SnazzyBeatz

07-12-2008: A Baraat and Engagement

2008-09-08T15:07:00.005-04:00

We were roped in for a Baraat and an engagement party by two different clients. Both were about 15 min apart distance wise, so we took it up.

This family knows how to really party. The guy is jewish and the girl is of south indian origin and they had a traditional Punjabi baraat. How 'bout that huh!! That was awesome. DJ Vinny and Shawn hit it in sync for the baraat and had the girls dancing all along.

Soon after that we rushed to the country club for the engagement ceremony. The engagement ceremony went through the usual drill with a rocking dance floor. One item that is worth a mention is the participation of BollyFit. Led by Anuja of BollyFit, a group of 3 girls performed Indian Bollywood dances in the most awesome workout and fun fashion.

The girls educated the audience on how important it is to take time to loosen up and keep fit. What more can help than our own favorite Bollywood music?

SnazzyBeatz wishes the engaged couple the most exciting wait until their marriage.

07-05-2008: Wedding in Rochester, NY

2008-07-10T13:36:00.005-04:00

My sis in law visited us from Seattle so, we were thrilled to take a vacation to hang out with the two adorable kids she brought along. Since we had this wedding to DJ in Rochester, NY, we thought it would be cool to take these folks to Niagara falls, drop them at Buffalo, rock the gig and pick them up while driving back. So, we got a hitch installed on the DJ van and tagged a U-Haul along.

Getting to Rochester, NY was quite a drive so, we hit the road on 3rd, bunked at Erie, PA that night and drove to Rochester on 4th and checked into Double Tree, where the wedding was planned.

COOL IDEA:
At the door we were handed this kitty with Rupa and Sanj's name on it. The kitty had a wedding detail book, a biscotti, a Gujrati papad pack, a biscuit pack, few sesame snacks, few hersheys, a spicy Indian Mixture pack, two bottles of water etc. That was the best thing they did. The snacks saved us both the nights when we got back to the room late in the night after the party. The book was neatly arranged with what to expect throughout the weekend, directions, addresses, phone numbers and a cute fact sheet about the bride and the groom.

We were invited to join the Garba night on 4th but, something kept telling me that I have to dine outside and do something that my conscience was telling me repeatedly to, back up my hard drive ! So, we crawled into a neighbourhood TGIF and had dinner and I backed up my hard drive. The family danced all night to Garba tunes which were sung by a Garba band from New Jersey. They did an awesome job. We met Shawn a very talented teenager with great sense of rhythm for dhol. DJ Vinny and Shawn sync-d up the previous night to see if, they could rock together.

The DAY-OF started with lovely weather and Baraat. Since we had two dhol players, we decided to keep music in a car out of the scene. Shawn and DJ Vinny rocked the baraat with their high speed sync beats. When the meet and greet (Paukvanu) happened at the entrance, they changed gears and hit some Garba beats for the family. The nervous (of falling down) groom was carried over shoulders into the ballroom.

Ceremony started on time and ended hastily so much that, there wasn't enough time to take pictures too. The hall had to be transformed with the reception gear. We were set up on floor directly so, we needed a raiser for the reception. To all DJs and wedding hosts out there, please please insist on having a raiser for a DJ. It is very important for a DJ to connect with the audience, to be able to see what is going on, on the dance floor and for the overall success of your event. It took us forever to re-setup everything and there was hardly an hour left for us to rest, before the reception.

While we were setting up for reception, my primary hard drive accidentally fell down from the table onto the raiser. Remember what I was saying about the conscience earlier? GOSH! If not for that back up, i would have been dead in the evening. Not that we couldn't DJ without it, but there was so much work to be re-done, the entire strategy for the reception had to change, the mixing style would have changed...!!! Still shuddering thinking, what would have happened if, I had not listened to my screaming voice inside.

An indoor pool was right in front of the ballroom so, guests went straight from the ceremony into the pool. Reception ran real fast with a few dance performances and short speeches. I quizzed the guests in the room on the fact sheet from the kitty. Apparently, all of them read that book, they got the answers right. Dinner was served on time and we went straight into dancing at 9:30. Ladies did a traditional jago and guys did a surprise Daru Jago. I thought since the family had a Mehndi on thursday, a Garba on Friday, they would be tired to dance anymore on Saturday but, oh NO! This family rocks, they hung out on the dance floor for 3 straight hours dancing non-stop. We started the night with Bhangra, mixed in bollywood and bhangra beats and ended it with an exculusive hip-hop, 70s hour. Elders had enough to dance earlier so, the last hour of hip-hop was okay for them to chill out and watch.

One of the guests had an accident on the dance floor with her own shoes tumbled with the sari ends and had to be sent to the hospital. We wish her good luck and speedy recovery.

06-20-2008: Graduation season it is

2008-06-23T09:53:00.007-04:00

Takin' a break from weddings is a good idea. We spinned at a couple of graduation parties this past weekend. It was quite refreshing and and also a little stress free.

We DJd two different graduation parties and both the kids are going to be Michigan Wolverines. While driving to the friday gig, Vinny and I were discussing that most of the Indian kids go to UOM and are on their way to med school. While this is common to see, it is to be noted that these kids are really smart. It is not easy to get into these coveted universities as you cant BUY admission here. One needs to be really smart and hard working to get in and it makes me happy to see that these kids are so. Shruti's graduation was a blast, the program elements were short with just a few speeches so, there was ample time for dancing. The kids danced all night although the elders took a backseat after 11:30.

Saturday, we gigged at another graduation party in Troy community center. Incidentally a fellow DJ of ours was also DJing next door for another graduation party. We did think of opening the doors and combining the party so everyone could rock to the same beats. That would have been so cool but, the party next door ended a little earlier than ours. The party crew bought some party city Helium balloon kit and struggled to open it. Our photographer, Gary, who was a big strong guy also used his strength on it, but could not crack the code. So, we did not have any balloons. :-(

Again with fewer program elements, the dinner started on time and kicked in an hour and half of dancing. Parth got his graduation cake smacked onto his face, which he did not seem to like as much but, hey that is part of the fun.

We are quite tired right now so, we are taking a break next weekend. Going on Vacation !!!!

Will swing back after the July 4th weekend. Happy Independence day to you all ! Have fun and be safe this long weekend.

06-14-2008: A full day blast

2008-06-16T16:46:00.006-04:00

Our day started pretty early to get all lined up for Baraat by 9:30AM. We packed up all our gear and got to the hall by 8AM and since we could not eat anything that early, we filled ourselves with Red Bull and Gatorade, and guess what, they dont open until 9AM. Bummer, it was but, then there was starbucks right next door so, whoz complaining ?!

Family arrived a little late so, it gave us breathing time to finish our set up. DJ Vinny kicked it off with is Dhol and had everyone soak themselves in the sun dancing. The baraat lasted for a good half hour to 45 minutes and poor Vinny was almost out of Gatorade by the end of it. Milni was packed with lifts and laughters.

Santosh walked in with Shehnai and Joshiji started off with his ceremony. Joshiji is the best punditji you would want for your wedding. He is humorous, explains everything in english as well and the audience paid good attention to the happenings. Most of us dont understand the sanskrit readings so, he ensured he translated all the important items. His humor was timely and had everyone enjoy the elegant ceremony. Sonu walked in beautifully for Bararon Phool Barsao.

We had a couple of hours of break so, we set up the rest of the lighting gear and went home and slept for an hour. It was going to be a long day. The best thing about the reception was that the speeches were short and sweet, dinner started on time and performances were limited to a dance and one karaoke song.

Dancing started right away and went on for two solid hours until the hall management reminded me that it was midnight and what I was playing then, was to be the last song. The family was very happy at the end and it totally made our night and was very rewarding.

06-07-2008: A baraat (Wedding procession)

2008-06-10T11:25:00.012-04:00

So, DJ Vinny rocks dhol now, thanks to DJ Sachin who got him into it. Sachin left his dhol for a long time with us so Vinny could practice and finally Vinny got his own dhol. Kalakendar dot com is a wonderful website to get percussion instruments. Their service was great, shipping was timely.

The wedding was at the Detroit Westin Hotel at the airport. Considering security, as far as you could carry an item in your hands open, they would allow it. We were skeptic coz we did not know if, the drum would have to go through security and such. It was no hassle.

The aroma of Idli/sambar and Upma was sailing through the lobby. We warmed up everyone and after some photoshoot, the baraat started. DJ Vinny took them down the escalators into the open lobby and called the family and friends one by one for some dhol fun. Now, dhol being so loud, the Westin management got 13 complaints that it was bothering them. Apparently if, you get 10 complaints an action is due. We were urged to wrap it up soon and so Vinny took them down another escalator for the Milni. I think the complaints were genuine coz, the guests could be so tired, crew rests there amidst flights, so, it was okay.

Airport weddings are cool, although there are some limitations such as you could not have a loud dhol for a long time, no horse is allowed for baraat such and such....but, your guests can arrive, rest and get ready right there for the wedding. It is very convenient as far as travelling goes. Oh and not to mention, the hotel staff, though being non-indian was all dressed in Sarees and did an excellent job in co-ordinating the event. They had another cool thing, a gobo projecting the bride and the groom's name in front of the escalators.

We rolled into Ann Arbor, had Bubble Tea at Bubble Island, yayyyyyy and picked a friend to go to the airport again. We picked his wife and child, who were coming from India and I captured a candid Canon moment. For a first timer, the flight from India is an overwhelming experience.

While driving back that night, we stopped by Hyatt at Dearborn to meet DJ Naveen. DJ Naveen was absolutely rocking the night on a wedding reception and the waves were seeping through the parking lot. We hung out for a little while there and headed back home.

05-26-2008: Memorial day rush

2008-06-07T16:25:00.000-04:00

Memorial day was a lot of fun and was uber busy for us. 3 gigs in 2 days wasn't keeping my fingers straight.

Saturday went smooth with a mehndi. The girls did an awesome job with setting up a traditional mehndi backdrop. The best thing I liked in here was the entrances of the bride and the groom. They entered under a canopy and with a group of girls and guys. All of them lined up on either side of the dance floor and it was very festive, with Mehndi ki raat by Junaid Jamshed and Mehndi Hathon mein by Falguni Pathak. We kicked out all the men (Women of certain communities do not dance in front of men) at the end of the party and had girls dancing for a couple of hours.

Vinny and I had to split on Sunday. :-(
DJ Vinny took care of the wedding reception for a client while I teamed up with DJ Mike for another reception at the Imperial House. The best part was both of them were in clinton township so, it was not too hard for us to set up gear and share knick knacks.

Since all the americans were wearing kurtas at the reception, DJ Mike decided to wear his too, which I gave him for his birthday a year ago. We rocked the night with a hearty mix of Indian and American music. Mike and I totally competed for our turns with music. The wedding was for an American boy with an Indian girl. You gotta love to see the cultures coming together. Sean had cool moves for both Billy Jean and Soni de Nakhre, 'twas a treat to watch!

A unique thing I saw was, while the bride and the groom had their first dance, a few boys from the hotel staff walked around them with something glowing in their hands. It was blue in color and had some light flames going on. It was a very cool sight.

Mike being the hyper Mike he is, threw himself off the stage twice, while dancing and mixing from behind the booth. "Dont give me no more stage", he smiles. We had a blast.

April and May gig news : All at once

2008-05-16T17:26:00.005-04:00

I am sorry, bein lazy lately to update gig news. So, what have we been doing other than patiently waiting for sun and surviving winter blues....gigging for sure.

April'08
Started spring hopes up with a corporate event for Infosys. We DJ-d their third quarter bash late last year too, if you have read/remember the one from September. We were roped in much earlier and we put together plenty of cool games and the evening was on rapid fire. Unfortunately, this time the planning time was too short but, we did create a musical quiz for the folks and danced all night. Organizers complained about feet-ache but, that is very much a good news for us.

We went hibernating for a little while and a reception kicked in, for one of our good friend's daughter. It went on well but, we were stationed too far from the dance floor and also quite off-centered, 'twas too hard for us to guage what is going on, on the dance floor. A late dinner also shrunk the dance floor to half the size too.

May'08
Finally, some spurts of sun here and there brought in a Sangeet. Lots of singing and dancing, karaoke and a very fun night. The family had the Sangeet on a friday and the actual reception on the next saturday, which was cool because, it helped everyone to relax and be more fresh for each party. A mehndi was snuggled in between too. If you can spread Sangeet and Reception apart, do that. That helps everyone a lot to really enjoy the party. Thats us from Sangeet.

The reception night was an absolute rock and roll. The bridal party entered with a bang, while DJ Amri ran as MC for the night. The wedding couple grooved in for Dus Bahane and DJ Vinny rocked his dhol for them. The coolest thing was the soul train. While the bride and the groom danced on their first dance, it went wooooooosh all of a sudden and all the bridesmaids and groomsmen lined up for a soul train. Soul train rolled in with Soulja boy, Tarkan's kiss and few more jazzy tunes.

The dad, Sohail who is a very good friend of us, sang a bidai song for his daughter "Babul ki duaen leti jaa" with so much emotion and croak in his voice, that it left everyone heavy hearted. But then, a rocking dance floor eased it all.

DJ Vinny mixed in live dhol with the dance floor and we kicked our lovely bride in tears onto her husband's home with a traditional Vidai. One of our friends who made it to the wedding said that we gigged it as if it was our own sister's wedding. With all humbleness, I'd say that was the best compliment for us and sure, it is no less than our own sister's wedding.

03-15-2008: Satyamotsav '08

2008-03-17T17:02:00.008-04:00

Now, that is what is called HOT! With the winter being so unforgiving as it is, we took a break from giggin' and completely missed the action. Weekend buzzed by and we went full blown into Satyamotsav, a corporate party for Satyam Computers, celebrating 20 years of super success.

Kicked it off with welcome wagon and as soon as the room started bustling with laughter, running kids and thoughtful debates at tables, we hit off "abra-ka-dabra"! and magic show started for the kids. No treat was better to watch, than these kids laughing their hearts out. We elders need to learn to laugh more.

We blind folded some folks and played an egg cracking game, which was hilarious for the audience to watch. Entered a trivia quiz, folks looted Best Buy gift cards for each answer. We managed to keep it sane amidst some 50 kids running beserk throughout.

Dinner was complimented by some karaoke enthusiasts and mimicry talent from the group and we started spinning footloosers right after. Happy feet and faces followed and we called it a night with some slow motion and fast forward fun on the dance floor. This group had some serious footwork and they rocked !!
Oh a tip...they had the coolest candy ever. Apparently, gocandy dot com , a company for images in chocolate was roped in to get Satyamotsav's custom candy wrapper. That was the coolest thing I saw. The candy was distributed to kids as they entered the room. An idea for you if, you want to do something different for your upcoming party.

01-05-2008: 50th Birthday at Travis Pointe

2008-01-08T14:57:00.000-05:00

Travis pointe country club is a beautiful venue, if you live around Ann Arbor/Saline area and want to have a party. We DJd a 50th birthday party at this club. The banquet hall had an open floor plan, which means guests can have a long open aisle from the lounge, perfect for family walk ins. If you have a small wedding of 100-150 people, it would be perfect.

The evening started with instrumentals while open fire sauteed some trendy chicken and shrimp kabobs and veggie relishes, courtesy Shalimar restaurant. After a few short and sweet speeches, some shayari (Poems) was poured open. The candid shayari was aimed at the man hitting 50 years and was quite funny. Guests and the host's family enjoyed it with good spirit.

When all dispersed for the dinner, we opened up a juke box and sang a few karaoke songs. The first one was a low key, as it took a little time to adjust speakers' position. From the second song on, dinner time rocked. We started with the saucy "Jaane jaa dhoondta" and ended it with the foot thumping "Jai jai shiv shankar" with a few latest songs from Koi mil gaya and Chalte Chalte in between.

After dinner, the mom and daughter performed a dance together on salam-e-ishq. The dad and the son countered that with a punchy bhangra "Sardar". I have not seen a family that is so young and vibrant and so talented, 50 years was nothing on him, he beat his teenager son with his bhangra moves.

Open dance floor rocked with the latest bolly and bhangra beats. While all the guest left to their homes which were about 5-10 minutes away, we drove 65 miles back, phew !!... but, it was fun !

12-15-2007: A Cleaveland engagement

2008-01-03T10:45:00.000-05:00

Yes, you read the date right, that was the blizzard weekend and only crazy people like us drive through that to go to Cleaveland from Detroit and DJ this fabulous engagement party. The gig actually was DJ Sachin's, a very good friend of ours and I just went along with him to see him in action. We hit the road on saturday in the morning for this evening gala and the drive was pretty smooth. We got there in time, set up and were ready to rock the night.

Sachin is an amazing dhol player, he took off with his dhol and started to rock the entrance with family waiting for the bride. Folks could not contain themselves and started dancing right at the beginning of the party itself. It was a treat to watch. The bride entered with a big dhol bang and the excitement was set for the evening.

The bride and the groom were trained dancers, they had bagged several prizes in FOGANA competetions and knew each other since they were kids. So, dancing was second nature and they just outwit everyone. Oh, that performance by Aunties.com was roaring as well.

The entire evening was themed black and white and the hall decked with tons of photographs, a black and white photo essay of the bride and the groom, it was unique.

Sachin kicked off the dance floor with his punching live dhol mix and and crowd went bonkers with bhangra, bollywood and of course Soulja boy. Towards the end, when most of the elder folks left, Sachin resorted to hiphop and spinned quite a few reggae and R&B.

We were put up in the same hotel as all the other wedding guests. So, after the party, all of them came to the hotel and went into another after-party till 5 in the morning. We dozed off soon, and started to drive back to Michigan the next morning. It only took 6 and half hours to cover an otherwise 3 hour route. Nuf said !

12-31-2007: New years at Ashoka restaurent, Canton, MI

2007-12-31T11:08:00.000-05:00

We spinned at too many events this year so, decided to cool it and take december off. So, we blocked our calendar out and gave a NO to all the requests for december gigs. A client saw DJ Vinny playing dhol at one of the events and requested us to just accent his New year's party with live dhol. Since it was just for an hour, we decided to go for it.

Ashoka restaurent is in Canton, MI. They do have another branch in Troy too, but the New year's party was at the Canton location. We set out to meet our close friends in Ann Arbor, ate a chinese buffet, which was surprisingly desserted on a New years eve. Started off for the New year's party at around 10:30PM.

The roads were clean, and we got there in 15 min, from Ann Arbor, MI. The party was already ripping the floor, DJ Keshav was spinning foot thumping tracks. Vinny breezed in with his dhol and we kick started some bhangra. Since the room was smaller than most banquet halls, Vinny started playing without the Mic and realized soon that he will need to plug in.

He plugged into the Mic and folks went crazy for "Punjabi touch" with live dhol. Vinny rocked the night with his dhol, not to mention, cut his finger in the excitement as well. We took some of our music with us, which was probably a good thing as Vinny could play for some of the very popular bhangra tunes. Vinny was flocked and some of them danced around the dhol. It was a lot of fun. We did a count down mix at 12.

Oh, snow has something to do with our DJing, every time. Just in an hour between 12AM to 1AM, we were dumped with 6 inches of snow. After the party, we drove back to our friends place in Ann Arbor and stayed there overnight, chatted until 5 in the morning. When we came back, this is how our driveway looked !

11-23-2007 - Sweet 16 and Sangeet

2007-11-25T15:49:00.000-05:00

Earlier, this year, we decided to stay in for thanksgiving holiday. So, what's better than to DJ a couple of events in the long weekend? So, we DJ-d two events, a Sweet 16 party on Friday and a friend's Sangeet on Saturday and still had plenty of rest. The weekend totally rocked.

After our sweet 16 girl cut her cake, the usual dancing started. I must tell you something about this group. I meet several kinds of groups while djing. Some dance to only those tunes they know and spend most of their time behind the DJ booth, telling the DJ what to play next and spend very less time on the floor having fun. Another group, dances to any tune you play and just want to have a good time at the party. This group was of the second kind. We played, Bhangra, Reggae, South Indian beats and this group danced for more than 2 hours non stop for any tune we played. It was so much fun DJing their event even for us. We both kept dancing behind the booth as well.

At the end, we had few guests come to us and say, "We have seen several Djs that just play music, par aap dono bhi itni masti kar rahe ho ki, watching you both, we were even more motivated to have fun. Excellent attitude, wish we had someone like you in New York". THAT MADE OUR DAY!

Saturday was spent at Sachin's Sangeet, who is a fellow DJ and a brilliant dhol player. So, what happens when you have two DJs in a room? The room gets a total knock out set up with two DJ systems, just for 100 people. The decor was stunning in the room. The evening had many dance performances, Shayari, Teasers to the couple etc. Jaya and Anjali danced brilliantly, after all, they are trained under Chaula Thakar's Nadanta, a dance school that I belong to.

When open dancing started, it looked difficult for the guests to freely dance, perhaps the dance floor was too small. We saw them dancing a little and clapping in a cicle a lot. So, even if you are having a small party, if you have a dancing guest profile, make sure your hall has a big dance floor.

Dr Sanjay Gupta was part of the guests, Vinny recognized him, though I did not. I have a poor face recognition algorithm built in. At the end, we sang a few songs for the couple and Sachin joined us too.

Oh and we survived totally on our neighbour's food that weekend, it is so hard to eat at the parties, when there is so much work at hand and you are all pumped up with energy. We got home both the nights and ate Idli-Sambar she gave us. Our neighbour is an absolute darling and takes care of us like a big sister !

11-02-2007 - A KHAN wedding

2007-11-03T15:21:00.000-04:00

Lucky us, we got to DJ two events back to back, Mehndi and the actual Shaadi. Mehndi was purely for the ladies, so gentlemen, may we kick you out pleasantly? I being a girl, get roped into some of these privileged ladies-only events. They are a lot of fun and perhaps, unlike men in a bachelor's party, these ladies are so well behaved and have so much fun.

The evening started casually in a laid back mode until the families made their entrance. The groom's family, minus the groom and other men of course, came in with eloborate gifts for the bride. Girls formed a trail with lovely candles, flowers and gorgeous suit sets for the bride and the bride followed beautifully under a dupatta canopy.

After an exciting photo session on the stage in a swing, the entertainment started with several dance performances. Girls performed dances for the bride and covered the ground from hiphop to belly dancing. They were amazing. We had an impromptu performance on 'Mehboob mere - Fiza', which was a stunner too.

The rest of the night was power packed with bhangra and high energy enthusiasm. The nikah next day was very traditional. Our bride walked in with 'Tere bin - Atif Aslam' steering through the room. That song never sounded better than that.

That is us by the way.

10-26-2007 Traditional Choora and Jago Sangeet

2007-10-27T15:03:00.000-04:00

So many days of work to find that one perfect 'Choora' song finally pays off. The 'day of' actually happened to be our wedding anniversary as well so, Djing and having fun sounded pretty good. We DJ-d a sangeet for which a lot of time was spent with the bride in the car, in the parking lots, in the tea shops, just to find that one perfect Choora song, prior to the wedding. The journey itself was so much fun and we got to know the bride very well and became friends too.

The evening kick started with the traditional Choora ceremony and as the music waved through the hall, the bride had a corner full of competing family members to grace her with Chooras and get a picture. After the hustle and bustle settled down, the ladies had a traditional 'Jago' and the lights were dimmed out. It was a beautiful scene with the pot lit with lights on top and we had given a few hidden mics to the ladies and they all sang lovely jago songs.

We opened the dance floor immediately after the jago so as to not loose that momentum and guests kept dancing whilst having dinner. We got to play the really traditional punjabi folk dance numbers as the guest profile was mostly elderly and wanted the traditional bhangra music. It was a fun night to watch so many people shake a leg or two for the true folk bhangra. Not that, I would have anything against the fusion bhangra, but, it is so hard to dance to.

We saw the couple off to Gurdwara for the wedding next morning. I worked myself to death on this one so, no pics. :-(

10-20-2007 - Indian Filipino wedding

2007-10-21T15:58:00.000-04:00

Have you ever seen children that are born to Indian and Asian ( Indians are Asians too but, I mean, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino etc )? They are so gorgeous. I had a friend back in California, who was married to a chinese woman and their children were model-like. I think they get a perfect combination of beautiful features, blemishless skin and stunning hair.

Well, we DJ-d a wedding with an Indian groom and a Filipino bride. A very fun loving couple, preferred a small ceremony here in the states, so as to have a full blown bash back home. We did get to play some filipino music but, it was given to us by the family and we were told to play particular songs. While we could not understand anything from the tracks, the music was very soothing.

The most interesting part of the evening was the dance floor. We raked in all the bhangra beats and bollywood reggae and all the guests hit the dance floor and danced crazily. We were surprised to see the filipino guests dance to bhangra with so much rhythm, way better than some of us indeed.
One of the guests was an amazing singer, so we threw in a few karaoke tracks for him. Sohail joined too and then, DJ Amri and DJ Vinny also joined them and sang a few songs before the night was called off.

10-12-2007 Weddings: American-Punjabi, South-North combo

2007-10-13T15:07:00.000-04:00

We have been running too many gigs and have not had time to update our GIG Blog. So I decided to post all of them at once today.

The roughest weekend started all on Thursday, the 11th of October. I roped myself into a situation where I committed myself to applying mehndi to the ladies at the home based sangeet. It was fun but, I got myself home at 12 midnight and I had to work the next day and also DJ their Sangeet on friday night. The ladies were awesome, a couple of them could play tabla and dhol and they sang all night at home and also put together a power-packed performance on Friday night. It was a traditional, typcial sangeet with everyone having fun with live music.

The bride and the groom were an interesting mix of south and north indian. I say interesting because, they both sang a song, with each of them singing in their mother tongue. The songs were Jotheyali Jothe Jotheyali, a Kannada song from the movie 'Geeta' and Jaane do na, which is a Hindi song from 'Cheeni Kam'. Both were composed by Ilayaraja and the Kannada song was the original old song and the hindi song was recently made by him in Cheeni Kam. I sent them the lyrics, original tracks and also the Karaoke track for them to practice. This was a surprise to the entire family and a lot of fun. Oh and yes, we also met a budding Kannada actor Venkatesh Prasad, who is our groom's best friend. He set the dance floor abuzz with his lip sync and dance on "Mere angne mein...". It was fun.

So, I slept much after midnight both on Thursday and Friday and Saturday was the true test for strength. We had to DJ an American-Punjabi wedding in Dearborn on 13th October 2007. We had to rush ourselves over there by 8AM, as I signed up for wedding planning as well. If you are wondering, I have already vowed to myself that I ain't doing this again.

A fresh flower mandap and plenty of Dhol set it to 'perfectly ethnic'. I saw two cool things in this wedding. The couple hired a caricaiturist and an illusionist. The caricaiturist kept the guests away from getting bored, and the illusionist went to each table and showed them some card tricks. I heard people exclaim once in a while. While going home, the illusionist pulled out a business card with flames, he blew the flames and gave it to me. It did smell smoke. Way cool!

The best part was Sachin's live dhol. Sachin is an amazing dhol player and after everyone was out from the party, he played some dhol for me and Vinny too, to dance, while we were tearing down. All in all, it was a lot of fun but, honestly, we are not doing 3 gigs in a weekend ever again.
In all the work I had, I had no pictures shot at any of these events. :-(

Infosys third quarter bash: 09-22-2007

2007-09-28T15:23:00.000-04:00

Meet the hep and vibrant crowd of Infosys. We hung out with this oh-so-kewl crowd last Saturday and DJ-d their third quarter bash. A room full of 140 people bubbling with enthusiasm and determined to have fun, what more could we ask for? The evening was on rapid fire with non-stop entertainment, games, lots of singing and a thunder on the dance floor.

Folks raked their brains and joined hands to put together a piece of puzzle for our own US map. Seems easy, ey? Not so. A sharp team, who later re-christened themselves as 'Aath Ana' (half a rupee) and turned quite mischevious as well, beat all the other teams by yards and yards and put their pie together first. All of them sported a winning shiny star on their shirts, for the rest of the evening. Pictured to the left and right.

A quick snack here and there and we jumped into the taglines. Again, the teams poured in their energy into finding the answers for the taglines. Few were caught sneak-peaking others answer sheets to make their own cheat-sheet. Everyone yelled out the answers for each tagline at the end. It was absolute fun. Teams named Girl Power and Elixir beat the rest of the teams in taglines and scored a 17 out of 20.

We quickly spindled through Anthakshari, which by the way, was not an easy task to host, for a whopping 12 teams. The team names were very creative and sounded like Dhamaal, Spartans, Yalgar Ho, 300C, Detroit Tigers, so on so forth. We must say that everyone of'em was good and it was hard to steer through the competetion. DJ Vinny kept the flow of tunes pretty smooth, while DJ Amri ran across the floor getting each team's participation for the rounds. Team Dhamaal, pictured to the left, created all the buzz and took home the grand prize for Anthakshari, beating the 11 other teams and Yalgaar Ho fought through, to grab the second spot, leaving the other 10 behind.

Amidst yummy food trips, the teams received many exciting prizes for the games hosted by us and also the games that the Infosys team conducted among themselves, prior to the party. All of'em sprung onto the dance floor and cut foot loose while DJ Amri and DJ Vinny cranked up the volume on Bolly, South Indian and Bhangra beats. We were set out to pick a best dancer male and female but, boy 'twas impossible to do that, when all of them danced with such great footwork. We gave away few gifts, however.

Now, this was the pepper on the cake. The last song was playing and then, thud!!, everything shuts off. What we found out later while packing out was, that the hall management yanked power out of the two outlets we were using for our DJ gear. Why?, coz we went over by 15 minutes from the scheduled end time. We bid adieu to the folks through a plain vocal vote of thanks (no mics) while they tried to continue dancing with their own chanting of 'Soni de nakhre'. It was hilarious and that was the spirit of these folks.

Overall, 'twas an nite to remember! Many thanks to Rohan, Animesh, Shallex, Sam and Pratyush, who met us and got us to DJ their event.

Grand Rapids, MI: Riverfront museum wedding 09-08-2007

2007-09-14T18:34:00.000-04:00

How cool is that? Getting married outdoors at a downtown riverfront in Grand Rapids, MI, with traditional nadaswaram making waves through the air, panditji's enchanting Mantras complimenting the music, cool breeze and cocktail. Hindu ceremony wraps up with a bang, garlands exchanged, blessings showered and voila, curtain raised for the American ceremony.

The couple rushed to change into wedding gown and a suit. We sprung into Jazz music, urban beats and downtown mood. Vows were exchanged amidst tears and Priest's Holy Bible recital. A couple so much in love! We had such hard time getting the unity candle to be lit though! Breezy.

That was how our saturday went last weekend, djing on a riverfront for this wedding, which was the union of an Indian boy and an American girl.

The reception moved indoors into a public museum and wow, what a novelty it is! Downtown rivers at the backdrop, and museum's artifacts to compliment the wedding decor. Check out the fossils in the glass shelves.

Folks got out to a horse carousel after dinner, became complete kids and had a blast on the horse carousel, while we played a few tunes to an empty dancefloor. Soon after that, all rushed in and had a ball on the dancefloor. Between the Indian and the Urban American theme, the wedding totally rocked!