ON STAGE

ON STAGE...Mondays at Blue Martini

I arrived early around 10 o'clock. The band is playing, usually til about 11-11:30. Looking around I realize that there's people here, but definitely not enough to have a good stage show. The stage is always different than the booth. The "all eyes on you" raises the bar and pressure level way higher. In the booth, you can feel your crowd out, you can play songs a little longer if there's certain verses you want to be heard, if you mess up..and it happens..it's usually not as noticeable. People are focused on the music but also tend to get more involved with the atmosphere, and for me the playlist tends to be a little different.

It's now coming up to about 11 o'clock. I start thinking maybe I should play from the booth tonight. Then over the next half hour, like always, groups and groups of people just start piling in. The band ends. I start playing in the booth while they breakdown. Once the bands off, my DJ coffin gets setup, I put a mixed cd on while I head up to the stage. The process is very quick. I get on, open my laptop, put on my records, tighten the needles, do a quick sound check and it’s time. I give the thumbs up, lights go on, and I press play. My first song was the new Beautiful Monster by Ne-yo.

About 5 minutes in, the dancers join me. I usually base most of my set off them. I try to play them songs that can let them give the best show they can and try not to play too many songs with long breaks in them. Only because that down time gets a little awkward...it’s hard to dance when there’s no beat. You see it a lot in house music...which can be fine, especially if there’s a good build up, but I try to make sure the breaks aren’t that long. That also has to do with the lighting and if your able to I guess “distract” the crowd from the non-moving dancers...really depends on venue. But for that stage, where the lights are directly on the performers, for the most part, you want to keep it moving. That doesn’t mean playing 2 seconds of a song and trying to see how fast you can go to the next one.  But stage crowds have a shorter attention span. They’re also expecting more from you. Just playing one song after the another isn’t going to cut it. Sometimes you see a lot of DJ’s talk on the mic to get the crowd going...which I occasionally do but usually only for birthday, venue, or sponsor shout outs. For myself, I try to make that happen through the music.

Preperation is key. People think you go up and just play music. But if your not prepared for when those lights hit, it’s a whole other game. But I’ve BEEN preparing. I’ve prepared in my bedroom, in my basement in front of friends, at bbqs, house parties, weddings, birthdays, charities, malls, hotels, bars, lounges, night clubs, radio stations..and now the stage. The stage is unforgiving. You either come correct or get off. It’s similar to the DJ booth but where every song counts in there...every songs REALLY counts up there.  At the same time it’s also inspiring. It gave new life to me where it makes me constantly work on my music and keep coming with better shows every time.

Its now 2:01 am, and the last song has finished. I’m dripping with sweat and the past 2 1/2 hours just flew by. The staff was happy. The crowd had a good time. And I’m thinking about all the things I can do better the next Monday. At the same time, completely grateful for the opportunity to be able to have been up there. Then, walking out to my car I hear some yelling DEAN MICHAELS.....HEY, DEAN MICHAELS...so I turned around and walked up. This guy explains that he’s come to see me a couple times. He’s the president of a record label and works with artist’s such as Pitbull and Casely. He wanted to thank me for the support of play their songs, especially for this one particular song called Sweat by Casely ft. Lil Jon...which is a great dance song btw. We talked about some possible opportunities, we exchanged info and hopefully we’ll be doing some work in the future.

Just a day in the life though...on stage with two dancers at one of the premier venues, playing to hundreds of people, being chased down in the parking lot by record labels...don’t worry I’m still not that cool. But it goes to show how nothing is impossible. And those blood, sweat, and tears were all worth it. To me this is only the beginning. I’m not even close to the level where I want to be at, and I plan to keep working, hopefully making it to even bigger stages, and at the same time inspire others to want to be on there as well.