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Today I played a show with the A&B Wrecking Company (sponsored by Strings and Things Music) for an American Cancer Society event at the New Hampshire Technical Institute, known locally as "the tech", which was still a little flooded.
Of course, they had to have a DJ too, which just created a battle between the band and the DJ as to who was going to make noise when. I ended up sitting in the wind and cold with my bass in hand and my amp politely on "mute" as the theme to "Rocky" (I'm serious) and several other over-played hits from the 1970s were played to get the party started. A word about Disc Jockeys:

I play in a band. I play in several bands. I've done so for many years. In doing so I have carried quite literally, tons of equipment, practiced for weeks, and dealt with many technical problems including, but not limited to: on several occasions not even having electricity and being severly shocked. Being a musician is not easy, and being good a good one is even harder; also you tend to make very little money, and many people want DJs more than they want bands. Today's DJ plugs in his/her laptop, buys a few PA speakers, a microphone, a couple swirly lights, and makes 500 bucks to play "Stand By Me" for 50 year olds who pretend they're still happily married. These DJs for some reason feel that they themselves are somehow specially qualified to download songs off of limewire and operate windows media player. I am a musician, a person with the creative capacity to write and perform music for specific events. I can set up and tear down quickly. I have played with large bands in very small spaces. I am too often told to "please turn it down a little bit" or "do you mind if I make a quick announcement?" The whole while I am expected to smile, act very professional, and wear a collared shirt. At the end, if we're lucky, a group of 5 might get paid as much as the one DJ with a laptop and a disco ball. Have I made the unfairness clear enough? I am a very frustrated person.