Nightmares in Clubland: Justin Nyce’s Worst Gig Ever

DJ Techtools regularly sits down with a veteran club DJ to ask them about their “worst night ever” at the club.

While Justin has been a staple on the
East Coast for over 10 years, he’s most commonly seen bouncing back and forth
between his home state of Ohio and Las Vegas. With residencies all across the
country, a recent tour support slot for Chris Lake, and even a set at Bonnaroo,
it’s clear Justin’s one DJ on the verge of breaking through.

But, not every gig has been as glamorous as those he plays today. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that he was breaking up fistfights in the DJ booth.

Without further ado, I’ll let him have at it.

I’ll be honest: It took me a while to
think of my worst night of DJing, as there have been so, so many good ones. Not
to sound cliche, but it’s true. I’m a lucky man. But sure enough, I thought of
one story I (sadly) just couldn’t forget about.

It was an extra, extra sold-out night. I
was DJing at a club that I held a residency at, one known for regularly having
famous athletes in and out of the VIP section all night. We had booked a
headliner (who will remain unnamed), and I was on opening duties.

Everything was going great, until it
wasn’t…

A Fistfight in the DJ Booth

The headliner comes on to play, and
things are going good until about two minutes into his set. A gentleman who
looked vaguely familiar comes up to him to talk, say hi, whisper sweet
nothings, and of course, request a song.

Let’s just say he got really, really
close to the DJ. It was kind of weird.

Of course, the headliner did not like how
close he got to him and gives him a soft nudge to back up a bit. Totally
normal, right?

Nope. Not to our new friend. This guy
didn’t like that soft push one bit. Before I knew it, he starts teeing off on
our headliner and they get into a full out fistfight in the DJ booth with me
stuck on the other side.

Turns out the guy is a UFC fighter,
perfect.

Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t just our
DJ who took a beating that night. Our gear was next.

In the midst of all the fighting, the
headliner’s laptop and most of the set up goes flying off the front of the
booth, and the music cuts.

This was bad. I thought that was going to
be the worst of the night, I was wrong. 

The Laptop Get’s K.O.’d

After a good 2 minutes of dead air (my
favorite), I managed to connect some things back together and throw on a few
songs. The smoke clears, and the party continues with myself DJing, because
headliner was completely done with the night after that mess. Who could blame
him?

Shortly after, things smooth out, and a nice young lady decides to pop a champagne bottle right next to the booth in VIP. Before I know it, there’s champagne all over my laptop. This was no little spill, it was soaked.

(read our article on what to do if you spill alcohol on your gear)

My laptop goes completely black, but
somehow, the music is still playing. I was playing Hip Hop, and the track was
about to finish. I knew had to make a game-time decision to prevent the club
from going silent again.

Always Have a Backup USB

Once I realized my laptop screen was
never coming back on, I fished out a USB stick out of my backpack and switched
over to that. Sadly, I can’t say the night went so great after all of that.

I had a completely sold out club in front
of me with NBA players in attendance, and who knows who else. My Rekordbox
playlists were outdated as hell and a complete mess.

My anxiety is bad as it is, and the
remaining two hours of the night were spent playing off old, jumbled crates.

Somehow, I managed, but the night in
whole was a complete and total disaster.

There is a silver lining, though…

This was years ago, and this became the
night that I decided to switch completely over to Rekordbox from Serato. As you
can probably guess, it was an easy decision at this point.

Honestly, it turned out to be the best
thing I could have done. Shortly after this night, I started to play bigger
stages and early festival slots, so going to USBs was a no brainer. I had
to make the switch eventually, and this was a great reason for doing so.

As they always say: the show must go on! Always be prepared for the worst.