Calling Everyone with House Party Know-How

If I was you, and I wanted to throw more than one house party, I would buy this -

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/msg/1621874273.html

...and connect that to my source of choice.

I would then put it in a dark room, then invite everyone I knew with at least two weeks' notice. I would make sure that there was room to dance, and that I'd cleared away everything valuable/breakable etc. beforehand. I would make sure that no-one played anything too mad for the first couple of hours, then all bets would be off.

If that worked, I would do it again in a month's time.

Later, I might buy a good mixer. Don't worry too much about lights, just get some cellophane and old desk lamps and make them yourself.

Tell the neighbours what you're up to - a little courtesy goes a long way.

depending on where you live, you've got some decisions to make...

w/ the music you are playing, you want a bassy system, but nothing brings cops faster than a bassy system... bass is what makes neighbors call the police... if you are talking about doing this in an apt as opposed to a loft, chances are it will bother the neighbors... sometimes its a good idea to tell people about it beforehand, sometimes not... sort of depends who your neighbors are and how you stand with them...

a decent pair of powered speakers (yeah, jbl's are good...) should be fine... put on stands and you'll be golden... you can run your mixer straight out thru that...

lights off with christmas lights and whatnot is the way to go...

in general, i like not charging cover and having a little bar and selling beers for like 2 bucks and mixed drinks for a lil more... set up a tip jar and get some friends to bartend... they will do good on tips and hopefully you'll pull in a little cash for the dj's or whoever's house it is...
if the cops come, obv hide the money...

re:thecops... depending on how big or loud it is, they'll either tell you to turn it down or they'll break it up... if the cops in your neighborhood have better things to do, you're ok... honestly, just try to be nice and straightfoward and if it's just a 50 person party, you should be ok...

I've had some experience DJing house parties in Madison, WI.

If you want my advice, card. Seriously.

Its the difference between a 150$ ticket for a noise violation, and a 3000 dollar one for providing alcohol to minors.

Make sure you know who's coming, and tell them 21+.

I've lost hearing playing at these things, so careful with that bass.

if you're concerned with police being called,another option is to rent a house in the countryside for a weekend and get everyone to chip in ten dollars or so,it took myself and my friends a long time to realise that this is an option,but its often the best one - if you want to really crack out dance music all night long its going to be very difficult to not attract unwanted attention if you're in a city.

robin said:

if you're concerned with police being called,another option is to rent a house in the countryside for a weekend and get everyone to chip in ten dollars or so,it took myself and my friends a long time to realise that this is an option,but its often the best one - if you want to really crack out dance music all night long its going to be very difficult to not attract unwanted attention if you're in a city.

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Great. But you're much more likely to get stalked by a killer and picked off one by one.
The DJ last because he's so focussed he's failed to notice his friends being slewn.

well that's one person struck off the guest list!

What neighborhood? I've gone to some banging house parties on the south side, no problems. Maybe they checked with the neighbors first though.

tips from my days putting on punk house shows. never did any in Chicago, tho I certainly went to a whole bunch of house shows here growing up. most of it's just common sense anyway.

-keep everyone inside, i.e. off the stoop or sidewalk or whatever. loud, drunk kids hanging around outside & waking up neighbors is like the #1 thing, after noise complaints, that gets cops called. so, if people are gonna go outside to smoke, ask them to do it in the back yard if you have one
-I guess it depends on the situation but I'm almost always in favor of at least trying to talk to your neighbors. if you don't have that kinda rapport with your neighbors you might be kinda screwed in the first place - your only option then (if you wanna make it more than a 1x thing) is to keep it low-key enough that they won't know what you're doing -> also you don't want to get into shite with your landlord
-soundproofing if you can, I guess it depends on what $ if any you're willing to put into it & what kinda alterations if any you can make to the space. throwing up mattresses against the walls is a low-budget thing that doesn't require you to nail or drill anything. it also keeps people from denting the walls or breaking windows or breaking their own bones (tho that's probably not as much of an issue with dance music as it is with circle pits & slamdancing & stuff)
-make sure there's somebody delegated to talk to cops if they do show up - that person should be sober, a resident, someone who feels comfortable talking to cops.
-selling drinks is good, you can also take "voluntary donations" (or just pass a hat but people are pretty miserly with that usually), tho since you don't have touring bands that need gas $ I don't know much you really need to worry about money
-I've never carded or anything but I guess you could, depending on the age of crowd you expect. I would definitely make a hard & fast rule about drugs, tho. I mean people will break it but it'll cut down.
-this is totally obvious but keep it to Friday or Saturday night. the quickest way to piss people off is to keep them up before they have to go to work (esp. b/c they resent that you have obv don't have to go to work if you're up til the wee hours on a weeknight partying...)

it really does depend on the neighborhood, & even more the specific place you live. like if it's standalone houses with yards that's obv better than if it's rowhouses or a split level or something.

Couldn't you put on a club night instead? If you're in a residential area the police will most likely show up at some point

My only tips are to sell spliffs as well as drinks, and to never keep more than is absolutely necessary for the change at the drinks table. Get someone to carry the rest of the money in their pocket or somewhere safe in case police show. And don't have that person be the same person selling spliffs if you want to see said money again.

Definitely don't want to get caught up selling spliffs in the states... Hope it worked out... see you're in HP, good luck with that. Some of the best stuff I went to in Chicago was put on by the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport, might look them up for future events if they are still kicking.

Oh yeah. Sometimes I forget that I live in Canada where getting caught with weed will mostly get you a handshake for making a lot of free weed possible for the cops that caught you.

Sick Boy said:

Oh yeah. Sometimes I forget that I live in Canada where getting caught with weed will mostly get you a handshake for making a lot of free weed possible for the cops that caught you.

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Yeah, it mostly just gets 'confiscated', and then the cops tell you to be more clever about where you're smoking it next time. I also just realized it's 4/20 tomorrow, I'm in Vancouver and the Art Gallery is going to be really crazy/hazy.