Sioux Falls DJ Blog | BPM DJ Productions

After a month-long gig drought, the Feb 17th wedding reception that I DJ’ed in Canby, MN was like a breath of fresh air!  What a great reception! 

The drive was about two hours from Brandon, SD to Canby, and I wasn’t scheduled to start playing until 9.  I wanted to get there around 7, so I left the house a little after 5.  The reception was in the back-room of the Canby VFW.  It was a pretty good sized room with a table already set up for me.  The most important thing, however, was the location of the door.  It was relatively close to my set-up area, so I was able to get everything unloaded from the trailer in about 30 minutes. 

I had the manager take down the table, and I set up my own.  I decided to rely 99% on my wonderful computer DJ program, Serato Scratch Live.  This program still uses turntables and records to control the computer based music, so I had a nice, neat setup on the table.  One mixer, two turntables, and my laptop.  I went ahead and hooked up my dual cd player and extra mixer under the table as a back-up.  You never know what could happen!  I set up my lighting, and cleaned up my area.  I then quickly programmed my lights, then I was ready to roll.

The rest of the reception went off without a hitch.  It was a younger crowd, so once we finished all of the formal dances and events (plus a really long garter auction by the resident auctioneer, not me,) things really started to get interesting.  I decided not to hold back with the DJ skills and displayed my beat mixing ability.  I even threw some scratching in there as well, and the crowd responded with cheers.  I played the typical wedding music, but I would also mix in some more recent hits.  I also would “mash-up” a few songs, playing some dance music with some rock n roll beat-mixed in.  I don’t know any DJ’s in the Canby, MN area, but I’m pretty sure most of them don’t do what I do.  It’s what make me unique as a DJ, and I think I’ll start to focus on that a little more.

Everyone was having such a great time that I was paid to stay an hour later than the scheduled stopping time of 12:00.  In fact, I played until about 1:20.  The manager made me shut it down in order to clear everyone out before the legal cut-off time.

The drive home was a little long, and very foggy, but I arrived safely in my drive around 4:30AM.  I tried backing my trailer into the garage, but since our drive is on a slope, I kept spinning out on some ice.  I finally gave up and left the entire rig in the driveway. 

It was a great night, but I was tired.  I also had a full day of taking care of my daughter ahead of me, so I hit the sheets.  I have a few weekends off again, but it won’t be long until I’m doing this thing everyweekend (June, July.)  It’s a lot of work, but to me, it’s not really work at all.