Super DJ’ing in Guatemala

Last night I DJ’d a benefit for the Lions Club Guatemala- they were raising money for Christmas gifts to give to the needy kids around here. I had the honor of sharing the bill with The Horchata Regular Band and Malacates. The Horchatas were your standard neo-ska outfit, all with matching red t-shirts, awkward skanking and tons of early-20’s energy. Malacates was the headline act that got all the cool kids to come out.

DJ’ing this event was just a tad different from my normal steez- the promoter’s unusual requests plus the language barrier provided some great humor and entertainment. After playing a 2.5 hour set, I suddenly became part of an elaborate stage show featuring two hotties from the Gallo beer company. I had ’em bopping around to Swirl People while the MC chattered away about who knows what. FYI there’s always an MC chattering away whenever a soundsystem is present- it’s some sort of Guatemalan tradition. After the T&A show, three couples from the audience were then brought up on stage and I provided a little stop’n’start dance music, taking visual cues from the MC. I can’t exactly tell you all the rules, but it was a really fun game and the crowd was fully into it. After that, I played backing tracks for young female vocalist and her high-strung Dad who made sure I knew exactly what tracks to play even though he gave me a written list. Crazy parents are everywhere I guess. Anyway, her rendition of “Feliz Navidad” was great and got the biggest reaction from the crowd. ¡Good times!

Here’s a short video montage of the Gallo babes, Kara doing her Fly Girl routine at the beginning of the night, and then some stop’n’start fun: Flickr deleted my awesome vid and I threw away the original, but here’s a lil’ bit I re-upped: