Pictured : not gatecrashers

Music

There are many ways to play music at a party. I am going to cover this by talking about the way we cover music at the main house parties I attend now at my friend Grant (co-organizer for La Chambre) and his partner Mel’s house. A big reason why I attend a lot of house parties there is I have known Mel for around 20 years and Grant for a little over 10. Plus when they bought a house it is reasonably close to where I live. I can ride the scooter there or get an Uber for around $11-13. By comparison an Uber to the CBD is more like $35-45 depending on loading. In fact all of the photos in this article are from parties held at their house, used with their permission.

When they started holding house parties music was played through their stereo system either via a laptop or vinyl records. The laptop allowed for MP3 playlists which were easier to let play as flipping records every 15-20 minutes can get tiresome and people can forget. Silences aren’t always fun.

Later we dabbled with internet radio stations. Internet radio stations are fantastic as there are so many that focus on niche genres now. When you get bored of one, switch to another. We discovered a lot of new bands collectively listening to this stuff and talking about the music no one knew. That said stuff you don’t know isn’t always conducive to dancing.

Later than that at Grant’s 40th birthday and Mel’s birthday in 2015, I DJed using my digital rig and the bass amp (as pictured earlier). These were my first gigs going digital and it was a great practice run for myself as well as providing music to keep the party rolling. First time we set up outside, second time inside. My 100 watt bass amp may not seem powerful but it did get the police to ask us to turn down around 2-3am twice.

In the last year or so (as Grant and I started running La Chambre), he bought a vinyl record DJ set up and a PA. So we use that mostly for music at the parties now. It works out pretty cool as attendees are invited to bring some records and play music too. I tend to use it for vinyl DJ practice and before I had my own record player at home I used to test out new records there. By taking turns we not only cover a wide range of music but no one is stuck DJing most of the night on their own unless they choose to. Plus we all learn about music from genres others know more about. On top of that Grant bought some lasers, lighting and a smoke machine so we can have a club-like atmosphere.You will see this in the videos I post at the end.