They would have thrown you out of the party I played with those songs Dave The Motle hahaha

Knowing Dave - only from S-Z - I doubt that he would have played those songs at that party either ...

Donny, just a few weeks ago my dou was hired to play a house party. The contact person told us that they wanted fun, high energy up beat dance music. it turns out it was a dinner party at a very elegant house and the host was doing basically a business meeting over a meal of several courses. About every 15 min he'd get on our mic, show a PowerPoint, then the chef would come out and explain the food they were being served, the wine selection and so on... So we hardly played. When we did play it was our soft bossas novas and standards. No dance stuff at all...The host never told what to play, we just could feel that the high energy dance stuff wasn't a good hit. He gave us the thumbs up and a nice tip too. he said he'll call for his next event... Sometimes you never know until you get to the gig...

People dance to my standards and bossas always.. I always make all musical genres.danceable.... Of course you can always listen as well

Yes, towards the end we had some couples dancing to some romantic boleros. It just didn't seem like it would have been appropriate to throw on some mp3 of Cupid Shuffle, 80's hard rock, or Gangnam Style would have fit for this particular dinner part, even though the contact person made it sound like it was going to be a balls to the wall, high energy event. Like you say, you got to be ready for anything because they will throw you some curve balls from time to time.

Paul ... I had a VERY similar experience a few months back ... a woman hires me for a retirement party and says they want fun, party, dance music ... so I get a playlist prepared and as I am setting up the wife of the retiree comes over and says "you will be playing nice soft background music so the guests can speak with my husband and say their 'goodbyes', correct?" ... "OF COURSE" I said ...
So much for my 'fun, party, dance music' playlist ... Ours is such a GREAT business ...

Years ago a popular musician from the Jersey shore named "Crazy Hugie" gave me a hint as to why he was so popular. Mind you he really wasn't a good musician or singer but packed all the bars he played and had a great run. He told me "Know how to read your crowd"
Great advice and you did it at that dinner party. That's one of the things that experience brings. I've found people rarely know what should be played at their events, its up to us to read the crowd and react accordingly.
I've learned to be ready for anything. Congradulations on a job well done.

Bill, I agree wholeheartedly - there are very few DJs, KJs, OMBs and full bands out there that have someone that can actually look at an audience and read the crowd, an attribute which I consider an absolute necessity if you are going to survive in this business. Of course, the vast majority of the players out there today DO NOT perform for a full-time living. For them, it's something they do part time for the extra income.

Cheers,

Gary

Weekend warriors could care less all I care about is your money...... I played what happened at he would play the bar and I was playing the weddings in the other he would play the bar and I was playing the weddings in the other room he was a very good entertainer had some set up to.

Want to edit that into English for us, Donny?