Observations From Weekend Wedding Gig

It is possible to dance to Blue Oyster Cult’s “Burning For You.”

Conversation (over very loud music):

Young Tipsy Bridesmaid: I need to tell you something…
Me: Okay---
YTB: We’re white Italians.
Me: What do you mean?
YTB: We’re white Italians. We don’t like country music.
Me: Oh. Okay. Fine with me.

Pike Fraternity Guys: Play some Hank!

I can have tens of thousands of songs available, but inevitably one will be requested that I don’t have -- and I don’t mean some stump-the-dj obscurity; I mean something that I should have. This time, it was Bette Midler’s “Wind Beneath My Wings.” Fortunately, I did have a piano instrumental version of it.

We’re often told before wedding functions that we should stay away from songs with profanity. This usually lasts maybe 45 minutes into the gig when the young people get cranky because we aren’t playing any hip hop. The person who hired us (usually) relents and then the fun begins.

Sure, we can try to play only the “clean” versions of songs. But, they are hard to find and, frankly, they aren’t really all that “clean”. What is really accomplished by editing out the vowel sound and pronouncing only the “f” and the “k”?

In general, I tend to favor wedding gigs over high school reunions. There tends to be a greater variety of music played. For instance, with this gig, we played some Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams and Dean Martin; some Temptations and Otis Redding; Hank Jr. and David Allen Coe; Snoop Dogg, Nelly, Ciara, Petey Pablo; Van Halen, Blue Oyster Cult, and AC DC; Nickelback, Stone Temple Pilots, Puddle of Mudd, and karaoke tunes – a nice variety. In contrast, a recent 1994 high school reunion found us playing four straight hours of hip hop. I like hip-hop, but not four straight hours of it with no variety.

In all modesty, after doing this a few times now, I can honestly say that John and I are a good team and we are pretty good at this. John has the technical knowledge and people skills and I have the music collection and knowledge. From this gig, we got another gig in Little Rock for some sort of convention in June. We’ll see how we stack up against the “big city” dee jays.