"Hello my BEBE, hello my darling"

WEDNESDAY 4-2-08

Megan @ Rockit
(from Megan:) "Rockit on Wednesday was good…kind of slow, but Rockit said they were picking back up. I played a lot of current rock and new rock and sing-alongs during [the period of] 11:15pm to 12:30am. [The] funnest part was playing new good indie rock and [people] came up and asked me what I was playing."

THURSDAY 4-3-08

Vogue @ the Bebe Store (downtown Chicago)
Lead: Megan Taylor
(from Megan:) "Bebe was great. [It was] fun concentrating on music and Andrew and Alvin doing sound. I liked that I discussed all of my concerns up front. [Big win: I] Used my team well. [The] Hardest part was knowing people and saying hi and playing music. [I received] Lots of compliments, and lots of people asked for my card. [This was] a great artist gig!"

Brent @ Rockit 4-3-08
This was a very enjoyable evening at Rockit, and my very first time going solo for six hours straight! I was totally excited for this as I wanted to experience what it was like behind the helm for a whole evening. There was a small corporate party that was winding down when I arrived. I made sure to get to the venue early to enjoy a black angus cheeseburger at the bar, which filled me up excellently for the night to come. I befriended one of the bartenders (namely, Jessica), who was very friendly and served me well. I also met one of the people from the party and gave him my card. Musically, I bounced from genre to genre; the majority of what I played was rock. Patrick came over and stated that there were people eating downstairs and that there was a slightly smaller-than-

usual crowd, so I started with some slower, yet lively rock tunes, like "Circles" by Soul Coughing and "Where it's At" by Beck. One of my fave songs at the beginning portion was Scott Matthew's "Lithium Flower" from the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex soundtrack. Prior to playing this song, Pete came by and I showed him my anime music collection—I then learned that his brother is into anime. Awesome! (He liked the song I played, as well.) As the night picked up, I had a few moments where I didn't know where to go next. I got a bit nervous when people would come in and out. I played a lot of older rock and 80s hits; some hit, some didn't. Patrick came by once and advised that I play some "newer" rock. This is something that I have to study up on, as I feel that Rockit is gearing more towards catering to the new and modern rock lover. I used the my Promo Only book to the best of my ability, as well as the Rockit computer. With every selection, I had fun and mixed it up quite a bit in the evening. New songs: "La La" (Ashlee Simpson), "Rock & Roll is Dead" (Lenny Kravitz), and "Pretty Vegas" (INXS); songs that hit: "Message in a Bottle" (Police), "Runaround" (Blues Traveler), and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" (Michael Jackson). Favorite transition: "We Will Rock You" into "Beverly Hills" into "I Love Rock & Roll." The most enjoyable part of the night was seeing people dancing with their friends and groups—even at 1:00 in the morning! I had one small group that I had dancing for well over an hour, and another group in the back of the restaurant that were enjoying some of the sing-alongs that I played after midnight (i.e. "Brandy, You're a Fine Girl"). Learn: This may be a myth, but I heard from one of the security guards that the owner of Rockit would fire any DJ who played "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown." Thank God he wasn't there! I closed the night at 1:30am with "Tiny Dancer" (Elton John) and "Piano Man" (Billy Joel). Despite the rough spots, I had an awesome time, and look forward to my next Rockit!

SATURDAY 4-5-08

Beach/Parsons @ Maxim's
Lead: Brian Carey; Assistant: Jon Hood
Producer: Andrew Ettenhofer
This was a small wedding ceremony and reception for Kathy and Eric, a theater-loving couple. All events took place at Maxim's: the night started with their ceremony, followed by performances, their first dance, and dinner and dancing. The audio was provided by Maxim's for the ceremony and performances; Brian and Jon provided audio for dinner and dancing. Being "theater people," the couple wanted to hear music from They Might Be Giants, LCD Soundsystem, and a few tracks from the Rent soundtrack. There were groups of people dancing here and there, but the ones that enjoyed the music the most was Kathy and Eric. There was no tip, but the couple was very happy. A rather eclectic night!

Worboys/Royer @ Pritzker Pavilion
Lead: Brent Rolland; Assistant: Andrew Ettenhofer
Producers: Brent Rolland and Erik Friedly
This was my second production and performance (in two weeks!) at the Pritzker Pavilion—this time, it was a wedding for Fiona and Randy. The evening was all about celebrating cultures, as the bride, Fiona, was English, and Randy, the groom, was 100% American. This was a very fun, yet exhaustive wedding that had its points of frustration. Losses: I had some uncertainty around the timeline regarding the beginning of dinner and when speeches were going to happen, which I should have had down the first time, but I used the catering manager (Danielle from Jewell Catering) and Erik (who co-produced with me) well to sort out my concerns and ask a lot of questions. When the bride and groom came in, I let them know what was going to happen, and they were cool with it. Another loss that happened was that our speakers "blew out"—due to the fact that Andrew and I were positioned in the upper choral level of the pavilion (as opposed to the stage level, where the guests were). It had to do with the fact that our levels were pretty high, a switch on the back of the mixer was misaligned (to be explained at the next deejay meeting), and one of the XLR cords that we used had a faulty male end (the little locking rectangular hole was broken). The blow-out happened during dancing, and it did break up the really full dance floor that we had, but we were able to get back into the groove after a while. Andrew did an awesome job working the technical side of the evening while I was able to deejay from the upper level. He also supported me with great music choices during the night. As for me, I showed a lot of grace under pressure during the time the speakers went out and used Andrew when I needed him. Wins: The introduction of the bride and groom, the first dance, and the speeches were perfect; we received both box lunches and ate from the buffet (the people from Jewell was really friendly!); I asserted myself well with the couple, the catering staff, and kept in great communication with Andrew and Rick Aguilar; I hit all the couple's must-plays; Andrew and I split the decks during the latter part of the evening, and we got a few compliments during the evening. Learns: Push for either putting our speakers on the stage level, or for our full rig to be on the stage level with the crowd. Additionally, I saw Randy and Fiona on the way to get some equipment from the bottom, and Randy says that he will be giving me a call either on Monday or Tuesday to "take care of me." Cool! This was a tough gig, but I had a lot of fun producing it and being in the space.

THURSDAY 3-27-08

Brian @ Rockit

(from Brian:) "Good sized crowd. My big win was that I've been researching new rock songs on Q101; I ended up playing a lot of those songs. It worked out great. I got a good response from the crowd. Songs that hit: "Stop" (Against Me), "Take it Off" (The Donnas), and "Swing Swing" (The All-American Rejects)."

FRIDAY 3-28-08

Hafeez @ Rockit

(from Hafeez:) "Rockit went very well! Megan DJ'ed a private party from 5-9. She had the place was rockin' when I got there at 9! People everywhere! Megan mentioned that there is a problem with the bass in the speakers. She had it cranked up all the way but was barely getting anything out of them. Megan set the tone really well and I was able to pick up where she left off and keep the people there. Patrick and Pete both said the night was great. Carey, another one of the managers who "never talks to anyone" (that's a direct quote from him) came up and talked to me about how great the whole night was. I was all over the place with genres: I started with 80's, then went modern, then to classic rock, then modern, then 90's, modern, 80's, then back to classic rock for the end. The loudest reactions were for "Sweet Caroline" and "Don't stop Believin'." ("Sweet Caroline" had the louder of the two) Some other nice reactions were for "Sweet Child of Mine," "Holiday," "Living on a Prayer," "American Pie," "All Star" (Smash Mouth) and "Girlfriend" (Avril Lavigne) and "Doorbell" by The White Stripes. I played "The Seed 2.0" by The Roots and Cody ChesnuTT for the first time and [it] went over well. I also beatmatched "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" (Jet) into "Walking on Sunshine" (Katrina and the Waves). I didn't notice any reactions, but it sounded awesome. Great night. Lots of compliments and high fives from people in the crowd as well! Awesome gig!"

SATURDAY 3-29-08

Brian @ Rockit

(from Brian:) "I replaced Jon. Compared to Thursday night, the music [I played] were more popular [titles]. I played a lot of 80s, some 90s, and some modern rock. A big win was spreading out the sing-along songs, for this kept the crowd more aware of the music. The room was packed all night. The crowd thinned out at 1:30am. New songs that worked: "Possum Kingdom" by Toadies, "Stupid Girl" by Garbage, and "I Want Money" by Flying Lizards."

SUNDAY 3-30-08

Ernst & Young @ Jay Pritzker Pavilion

Lead: Brent Rolland; Assistant: Jon Hood

Producers: Brent Rolland and Erik Friedly

This was the very first gig that I both deejayed and produced—a double bonus for me! Erik (who co-sold the gig) was originally my assistant, but he was replaced last-minute by Jon. Our mission: We played during the Shamrock Shuffle, an 8K walk/run that takes place in Grant Park and the surrounding area. We were both on the chorus level (the upper seating area where choruses usually perform) of the stage area of the Pritzker Pavilion, which not only had excellent acoustics, but had more than enough space for our books and decks and also had plentiful outlets for us to use. From 11am to 2pm, Jon and I played background music while the runners and their friends and guests mingled and enjoyed a marvelous breakfast prepared by Food For Thought. Jon and I both had feelings around Erik not being on the gig, and we took the wait time that we had (we setup around 9am and started at 11am) and walked outside and talked. It gave us time to clear our minds, as well as to watch the runners and walkers stride by. From there, Jon and I ate a lot of delicious food and played great music. Some of the cool first-time tunes that I hit: "Wild Wild West" (Escape Club), "Pocket Full of Kryptonite" (Spin Doctors), "River of Dreams" (Billy Joel), and "Cloud Nine" (The Temptations). We had one table that was responding well to a few of the songs Jon and I played (i.e. "Mickey" and "Centerfold"), which was a joy to see, especially because the majority of the crowd was eating and talking with one another. We received a compliment from one of the FFT servers: "Great music—this was the best part of the whole day." Honestly, that was the gig—no frills or other fancy details. I was honored to be on the Pritzker stage, as well as perform at a gig that I produced.

Fig Tube: Episode One

Fig Goes You Tube!

Thats right! Fig has gone on the tube....you tube that is.

We have our own channel.
Check us out as we post ideas, randomness and films.

http://www.youtube.com/user/figtube1120

St. Josaphat Fundraiser @ the Westin River North

Lights! Cameras! Toilets!

What?

That so did not sound right. Not that the above statement is uber-cliché, but toilets simply do not have a true connection with lights and cameras. However, at the recent fundraiser that Jon Hood and I recently participated in, a better combination could not be fathomed. Jon and I were the deejays and sound engineers for an amazing fundraiser at the Westin River North. This was for the St. Josaphat School, a Catholic institution in need of a new bathroom for their students, teachers and faculty. The theme of the evening was movies, and the whole bottom floor of the Westin was decked out with bright lights, glitter, movie posters, and guests walking down a red carpet in their best evening wear. The night was held in three parts: a silent auction, dinner, and a live auction (with smaller fund-raising contests mixed in). This evening contained numerous wins:

1) Jon and I did the final meeting/walk-through together, which totally helped in understanding the flow and purpose of the event, as well as connected us to our clients/contacts.

2) We had a huge 6-speaker setup that was split among the rooms: Two 10" speakers were placed into the silent auction room (which worked great, although two 15's would have worked a lot better); two were outside in the lobby; and two were in the main dining hall. When the silent auction was finished and just before everyone made their way into the ballroom, I retrieved the two speakers that were in the lobby area and put them in the ballroom (making the total number of speakers there four). Although this was more of a three-person setup, Jon and I made it happen and everything sounded great.

3) We worked with an exceptional emcee/auctioneer by the name of Jim Miller, who did a fantastic job keeping the guests abreast of the auction and the other goings-on in the event, as well as leading the audience superbly in the auctions. A lot of the funds that were raised were due to his energy and commanding presence.

4) We had a packed dance floor during the entire night—guests were ready to party right after the auction ended. At the end of the night, we received a rousing, riotous chant for "one more song," and with the go-ahead from the hotel, we played "Last Dance," which worked for the most part, but a lot of people disliked it. Here's the rather amusing (and somewhat upsetting) factoid: One woman was about to give me $40 just to play "My Humps" as the last song! The money was nice to look at, but I just could not take the request. Still, people danced and enjoyed their time.

Additionally, Jon used me well throughout the entire evening, from the first meeting all the way to the event itself. He used me best with setup, sound checks, and times when he needed someone to talk his thoughts and feelings to. This was a star-studded night, and I certainly hope to be a part of it next year.

How would I describe this event as a whole? Oh, let's just say it was a royal flush.

– Brent Rolland, resident fig deejay

(My heartfelt thanks goes to Lindsey, Renee, Jody, Peter, John Burdett, everyone of the St. Josaphat school, and all the great people at the Westin for a fabulous evening!)

A Wondrous Event/Project SOAR @ McGaw YMCA

Here is something to contemplate: If you could redo any event in your life, what would it be? For my very first gig of 2008, I got to relive and experience a very important moment in my life: my senior high-school prom. And there I was without a date! Talk about a crime, huh? It's all in good faith, actually. Erik Friedly and I were the deejays and audio specialists for a fundraiser for Project SOAR, an organization dedicated to supporting literacy and literacy programs for preschool children, teens, and parents. The evening was literally a prom night for the 200+ people that were there. The spacious gymnasium of the McGaw YMCA in downtown Evanston was transformed into an amazing dining hall and dance area—complete with a balloon arch and numerous strings of lights. It was awesome seeing people dressed in prom wear from their respective eras: bold varsity jackets, powder-pink tuxes, and fluffy, ruffled dresses. There were even a few tuxedo T-shirts in the mix, worthy of a laugh or two. Ha. Ha. Fig was hired through A Wondrous Affair to handle the deejaying, audio and the emceeing for the event. Erik and I worked with Lisa McGowan, who gave us cues for music and for announcements. I was the emcee for the evening, while Erik handled all the music.

The toughest part in the event was not braving the costumes that some of the people wore, but more so, it was getting everyone to sit down at the beginning of the evening—it took about four or five announcements from me to get everyone to get to their seats, but I received some help from some of the dressed-up guests who got on the mike and calmed the group down. My learn in that process was to be more persuasive on the microphone, but my huge win is that I had a ton of fun with the crowd through that time and through the night. Two of the big events of the "prom" was welcoming the "celebrities" (police chiefs, firemen, state officials, politicians and the like), who were gaining votes to be the "Prom King and Queen," as well as a big live auction. I had the pleasure of working with a woman by the name of Julie during the live auction, and while she held rapport with the crowd and drew bids, I announced all the prizes and played second banana to Julie. I kinda felt like a game show announcer at that time. Why I said "This raffle prize can be yours if 'the price is right'" is beyond me. Along with the raffle, I did a great job working well with Lisa with all the numerous announcements that came up, as well as being playful and working with the presenters and celebrities. Erik did an amazing job with the music all night—during dancing, he maintained a packed dance floor for virtually the entire evening. Even yours truly cut a bit of a rug with the guests. The servers and volunteers were dancing too! We received numerous thank-yous, and even a few compliments on this being "the best party ever." Seriously, it must be true that one can have fun at their prom—no matter when you are celebrating it!

– Brent Rolland, resident fig deejay

Ahoy!

The Love Boat was the theme for this year's Four Seasons holiday party.  They decorated the stage as if it was the deck of a ship.  Looked really cool.  To either side of the stage were screens where water related videos were shown.  Fig was brought in to dj and host a karaoke contest.  Honestly, I was disappointed with the videos that were shown on the screens.  It didn't look like the guests were into the videos at all and I think they had a difficult time relating to the water/Love Boat theme of the evening.  The mood was kind of mellow for the first half of the evening.  There was a skit that the crowd didn't really get into, and I think part of it was because it looked kind of thrown together.  After the skit, they gave out the Employee of the Year and Manager of the Year awards.  Then there was a lull where we played more upbeat music as we made our way closer to the karaoke contest.  We did a raffle and then it was off to the races.

When doing karaoke, always take dance breaks throughout.  We were originally going to do an hour straight of karaoke, but there were people that wanted to dance and weren't into the karaoke.  I would say that those who were into karaoke, were really into it.  Those that weren't were upset that we weren't dancing.  There were also people who were upset that they could only have 2 drinks.  I've done quite a bit of holiday parties, and the better ones are where there is a unifying theme, or something that brings everyone together.  Companies will often do skits or awards or prizes.  With companies such as hotels, it's harder to bring everyone together because it's so diverse.  Last year there was a video that was shot throughout the hotel and I think everyone felt valued because all the departments were represented in the video.  This year, I don't think the skit did that because not everyone could relate to it.  It was harder for us to pull everyone together because the group wasn't unified, and therefor the party was bifurcated once we got to karaoke.  You either like it or you don't.

The bifurcation didn't become apparent until closer to the end of the party.  We were nearing the end of karaoke, when we realized that the crowd was getting too hostile and it was starting to come through in their singing.  It got pretty bad.  We cut off karaoke, although there were people upset about it.  We cranked into dancing and got a packed dancefloor with everyone that was still there.  I saved Calabria for the encore song, and unfortunately, it got everyone riled up for one more.  The encore song is the one you play after the last song.  We let the last song die out, pause, get on the mic and ask if they want one last song, let them scream and yell "Yes!," tease them with a brief intro, cut it and get back on the mic with "Are you sure?," let them say "Yes!" even louder, then go into the encore song.  Only do it if the last song is REALLY good.  Calabria is.  They went nuts!  We played a merengue afterwards, and that wrapped up the night.

--Jonathan Hood, lead

Alvin Black, assisting

First Wedding of the Year!

Getting back into the swing of doing weddings can have a few rough edges.  Rachel and Tim had their wedding at the Allerton Crown Plaza downtown and it was my first time working in the space.  A few learns on this gig is to ask about a house system when I do a site visit.  The Allerton's ballroom is long and skinny that looks like a dog bone when viewed from above.  Our dj table was set at one end and the sweetheart table was at the other.  They didn't have a house system we could plug into and we should have included a smaller speaker that would have been placed on the other end of the room.  What we ended up doing was placing one speaker on either end and when we go to dancing, we turned the speaker off that was at the other side.  It worked out okay, but wasn't ideal.  The house also has a wireless microphone which the bride and groom didn't include in their package.  This would have made things a little easier, as well.  Instead, we used a long cord for our microphone which we ran down to the other end of the room so speeches could be done near the sweetheart table.  Another good thing to ask in our meetings is where the older guests would be.  They were seated on the other side of the room next to a speaker.  They didn't want the speaker on, probably because the music we were playing didn't appeal to them.  The bride and groom wanted to hear music they like and fit their personalities, which was a mix of indie and southern rock.  Those older guests ended up turning the speaker into the wall, which caused several announcements not to be heard.  We weren't aware of this until the middle of the evening when one of the guests in that room asked us to turn the music down on that side.  The guests sitting in that room where disgruntled beyond anything I had ever seen.  Emily went to turn the music down and the guests were mean to her and told her to just turn the speaker off.  I was upset because they didn't respect the bride and groom's wishes to hear the music.  The volume we ended up setting it at was barely audible.  Dancing was great!  Amazing!  We had some challenges, such as the bar being outside the room, tables taking up a lot of space with only one way to the dance floor that got clogged easily with people just wanting to watch, and tables that were set on the dance floor that couldn't be moved until dinner was complete.  That being said, we rocked!  We had a pretty good sized dance floor most of the night with only a couple lulls that we quickly corrected.  Hip-hop was big later the evening and we left the crowd wanting more.  Alas, we had to leave.  All said and done, this was a really fun event and I can't wait for my next wedding!

--Jonathan Hood (lead)

Emily Hard (assisting)

Dissecting a gig

I like studying people. Sociology was one of my majors in college and one of the things I like about dj'ing parties is that I get to watch people all night and study how they interact. It is also one of my goals to go back to school and get a masters and PhD in sociology. With the support of my colleagues at fig, in particularly James Gustin himself, I am turning my blogs into little dissertations. From my blogs, I hope the readers get a sense of the dynamics that happen at a party in order to predict the success or failures of future events.

The study of today's blog is Reed Smith, Sachnoff, and Weaver's company party at the Palmer House. Reed Smith recently merged with Sachnoff and Weaver this last year. The party was for about 200 guests, employees only which comprised mainly of lawyers and secretaries. During the night, two skits are performed. One by the secretaries and one by the lawyers. These skits act as an outlet for the employees to voice their opinions, thoughts, feelings about the events that have happened over the last year and although it's not necessarily designed this way, anything unexpressed throughout the year will come out in this forum. Skits are an excellent way to see any underlying hostility or appreciation towards the company. In this case, there was more hostility than gratitude. Subjects like the merger and employees that are not present anymore came up. While the tone of the skits was geared toward making light of these subjects, because they have not had the opportunity to be expressed throughout the year, the humor sits on top of anger, hurt, sadness that will remain until it has a chance to come out. Leaders of companies often take the brunt of these unexpressed feelings. In this case, it was the managing partners who were present at the party. It also manifests itself within anyone planning the event. This is often unbeknownst to the person (people) planning it and should not be blamed for any mishaps that happen with the planning or hosting the event, but rather supported by the coworkers that much more.

These dynamics were present at this party in three forms. One was present within the guests as a whole, another within the host, and the third within myself and my assistant. I stress that people are often unaware of these factors. It is best to deal with these scenarios with compassion and understanding while asserting what is best for the party. The best example to use is at the beginning of dancing. It took the crowd a few songs to get warmed up and feel comfortable enough to approach the dance floor. Once the crowd was dancing, I worked them through some disco, funk, 80's, and into some old-school hip-hop. At this point, the host of the party asks to switch directions and put on something more exotic, like motown or salsa. I switch from the hip-hop I was playing into some salsa and then into motown. Half the crowd left the dance floor for the salsa and the rest left for the motown. After a couple songs, guests started leaving steadily from that point on.

The first dynamic was the song request. It didn't fit in with what most of the crowd wanted, which caused half of them to leave. Very few were into the motown which caused the rest to leave. If this were the only dynamic about this example, then it would be no problem bringing the crowd back. The second dynamic was the crowd's reaction. While most crowds would stick out the party through a set that doesn't agree with them, this crowd chose to start leaving. The urge to celebrate wasn't high enough for people; there wasn't a central theme that united everyone together. This party centers around the skits which were filled with references about people who aren't there anymore, people who are dissatisfied with their jobs, people who are dissatisfied with decisions being made without their say, and decisions being made that they did not agree with. The central them was hardly celebratory and thus people did not feel the urge to stick around. The third dynamic was myself and my assistant. We did not let the host know about the dynamics happening in the room and what effect the song request might have. I actually thought it wouldn't be a problem to bring the guests back after playing the salsa and motown if they didn't hit. Unfortunately, I did not understand the dynamics in the room fully and thus went ahead with the requests.

I would say that this was the turning point in the evening. While I eventually got the crowd dancing again, it was not the same party after this. There was a heaviness in the room, and I was often scared of clearing the dance floor again. The party died about 30 minutes left to go and we played lighter music for the few people who stayed. Reading a room is tricky, and little things can effect the outcome of a party. My biggest concern is that the person (people) planning a party may think the deejay is doing a bad job when really it could be a few different factors coming to play all at the same time. If at any point you feel that the party isn't going as well as it should be, talk to the deejay about the dynamics in the room. If the deejay doesn't know, then you have a bad deejay. If the deejay does know, then getting him/her to talk about it may help him/her see the party differently and begin to play music that counteracts the dynamics in the room. But how to counteract negative dynamics is the topic for another conversation. Until, happy partying.

--jonathan hood
dj operations manager

(tim musho assisted)

GE & the Intercon

Lola and myself deejayed GE Rail Services holiday party at the Hotel Intercon. In the past, GE went with a band and they decided on a dj this year because many of the guests complained about the sound. Either too loud or too soft. We had two JBL towers and smaller 12" Mackies on the balcony above us. It was in their Grand Ballroom, which has a balcony that wraps around the back of the room. Cocktails took place on the balcony, so we used the smaller speakers for that while the towers filled in the rest. When people came downstairs, we turned the towers up, turned the balcony speakers in and readjusted their volume to fill in where the towers weren't. What happened was that the room was nicely filled with sound while kept at a level where people could talk and not feel overwhelmed by the music. It was very elegant and romantic night for the employees of GE and their dates. Everyone came with a date. There were only a few guests that didn't.

When it got to dancing, it was tough to get people out. One reason was the dancefloor. It was ginormous. It's easier for people to dance when there is a smaller dance floor. Even if you have 500 people, you still don't want a large dance floor because it's VERY intimidating. This crowd was around 200. Because there were a lot of couples, we played some slower stuff which brought EVERYONE out. The dance floor was packed! This is a good way to use a large dance floor. It's easier to get people out to slower stuff if 1.) there are plenty of couples and 2.) it's easier to dance to slow stuff and people look and feel less dorky. That's why it's a good idea to start off with slow stuff because it gets people comfortable to the dance floor, gets people out there, and gets people "in the mood" to wiggle and jiggle the rest of the night. This crowd kept wanting to leave after every song. It's like they were thinking, well the songs over so let's go sit down again. But then they would recognize the song, realize they like it, and then come back out. My guess about this crowd is that they don't go out dancing that often. Makes sense if they are coupled up. Most couples don't end up going out after a few years of being together.

Anyway, we got a good portion of them dancing most of the night and overall, they had fun. Our contact said that we were much better than the bands they've had in the past and wants to work with us again.

--Jonathan

McDonald's @ The School of the Art Institute Ballroom

Have you had your break today? My fellow fig artist Emily and I certainly did yesterday. It makes sense for me to open this entry with that familiar commercial phrase, as we were the deejays for a group of corporate employees from McDonald's (yes, the McDonald's) at the majestic ballroom of the School of the Art Institute. For this four-hour dinner-and-dance soiree, the main challenge of the evening was not digesting the delectable miniature roast beef sandwiches and onion zingers, but moreso enticing the nearly one hundred people at the party get on the dance floor.

We started off cocktails with a mixture of jazz, latin/bossa nova, and some downtempo music. Both of us could see the guests as one talkative mass, tightly packed near the bar in the upstairs balcony. Amusingly, when it was time for one of the heads of the company, Kevin, to get on the microphone and call everyone downstairs to dinner, he asked us to play the Black Eyed Peas' "Let's Get it Started." As Kim Possible might say, we were "so not the expecting that." The crowd did not expect that either, but it certainly got a laugh and slowly brought people downstairs.

Dinner was ending, and dancing was approaching. There was ninety minutes left until the evening ended. Dancing was a challenge for us. Somewhat like pulling that tab off of the sweet & sour sauce carton for your Chicken McNuggets. Thankfully, I have had much experience with holiday parties—not to mention McNugget sauce cartons—to carry through a gig like this. Armed with our music collections and a list of suggestions that our clients gave us the night-of, Emily and I poised ourselves for the music to come. We built up a dancing mood with such tunes as "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (Temptations), "Superstition" (Stevie Wonder), "Domino" (Van Morrisson), and "September" (EWF). We totally played everything that we liked and enjoyed it. The crowd, however, were still in mingling mode. I remember throwing on "Billie Jean" and two people began to get on the dance floor. Yes! Sadly, they stopped dancing after a while and went back to talking. Non-yes! Our clients were certainly the catalysts—or, in layman's terms, the "party starters"—for the evening. Their suggestion: "Sweet Caroline." We played it, and several members of the crowd began to sing out loud. We then played some disco, such as "Stayin' Alive" and "I Will Survive," and eventually made our way into hip-hop, 80s favorites, and current stuff. I had a ton of fun playing Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's "Good Vibrations" and Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger"—two songs that I rarely get a chance to play and were on the list. We even played the current bouncy hip-hop hit, "Crank That" (Soulja Boy). We ended the night with Culture Club's "I'll Tumble 4 Ya." We managed to keep the small, but mighty crowd going into overtime, which was definitely satisfying.

Emily and I performed some serious teamwork throughout the night with dinner and dancing music. We talked a lot about our musical choices, and when either of us didn't have a song or an idea, the other one of us did. We laughed when some songs (like the aforementioned "Good Vibrations") that we thought weren't going to work totally hit. Overall, we rode with our challenge and had lots of fun, making for quite a successful night. It was food, folks and fun for this successful evening. And, yes—the clients, the crowd, and us two deejays were "lovin' it."


– Brent Rolland, resident fig deejay

Rockit Bar and Grill Residency

After being a video and photo vendor for Rockit Ranch, this past year fig established a residency at Rockit Bar and Grill. Fig DJ's can be seen at the restaurant/bar usually three nights a week on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and rotating with other DJ's on the weekends. Fig spins Rock..... meaning old, new, classic, 80's, glam rock, indie, funk.... think Bon Jovi every night. Yes like every party there is a certain formula to the night, but heck that gets old, so fig keeps it fresh mixing it up and bringing back favorites that you all miss and may have forgotten. The bouncers, managers, bartenders, wait staff, owners are all super cool, welcoming, and professional. All in all Rockit Bar and Grill is an awesome place and our fig DJ's just top the cake.

Check us out this New Year's!!!

-Megan Taylor

Jemily Hord Strikes Again!

Myself (Jonathan) and Emily deejay'd Bell, Boyd and Lloyd's holiday party last night and it was rockin! We've deejay'd their party the last couple years and the feedback we got from last year is that it got too clubby at the end. That motivated us to keep the music mixed up throughout dancing and created some pretty sweet mixes. We were going from 80's to disco to hip-hop to funk to rock. I think there were only two times when we only played two songs of the same genre in a row. One of my favorite mixes of the night (although technically not the best and some of the people left the dance floor) was going from Superstition my Stevie Wonder into Stayin' Alive by the Beegees. It was a new mix for me to try out. I was having trouble lining up the beats because the tempo of Superstition kept changing. The tempo of Stayin' Alive also changes a little at the beginning, but having worked frequently with this song, I'm used to where the changes are to either speed it up or slow it down. I haven't beat matched to Superstition before, so it was a little tricky to get it to sound good on the spot. My dance floors are often my laboratories where I try out new mixes. I could try to perfect it in a studio, but there's something about making something live that I've never done before that's cool and exciting. It's alive and breathing, creative and expressive. Here's what it looked and sounded like:

(Still trying to upload the video.)

Emily is really cool to work with. We always seem to have awesome gigs. Here is a video of her deejaying and a pretty good dancer in the midst:

(Still trying to upload the video. Check back soon!)

The party was a little weird because a third of the crowd left during dinner. The buffet seemed to be open FOREVER! It was open way too long. There was a good thing to the buffet being open for so long, because it weeded out all of the guests that didn't want to stay and party. Everyone that was left after dinner wanted to dance, created a pretty darn good dance floor given the size of the crowd. We got the crowd a little worked up towards the end of dinner; several people walked by and said we needed to save the music we were playing for dancing. We were teasing them a little bit, playing some MJ

Jemily Hord: Live at the Palmer

Jemily Hord (Jonathan Hood & Emily Hard) deejay'd Mira and David's wedding at the Palmer House on Saturday. Mira is the Catering Manager at the Palmer House. A cool thing about the wedding is that one of the guests was also one of our clients, and she didn't know it until she got there. It also just so happened that Emily was the dj on her wedding. There was a pretty cool reunion when Emily and her saw each other.

Overall, the wedding was awesome! We ran into a few snags with timing. The ceremony started later than expected and things got backed up from there. Dancing started around 10:30 and I knew there wasn't going to be enough time for dancing. We were contracted until 12:45, but the schedule was until 12, so I talked with Mira to see if we could stay in the room longer. She has connections and made it happen. The dance floor was PACKED all night! We went until 12:30 and almost everyone stayed the whole time. Dancing circles kept happening throughout the night, where a circle would form and someone would dance inside it. At a couple points, two circles formed side by side. There were a group of people that wore napkins on their heads. Not sure what this was all about, but I assumed they were there to party. And they were! Everyone was! This party was a ton of fun!

Emily and I played off each other. I took one deck, she took the other. Emily is one of our newer djs and I got to see how much our training pays off by seeing her work. She's awesome! All thanks to me! About a year ago, she assisted me on a gig and was doing a great job playing to the crowd and I told her she should become a dj. And she did! Our deejays rock...


--Jonathan

The Deadbanger's Ball @ the House of Blues

One hooded ghoul, one anime samurai, and one guy who passes for a Russian computer programmer—these were the three masqueraders responsible for the music for the Deadbanger's Ball, the House of Blues' yearly Halloween party. This fright fest of dudes and dudettes dressed in their most haunting habits included the music of fig media deejays Tim Musho, our partner/liaison Russell Furman, and yours truly. I have played at different holiday parties, but knowing that this was one of Chicago's most exciting and eclectic party venues, I knew I was going to be in for a treat—not to mention a few tricks.

The festivities took place in the Foundation Room, an elaborate, two-story Indian wonderland of ruddy fabrics and gold Buddha statues. The celebration was for the employees and the members of this intricate interior venue. To accomodate the 200-plus attendees, the party was split into two areas, with a specific menu of music in each: The top floor, which was the lounge/bar area, was going to feature straight rock music, and the downstairs area, which housed the Foundation room's private restaurant, had dance music in store. I was the lucky recipient to host the latter of the two rooms. Wearing my collective costume of anime convention garb—i.e. my yukata (summer kimono), my sandals, and a hat that beared the face of the "Puuchu" from the series Excel Saga—I was ready to play.

Nearly all the guests of the ball were dressed as some kind of person or other, and for the most part, they were quite well done. Among the many duplicates were two Rick Jameses, about four Amy Winehouses (or Amy Wine-hice?), three of the four members of KISS, and a little gaggle of girls going as the "tabloid pack"—Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and the somewhat-beloved Britney Spears. I think I even spotted a Rainbow Brite and a Jessica Rabbit somewhere in the thick of the crowd. My favorite costumes of the night were these two guys dressed up as robots. The construction of their suits were rather excellent, right down to the delightful details of real flashing lights built-in to their boxes. I was quite impressed at the costumes, but additionally touched that people took the time to get dressed and participate. Trés admirable.

From the music list that I received from our venue contact, I was led to believe that I was going to play straight rock music. With much gratitude to the diverse crowd and their diverse requests, I was freed from that confining thought. Cool tracks like Stevie Wonder's "Superstition," Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf," and even Ram Jam's "Black Betty" were well received. Of course, rock staples from AC/DC, Aerosmith, and Motley Crüe were certainly part of this musical trick-or-treat bag. The aforementioned robots loved when I hit Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," to which they immediately sandwich-danced with a random woman to. Um…maybe I should not have played that. My musical choices were sporadic, but everyone had a great time, all the way to the end of the night. I could not believe that there were still five people in the bottom jamming to the last song I played, Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Something." It is a great feeling having people that are still wired and having a great time. Makes my job more relaxing.

If there were any challenges through the night, one of them was wondering what was going on upstairs. Because I did not have a partner, I could not leave my post. This is why I was super-grateful to have Russell with us during the night, as he would periodically check in with the both of us during the evening. Having him there helped me to get a sense of how my fellow deejay was doing. The really fun thing that kept Tim and I "in touch" is that I would pull CDs from my book and have Russell run them up to him to borrow for the evening. Ironically, I didn't think about playing the songs that Tim was borrowing from me!

The highlight of the night occurred when I fulfilled the request of "The Humpty Dance" for a lovely woman by the name of Erica, donning a darling French maid outfit. About five minutes later, she asked if I would marry her. Yeah, I gasped too. I remember kissing her hand in courteous agreement…and never seeing her again after that. Le bummer. All's fair is love and deejaying, I suppose.

My set ended at 1:30 in the morning. To my surprise, Tim was still spinning tunes to the rather wired crowd. It turns out that his musical choices were just as diverse as mine—and we even played some of the same songs through the night! Very interesting. Tim ended a little after 2am. Exhausted and full of cola and grenadine, we packed up and headed out. In addition to playing a lots of great music, the most enjoyable facet of the Deadbanger's ball was seeing adults—mind you, adults—dressing up, looking great, having fun, and really getting into the Hallowen spirit. This holiday is not everyone's cup of tea…or shot of vodka, for that matter. Despite the challenges, I was able to have a highly enjoyable time. Thank you for putting the "Happy" in my Halloween, House of Blues.

– Brent Rolland, resident fig deejay

(Special thanks to Cindy and her partner for the awesome photos during the night, as well as to Mary, Stacy, Laura, Neil, and everyone at the House of Blues for taking such great care of us and welcoming us at their space. Thank you all for a rockin' night!)

Fig-oween! @ Rockit

I helped Brent, Tim, and Russel set up for a gig at the House of Blues and then headed over to Rockit. I liked being with other figgies before heading to Rockit. I was sharing ideas with Tim because we were playing similar music. We were burning music for each other before heading out and it definitely helped prepare me for Rockit. For the first couple hours, I was only playing off of the CDs we burned. Then I was like, "Oh, I brought a whole library!" The crowd was nuts! There were two waves. The first wave hit around 8:30/9pm and half of them left around 10:30, I'm guessing to go to other parties. The second wave hit around 11/11:30pm and stayed until about 1:30/2 before people started leaving. I played until 2:30 and there was still a pretty good crowd there. I played a few songs twice, one by accident "Give it Away" by Red Hot Chili Peppers and two other ones that were requested twice "Monster Mash" and "Your Love" by The Outfield. The crowd went NUTS! to songs like "Your Love." EVERYONE was singing along and dancing. I played a pretty good sing along set with "Your Love" leading it off and I also hit "Livin' on a Prayer," "Summer of '69," and "Don't Stop Believing." There were a couple times when my CD stopped. The first time, I had something ready to go on the computer and hit it. The second time, I had a song cuing on the second CD player and waited for it to come on. It took about 10 seconds and the crowd was like, "huh? what's going on?" And then it hit and they went NUTS! I waited because I new the crowd was going to LOVE it! Totally worked. I have TON of great rock stuff and this gig really helps me with what works and what doesn't work and I can play a sing along set better now than I ever could before. My transitions were pretty sweet for the most part, using a guitar outro to help build the intro to the next song, using similar beats or patterns, etc. Another cool thing I was doing was playing to the costumes in the room. There was a guy dressed up as Rocky and I played "Eye of the Tiger" during the first wave and the crowd started chanting "Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!" I played the Rocky theme song (which I discovered is called "Gonna Fly Now") during the second wave and the same thing happened. Hulk Hogan came up and asked if I had his theme song, and I didn't. I have it on my computer, but I don't know how to hook my computer up to their system, which is a loss. There were a couple characters where I couldn't download their theme song and I realized there are characters that I can anticipate being there. The Hulk, Superman, Spiderman, Pirates, Bears fans (played Superbowl Shuffle), etc. My second favorite theme song moment was when I saw girls from Flashdance and I played "What A Feeling" and the women went NUTS! I went into "I've Had the Time of My Life" and the women were screaming. Then I followed that up with Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" into Cindy Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" into Madonna's "Material Girl." Women were lovin' it. This brings me to a hurt that I was feeling during the night because there were very attractive women there and the guys were all up in their business, couples makin' out left and right. A couple was getting it on right in front of me! I hate being at this gig alone because I'm building a charge of being single, being in front of gorgeous women, not being able to mingle with them and talk to them, hating that none of them are coming up and talking to me, and I'm not able to talk it out with someone and clear it. I was holding onto it all night and wanted to scream! I see that a cool win is being able to turn out a GREAT gig while having these feelings and charges and I've learned how to take care of myself in these situations and what to tell myself in those moments so I don't tank the gig.

Craziness@Carnivale

Extravagant decor. deep color. crazy dancing. This all characterized the Client Appreciation Party put on by MARSH at Carnivale. Carmel music brought fig in to provide the party atmosphere for the night - fig deejays Alvin Black III and Tim Musho were the designated party providers. Starting things off was an extended funk and motowm set, with a little blues thrown in for good measure. At this early stage in the evening, Alvin and Tim were playing for the fellas in the room - just good, chill music, upbeat enough to bob one's head to, but not necessarily dancing music. During this time, many of the guys in the room complemented the music and wanted more...

After about an hour of chilling out and head bobbing, the coordinator and planner of the event gave a short speech acknowledging a particular client that they wanted to highlight. At this point, fig preparation comes into play - although during earlier phone conversations there was no indication that speeches would be made, but standard procedure has all fig deejays bringing mics all the same, which made this even run all the more smoothly.

As Alvin and Tim get the dance floor packed for the next 2 hours with wild dancing to everything - disco to newest top 40,and quickly the time that they thought they were supposed to end approaches.

The story doesn't end there however...

Unbeknownst to the fig duo, there was an extra hour added to the night, which Alvin announced to the crowd, much to their delight. 1 OT became 3 as Alvin and Tim went another 1/2 hour past the extra hour that had already been added.

Lessons Learned: always make sure to have don't stop believing

Goals Achieved: Rocking Dance party for 2+ hours

-written by Alvin Black III, fig resident deejay

Chilled Out Tree Studios

Tree Studios is looking to be a hip new event space down in the Medinah temple complex, and on October 9th, the grand opening of the space took place from 6-9pm. Rachel Bradley is the planner running the show, and fig DJ Alvin Black III assisted by new intern Dan In played some hip lounge music to set the scene in the lower level of the space. The two levels were designed with a heaven/hell theme, all white upstairs with delicious catering done by Food for Thought and music from a jazz trio. For unexplainable reasons, the figDJs provided the chill and moody soundtrack for hell, complete with red lighting. Botanicals gave the space some life with floral installations for both floors.

Alvin spun a variety of lounge music for the evening - with a decidedly world beat feel. Brazilian and latin rhythms were a key component of the set played that night. Mixed in was some hip hop instrumentals, and a bit of jazz thrown in for good measure.

Power players in the event industry were in attendance, representing the big names in event planning, catering, floral, and photography in Chicago. A strong first impression was made, and due in part to the atmosphere that fig helped to facilitate - Rachel had a spectacular opening and...
Sept '08 is completely booked !
fig will be the exclusive DJ referral !

to check out more availability of this cool new space, check out Tree Studios online: http://www.thesuitescollection.com/tree/index.asp

-written by Alvin Black III, fig resident deejay

...You've Got to Hide Your Love Away...

My very FIRST lead DJ gig!!! After months of training, I finally took my training wheels off and I led my first wedding! I deejayed for Erin and Chip Wright at Deer Path Inn in Lake Forest. I don't think I could have been more scared/excited for this event. I wanted it to go so well and really wanted to help throw a great party for the couple.

Keren assisted me and everything went GREAT! The crowd was awesome, I couldn't have asked for a more energetic fun group of people. A highlight of the night for me was when all 10 of the groomsmen sang the Top Gun song 'you've got to hide your love away' accapella to the groom's mom, all while wearing black sunglasses. It was great! Another memorable moment was when I played 'Ayo Technology' into 'Stronger', into 'One More Time' and they loved it!

I had a great time, I was so glad to be a part of Erin and Chip's wedding and I'm looking forward to my second lead this weekend!

Emily Hard

Hedge Funds

On October 11th at the Hotel Intercontinental, I shot video for Hedge Fund Reseach. The company is a leader in providing data and analysis of alternative investment information. fig was called in to cover a day long event consisting of panels with industry professionals. Kelly, Joe and myself set up with two cameras to properly cover the day.

Investments and hedge funds are not things that I know much about, so it was a unique challenge to ensure that I asked all the right questions and cover what needed to be covered. I realized that there is a lot I have to learn about investing. My personal favorite moment during the conference was actually at lunch. No, it wasn't the chicken I was excited about, but Professor Thabel who was especially compelling. He used great media clips to demonstrate what is going on in the current financial environment. I don't want to give it away, but google 'psychology video on basketball being passed around'.

The video looks great and we enjoyed a analysis filled day!

Emily Hard

Kleinschmidt, Inc. @ the Four Seasons

Stevie Schmidt is a loving mom and wife, a world traveler, a culture fanatic, an excellent storyteller, a music lover, and one of the integral parts of Kleinschmidt, Inc., an e-commerce solutions company. Stevie and her small, but mighty group of 60 employees were going to celebrate their holiday party at the Four Seasons Hotel. The cool thing about this event was that there were some really big music lovers in the group. I was speaking with this one gentleman who periodically came up to the table and gave me interesting requests, like Maynard Ferguson, a really old Al Jarreau song, and mixing old and new Tony Bennett together. Whoo. Even my client Stevie was into the blues and good ol' rock and roll. Overall, dancing was quite active and very fun. Two versions of "Soul Man" and "SexyBack" were played during the evening. The first mentioned song was covered by Sam & Dave, as well as The Blues Brothers. As for the latter, yes…Justin Timberlake, of course, but did you know that the band Poison recently came out with a rockin' cover of the JT dance hit? Yes way. What's even more amusing is that Stevie introduced the song to me. I would have never, ever discovered it without her guidance. Go figure, indeed. I ended the night with the Blues Brothers version of "Soul Man," which was a last-minute decision on my part, but it worked out well. Stevie came to me at the end of the night and gave me a big hug along with the affirmation that "this was the most dancing that has happened at any of the past parties." That alone made me feel pretty darn good.

Here's one bit of information that I did not relay: This was the first time that I worked without an assistant. That's oh-so right! DJ Lone Wolf was in the hawwwssse. This was one of our "all hands on deck" days, in which almost every Fig person was out on a gig. There were times where I would have liked to have someone to talk to during the gig, but for the most part, I felt confident. In fact, I enjoyed the challenge of making my own musical decisions and being in charge of the event. Besides, it was fun having the table all to myself. Heh. I did have the awesome Erik Friedly to help me set up and break down the gear, and I did borrow the well-working deejay rig of Jon Hood. Although I performed alone, I definitely did not feel alone. Thank goodness I won't have to keep the name "DJ Lone Wolf!"

– Brent Rolland, resident Fig deejay

Ennis Knupp @ Jak's Tap

It's not everyday that I wear my well-worn Levi Strausses to a professional deejay gig. In the case of the Ennis Knupp company party, the exception was welcomed. As I learned from my client Cindy Spalla, this investment consultant firm had just hit over 100 employees, and it was time to celebrate the old and the new in a relaxed, fun atmosphere. Oh…and they wanted some karaoke action, too. Hi-yah. The downtown bar restaurant, Jak's Tap, was the setting for a fun night of music, merriment, and a multitude of Millers. My partner Matt and I were certainly not alcohol lovers, but we certainly drank to that vision.

We set up a full rig—including the karaoke television and such—in less than 30 minutes. Wowza. It was as if Matt and I were playing the game "Perfection", trying to get all those pieces into their right places before the platform popped. We worked together well to get our equipment up and going. As the crowd trickled in, we began to play music to set the tone of the laid-back bar setting. With a strong foundation of classic rock music, Matt and I split the decks and played a plethora of genres, including classic soul, some 80s, funk, and modern pop. As I played, I constantly did what any normal disc jockey would do: read the crowd. I continuously gauged what the crowd was feeling; most of the time, they were either talking, smoking, chowing down on their pizza and hot wings, or investing in a game of pool. Usual bar activity, as I saw it. Was karaoke going to fit into this smoke-lined picture? Matt and I were soon going to find out.

About two hours into the four-hour event, I got on the microphone and announced that karaoke was about to begin. It took a while for people to gain the gusto to sign up. How much time, you ask? An hour, believe it or not. I was glad to see people signing up, but it was disheartening to know that time was running out. Here's the great thing, though: After the first few singers performed, the list began to fill up nicely. In fact, as we were entering the last 15 minutes of the event, Cindy asked us to stay an extra hour, just to get more people singing karaoke. Sweet! I could have sang "I'm So Happy" at that moment—luckily, it wasn't in our karaoke library. I was amazed at the number of people that sang various country songs—it seemed to be the "thing" with the company. The crowd did get pretty drunk, but thankfully, people were dancing, singing, and having fun. That was what Cindy wanted, and that was all that mattered to me.

As Matt and I experienced tonight, music brings people together. Alcohol comes in at a close second.

– Brent Rolland, resident Fig deejay

Kulbok/Carlson @ Swissôtel

Are you a fan of Chicago's 100.3, a.k.a. "LoveFM?" Jill Kulbok and Steve Carlson surely were. Countless hours of listening to "easy listening" led them to win a special contest in which various vendors would provide their wedding essentials for free. Free. Eff-are-eeh-eeh—free. Fig Media was one of the service providers of choice, and we gave Jill and Steve a Mod Deal that they would never forget.

My partner Tim and I provided a cool night of music for cocktails and dinner which included alternative/electronic and soft rock artists Sarah McLaughlin, Alphaville, Hooverphonic, the Cocteau Twins, and others. Going into dancing, Tim and I were all over the place, especially with 80s hits and classic hip-hop. In regards to the latter genre, our groom, Steve, was certainly a man of surprises: I remember playing "The Humpty Dance" and I saw Steve lip synching to it. The little wheels in my brain started to speed up at this moment. I thought, "Why not give Steve the microphone and let him rap to his crowd?" I did just that, and he blew us all away with his fly, fresh, uh…karaoke-ing. That was so unexpected, but it was a priceless moment that I wanted to create. An even bigger hoot was ending the night with the song that nobody puts in a corner, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes' "I've Had the Time of My Life" (from Dirty Dancing, of course!) and the Chicago favorite, Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." Steve and Jill were highly gracious of all of our services, and the fact that we went all out to give them an unforgettable evening, even though it was a contest prize. Seems that there are rewards to bearing the sounds of easy listening, no?

– Brent Rolland, resident Fig deejay

THE TEAM:
Producer: Andrew Ettenhofer
Coordinator: Tobey Geise
Photo: Carl Wiedemann and Brian Carey
Video: Emily Hard and Keren Aronoff
Deejays: Brent Rolland and Tim Musho

McKinney/Moffat @ Embassy Suites Chicago

Here's the story of two optometrists…who were not bringing up three very lovely girls. Kelly McKinney and Randy Moffat flew all the way from their abode in Washington to have a full wedding and celebration in Chicago at the gorgeous Embassy Suites Hotel. Matt Carlson and I were the deejays of the evening, and this being our first full ceremony together, we set a vision that we were going to succeed and have a drama-free time. That vision worked out well, as the ceremony, cocktails, dinner and dancing all flowed from one event to the next. There was one good learn that I gained from the dance part of the evening: Ask your clients if they are having photos taken during the evening. Unbeknownst to Matt and myself, Kelly and Randy took photos along with their family outside the dining hall during dancing, which took about a good 30 minutes or so. Gah-lee. I kept wondering why dancing was such a slow burn—we needed the bride and groom in here! Well, I shouldn't say "needed," as Matt and I played some fun 60s, 70s and 80s songs to keep the crowd entertained and get dancing going. It was just challenging doing the dance portion without Kelly and Randy there, as well as the fact that I did not want them to miss out on hearing their must-plays. As soon as the bride and groom came back, that is when the floor became more electric. Matt and I kicked in some hip-hop and R&B favorites, not to mention the inescapable "Sexyback." One of the best songs of the night was Joan Jett's "I Love Rock and Roll," which Kelly and Randy were totally rocking out with their crowd to. It matters to me that the clients that I serve enjoy their event, and it made me glad to see them back in the room, dancing and taking in the fun.

All in all, the night was a success, and Randy and Kelly both took the time out to acknowledge Matt and I for keeping dancing going and keeping the crowd bubbly until they came back. The dancing portion of this evening was a true test of patience, but as in all cases, patience is always rewarded. The proudest thing that I have about this event is this: I played "Smooth Criminal" for the first time in my life as a deejay. And, yes…Annie—not to mention Kelly, Randy, the crowd, and myself—were okay.

– Brent Rolland, resident Fig deejay

Food For Thought/U.S. Futures Exchange @ Harris Theater Rooftop

The initial thought that entered my mind as I walked into the massive space of the Harris Rooftop Theater was, "My Lord…it is waaaay too orange up in here." Understandably so, that was the primary company color of U.S. Futures Exchange, a corporation dedicated to providing products to stockholders and investors. Along with the delicious delicacies of Food For Thought (who hired us) and the stellar sound set-up by Soundtronics, Fig was chosen to work with the best of the best to deliver an amazing aural and visual evening—and then some.

I was partnered up with one of our prime deejays, Alvin Black. This was special to me: Seeing as how Alvin and I do not drive, it is usually difficult for us to work together. Awww. We're usually partnered up with other people that have licenses, cars, and, well…the ability to drive. Thanks to our partners Jon and Tim (who helped us out later in the evening) who assisted with the gear, we were able to play together under the same roof. I consider us both to be well-versed in numerous genres, and I was excited to see what Mr. Black was going to lay down tonight.

The evening began with people, as it is said, "mingling and schmoozing" (whatever that is!) to the jazzy background music of Bebel Gilberto, John Coltrane, Yoko Kanno, and other artists. I was already impressed by Alvin's selections; I was always wondering what was coming up next. One fun thing we learned during the evening was how the "color" filter works on our DJM-800 mixer.

(OOPS—SHOP TALK ALERT!)

Okay—a "color" filter simply changes the tonal colors of your song. There are four kinds of filter effects that you can apply to music: Harmonic (detects the actual key of a song and changes it to to the next truest key to go with another song); Filter (acts like a "kill switch" to single out the highs and lows of a song); Sweep (makes your music sound more airy and "old," or deep and complex), and Crush (self-explanatory—it distorts your music).

(SHOP TALK OVER!)

The night continued with a PowerPoint presentation and speeches from two of USFE's head honchoes. Disappointingly, the presentation froze a couple of times, but through diligent troubleshooting, the presentation continued. After the PowerPoint and another 90-second "pep" video, Alvin and I were ready to rock. I started off with "Start Me Up" by the good ol' Stones. Alvin followed up with a perfectly beat-matched "(You Shook Me) All Night Long." From there, we went all over the place with our selections, and we kept it fresh, funky and lively. I was thrilled to play Cameo's "Candy," as well as Neil Young's "Keep on Rockin' In the Free World," which some people were mirthfully lip-synching to. We played music all the way until—believe it or not—8:17pm. We were quite close to declaring overtime, yet we ended with an apt choice: Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' "Don't Leave Me This Way." The guests and employees left anyway, amusingly. It was time to go, and all went pretty well. Alvin and I packed up our gear and the lovely gift bags we were given. It was great working with a huge, friendly team and making this evening happen. To say it with color, we were ticked orange!

– Brent Rolland, resident Fig deejay

Kaiser/Kalemba @ Womens' Club of Evanston

Okay…allow me to state the obvious: I am a guy. A dude. A man. El hombre. With that in mind, here is an interesting inquiry:

Why would I spend my Saturday evening at a women's club?

(And, no…I do not have a new hobby of dressing in drag or picking up older chicks.)

The best reason—and the only reason—that I was at a womens' club this weekend was to emcee and deejay a wedding for a very fun couple. Pauline Kaiser and Matt Kalemba were going to hold their post-wedding celebration at the Womens' Club of Evanston. Everything was in place, except for one thing: Music. They had a situation with their originally-chosen deejay, and they chose fig two weeks before their wedding date to provide a fun evening for them and their guests. I partnered up with Emily Hard, who has been with me on some rather energetic gigs. We teamed up to make a great night for our clients and their guests. Little did we know that the party was going to be made for us as well.

The Womens' Club of Evanston fits exquisitely well into this part of the state: it is a very stately, clean, and accomodating venue, not to mention flowery. Flowers in the pots, flowers in the grass, flowers patterned in the carpet…you get the idea. Heck, I was surprised that there were mens' bathrooms there. Heh. Anyway—wedding reception. Emily and I were greeted by Ted of J&L Catering and Carol of the Womens' Club as soon as we arrived. We (and our gear) were situated on a wide stage in the second floor ballroom. Our only dilemma of the night was finding power: While I was changing into my suit, Emily gives me a call on my cell phone, stating, "Brent, we need power! None of the outlets are working!" Good thing that I had my fly up at that time, or I would have left the bathroom looking like a fool. I went upstairs and joined Emily, along with Carol and the Club's electrician. It was a bit weird, seeing as how the catering staff (who was behind the curtain we were standing in front of) had perfect power. We later discovered that our power was working all along—it appeared that one of our power strips was inactive. Boo. It was a good thing that we had our much-needed juice at that time, for if it had stalled, we would have not been in good shape to perform. From setup all the way until the end of dinner, all the events flowed smoothly. When it came time to dance, that was when the mood began to rise positively.

Dancing started a bit earlier than I had expected. I was thinking we were going to begin at 8:30, but we started closer to 8pm. Totally fine by me. Something told me that people were ready to bust loose. Pauline and Matt started the night with their first dance, Dave Matthews Band's "Where Are You Going." After their family and wedding party dances, Emily kicked things off with Nat King Cole's "L-O-V-E." From there, we played everything from Motown to 80s to country and polka as well. Emily and I talked about our transitions during the night as if we were playing musical chess—which we were. I tried some rather cool and new transitions during the evening, including going from "Roll Out the Barrel" to "Love Shack," and "Sweet Escape" to "Come on Eileen" and "Dancing Queen." Whatever we played, the crowd was with us the entire time, and they filled the dance floor up wonderfully for the whole night. It was quite special being on a stage in front of a crowd of over 100+ people with bright lights hanging over us, as if Emily and I were young musical gods. What is even more rewarding is the picture of looking out to the crowd to so many happy, smiling, singing, dancing people. That is what deejaying is all about, as far as I'm concerned.

The greatest moment of the evening happened near 10pm: We were playing the final songs of the night—"Livin' on a Prayer" and "What a Wonderful World." After the final soft, yet raspy tone from Satchmo's song faded out, a grand round of applause ensued. Emily and I thought the evening was all said and done. The next thing that happened threw our expectations completely out of the Club, as a chant from the crowd crescendoed:

"ONE MORE SONG! ONE MORE SONG! ONE MORE SONG!"

Oh…crap.

This is a stunning, yet sticky situation that I sometimes get into; I say "stunning," for it is a wonderful thing when people want more music; I say "sticky" as well for it is my duty to stick to the house rules and end at the appointed time, or face the consequence of losing the respect of the caterers and the venue. At first, I oriented towards the timeline, smiling kindly to the audience and mouthing out "I'm sorry! We have to go!" This action was much to the dismay to the crowd. Suddenly, Paul from the catering staff comes up to me and states, "You can do one more song." Gold. Those words were like the kiss of an angel to me. (Thank God Paul kept his lips to himself.) It is once in a blue moon that we are given leeway to go a bit overtime, and this was definitely one evening With that, I got on the microphone, and stated to the audience that we were going to do one more song. My goodness—did they ever cheer! We ended the night with "Last Dance," and tons of applause and cheering. I could not ask for a better or more satisfying way to end the evening for such a celebratory crowd.

I honestly do not know what else to say, so I will compliment my clients: Pauline and Matt were such a joy to work with and to be with, and this caring couple exemplifies the meaning of how to celebrate and be fully invested in their wedding. It was great to be invested in their special day as well. I guess it's worth it going to a womens' club—no matter what you are!

– Brent Rolland, resident fig deejay

(Many thanks to Russell Lowe, our fun photographer; to Ted, Paul, and the whole bunch at J&L Catering, and to the lovely Carol and everyone at the Womens' Club of Evanston for a magnificent night!)

comming soon!