don't know if someone else took over before DJ EZ came on - it got really naff. Every second song was a speed garage edit of a pop song from twenty years ago. Really lazy, safe and easy options. DJ EZ took the cues from that and we left about an hour into his two hour set during "Rolling In The Deep (Speed Garage Mix)" because it was, simply, utterly naff.

And it was so frustrating because the last time I saw him, he played some of the usual UK garage classics, but interspersed with newer stuff, whereas this just felt like an hour of familiar cliche samples grafted on to a template of uninteresting club sounds. I think there's a skill to playing the hits and keeping it interesting and exciting, especially in a Proper Dance Music context, but this was absolutely not it and I found it really depressing to see as a clubber, and as someone who wishes they could DJ in more "dance music" settings.

r someone really wanted me to play a Lana Del Rey ballad at peak time, which would have killed the room

Soooo, many years ago at peak time in a set someone came up to ma and rquested some LDR, which I thought was an entirely ridiculous request… however (and I know festivals are their own beast) Optimo dropped “Summertime Sadness” somewhere in their closing set at Field Day a couple of years ago and it very much did work.

Not Field Day: Field Maneuvers - quite different!