So I'd love to hear some feedback on actively booking yourself.

I have years of experience playing music and touring but its all from the perspective of being in a band.

I'm wondering if a DJ can stand on the same ground as a band as far as cold booking and entertaining a random crowd.

It seems to me the biggest difference in DJ's to Bands is with DJ's its more about the promoter and with bands its more about the club. In that the promoter has a crowd for you but the bar has a crowd for the bar. Can Glitch hop or Ableton or just being a damn good DJ rock a crowd, no matter what crowd?

I know it apples and oranges type subject here but I'm just thinking about like if you got booked and showed up to a strictly drinking type crowd in say The Boot in Whistler on a friday night. Or The Brick Tavern in Ellensburg WA or the Nectar in Seattle. Without a promoter to guarantee you a Glitch hop crowd. Could you entertain on the same level as a band does. Is it even possible?

From a club owners perspective you'd think he'd rather book a DJ over a Band as far as booking expenses. Anyone got feedback/experiences on that? Have you ever tried to cold book yourself in Clubs or towns you didnt already have an "in" with a promoter. Say like using a "Musicians Bible/Guide" ? Pursued the media and gotten write ups/interviews in news papers/radio stations. Shown up at the Eldo in Crested Butte, CO, The Music Box in Omaha NE, The Goodlife or The Lizard Lounge in Boston, the GoodFoot in Portland, the Siskiyou Pub in Ashland OR, the Casper Blues Inn outside Mendocino CA or The Abbey Pub in Chicago and got the people to jump up and down?

I've played all these places and done it in a band now I want to see if I can do as a DJ.

Thoughts?

It depends on a lot of things... from my experience with ski town bars used to booking bands, they expect the DJ to be a jukebox more than playing from a specific genre all night. Bar patrons want familiarity, and with a band, even if they dont know the music they're familiar with the genre. Even if they're ok with you playing "techno" they're gonna want the more familiar genres or remixes of songs they know, and nothing too crazy or they wont be able to dance. Ive actually had many people come up to me in that situation while playing say dnb or breaks and say "can you play something we can dance too, this is too weird".

Getting booked by a bar owner over a promoter whos made the arrangements can be tricky too... a lot of time they feel that since you're a DJ, you should be able to play anything and will often try to dictate what you play based on how they feel the crowd is reacting. I had a weekly at this little bar in Breckenridge back in the day that I set up by happening to be in there at the right time when it was just me, a homie, the bartender and the owner. I ended up getting to be pretty cool with the owner, and he was pretty familiar with house, breaks and dnb. If the bar was really slow, like 3 or 4 people that we all knew, Id start playing for just us and drop mostly DnB. The owner would invariably come up and tell me to go back to playing house and breaks because he thought the DnB would scare away potential customers, specifically women. My favorite moment was one night, bar is packed, he walks up to the DJ booth with his arms around these two girls and says "Hey man, these girls are tired of house... can you play some DnB for them?"

In my experience, its hard to change a crowd thats not expecting some crazy ass glitch or dubstep or whathave you into fans when they usually hear rock or funk coverbands. Not that its impossible in the least, but its a challenge. I dont think its impossible... but it will be a lot harder to pull off.

A named club night run by a promoter also has the benifit of having someone in that town promoting for you during the weeks leading up, and the named night signifies to any bar regulars that its not gonna be a typical night at the bar with the jukebox playing.

Just my opinion based on my past experience with bar owners v promoters in smaller towns.

Spin that around and try playing vengaboys / pop shit to a crowd of people out to listen to glitch hop and see how it goes down.

Its hard for me to add anything KidLogic hasn't allready said.

I also spent a couple of years playing to bars, mainly nu-rave / breaks, very heavy on the bootlegs, you cant stray too far from what people are used too, quick 20 mins of glitch hop remixes might work but it'd be damned hard to get away with playing it all night.

Plus the bar owner is only going to get p'ssed at you for filling his bar with male drug users who spend zero at the bar a couple of months as opposed to his previous house or whatever clientelle.

Not that its impossible, just think you would be hard pressed to keep a residency down.

Yeah the promoter is pretty clutch.

I dont know how we did tour as a band without promoters. We almost never had one.

And there is another big point about peoples perception of a DJ vs Band. People are way more critical about having you play what they want, where as a Band people just yell "Freebird" just to be funny and never really expect to hear it.

I wonder if you get away from that by billing yourself as a Live PA/Electronic musician?

Or maybe you could skirt those situations by having a big and bold presence on the mic consistently engaging the people?

I think as a band, expectations are already there so its easier to work directly with the owners. There is already an expectation when most people outside of the EDM scene hear "DJ" and unfortunately its more like a wedding or radio DJ than what we do. If you've ever had to explain to your parents why you cant play your cousin's wedding you know what I mean. Even when the bar owner is down with EDM, you might still get resistance cause what we consider "normal" is different than what they do.

I think billing as a "Live PA / Electronic Musician" and then spinning records is gonna turn some people off, and even if you did an Ableton set its still gonna get the same kind of response as DJing cause the crowd is generally uneducated to the difference.

Geting on the mic is kinda iffy in my book, you could def hype them up and get them into it if its done right, but you could turn them off even more if they're not into it. Unless you're Kid Capri, most bar patrons only want to hear you say theres a drink special going on or that its last call.

Its just apples and oranges comparing DJs to bands, especially in relation to bars. The expectations are different between the average "bar DJ" and what we do, and those expectations are hard to change in that context.

Work with the promoters that are local to the bars you were thinking of... either they can tell you why its not a good idea to play that spot, or they can make the arrangements to get you into them and you dont have to deal with the headaches. Help get a few of them in contact with each other to work out some flight-shares to get you out there and around when you're in the area.

i think the best DJ's out there can show up to any venue anywhere in the world and rock the shit out of any crowd without any compromise to the integrity to the music that they love, however wide that may be. This obviously take the best part of a lifetime learn how to do but its possible

^^^^ I agree with that completely. Most people, especially if the aim is dancing, can find some satisfactory compromise that's based on what they enjoy, what's fun (like throwing in silly samples or corny songs literally EVERYONE knows), and what can be danced to. It all comes down to having a really good knowledge of all the music you love and being able to bust it out with style on the fly. One of my goals for this summer is to build up my arsenal of non-glitch-hop tracks that I can play out, so I'll be able to move into funk, r&b, drum n bass, etc based on what I'm feeling and what the crowd wants. As long as I'm having fun and playing music I like I don't see any compromise of integrity.