I am curious, I work in a radio station where it is a free format or we play what we want. And like when I have a Mobile gig, the first song is the hardest song to play. My question is this, say your doing a gig not a wedding reception or any "structured" event. How do you know what topick the for first song? What are you looking?

Good question - hard answer! For me the first song choice is subjective to the event, age range and feedback from the person who booked me. Quite often I will look at the crowd before dancing starts and observe the age ranges and base my decision on that. Obviously the more diverse the age range the harder it is to please them. More often than not, I will be approached by people for requests and so I will use those as "testing" songs to see how they react. Like I said this is very subjective to the situation. Hope this helps.

ROQ out.

A little late, but...

From the time I finish setup to about the first 10 mins or so, I'll play some smooth jazz stuff. My usual start ups:
"Let's Get It Started" - BEP
"Get This Party Started" - Pink
"Celebration"

BBQs or block parties -
"Walking On Sunshine"
"Rockin the Suburbs (Over The Hedge version)"

School dances, something fairly new, but not a "hot" song. Maybe something in the current top 10-20 range.

But like ROQ said, it depends on the event and people involved. Check the Mobile Beat Top 200 list for ideas, too.