Spinning Truths & Dropping Wedding Bombs: DJ ESG’s No-BS Guide to Your Big Day

Punk Pop Fusion: DJ ESG's Tale of a Halloween Wedding Dance-Off at the Franklin Institute

DJ ESG Season 12 Episode 12

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What happens when punk goth meets pop royalty at a wedding? Join me, DJ ESG, as I unravel the unforgettable tale of a Halloween wedding at the Franklin Institute that set the bar for all future celebrations. Picture this: a couple from a New York City punk goth band mixing the unexpected duo of Danzig and Madonna in their playlist. As the evening began, a small group of guests ventured into a theatrical mosh pit to the sounds of Danzig, while others watched in amusement. But the night truly came alive when Madonna's infectious beats took over, bringing nearly all 285 attendees together in a joyous dance-floor frenzy. This episode is all about celebrating unique themes and personal tastes that lead to surprising and memorable moments.

Reflecting on this extraordinary event, I couldn’t help but think that only something as dramatic as a tragedy or breakup could rival this story. As I recount this high-energy night, my Jewish background and the tradition of collecting wild stories play a starring role, much to the amusement of my wife. With the rare overlap of Hanukkah's first night with Christmas this year, I send out heartfelt holiday greetings, wishing you a Wednesday filled with peace, love, and blessings. Join me for a captivating episode filled with gothic punk flair, timeless pop, and a wedding memory that stands out among the rest.

Peace, Love & God Above! :-)

Speaker 1:

What's up, guys? Dj ESG, and this is the Right Before Christmas episode and it's story time again, and every time I get to this point of the year I tell stories about some of the greatest events I've ever had. And every year around Christmas I tell this story and it gets better and better and better with each passing hour. And it's about a. Is it 2024? It's from 2006 or 7 or eight, somewhere in that ballpark, whatever, that Saturday was for Halloween, back in the day of those three years. And this story is the mother of all stories. I will never in my life have another wedding that's quite like this.

Speaker 1:

So when I was originally talking to the bride and groom, I was kind of weird. Like they were sitting in front of me and I knew something was different and it was just a little bit like they walked in and one was wearing like I forget who it was, I think it was a Slipknot shirt, and the other one was wearing some band I never heard of before and you know she was dark, dark, and when I say dark, I mean like dark lipstick and you know dark hair and everything caucasian. But and then he was like long hair and I. They sat in front of me and I was like okay. I was like I was like, all right, here we go. And I first my thirst. My first thought was like a heavy metal metal. These guys are into this. So we started talking and turns out they play in a punk goth band in New York City and I was like, whoa, that's cool. You guys in the back of my head, I'm like you're not going to dance to shit, you're not going to. They had a wedding at the Franklin Institute and 300 plus people. I was like, okay, alright, there's no way. And I'm now now I'm thinking 300 plus people that are into the same shit that they're into. We start talking and we booked the event. Don't, don't mind my animals in the background. I got a new setup here going. Uh, um moved everything around for the holiday.

Speaker 1:

So we get to the point where we're planning the event and now we're like on really good terms, like I'm like you know, we've been talking, emailing back and forth. This was like right when phones got. You know, the iPhone came out right around that time and so, if you can imagine, back then it was a lot of email and phone calls. So I really didn't get the whole vibe until three weeks before the wedding. I really didn't get the whole vibe until three weeks before the wedding. So they say to me you can only play Danzig or Madonna. And I'm like, huh, what, you can play only Danzig or only Madonna. Okay, and I'm looking at my like, I'm looking at this point in time. I got Madonna googled up in front of me and I'm like, okay, are there enough songs for Madonna to cover an entire wedding? Because I knew there was enough dancing songs. But I'm like, okay, let's figure this out.

Speaker 1:

So we get to the wedding that night of Now. Mind you, there's a three week process in between where I'm scratching my head like what the fuck is going on here, and I'm expecting to see the devil's door. When I walk in, I'm expecting to see people just lined up in goth and every single person that's walking in, one after another after another. And we're in the Franklin Institute and we're in the big room and there's Ben and they're in the back room, like the big theater, getting married. And I'm not part of that. But I walked back because I wanted to see what was going on. I'm watching people show up. Not one person looked like they played in the goth band in new york city. So here comes the bridal party. Every one of them looked like they played in a goth band in New York City. Bride and groom come down the aisle, the ceremony the officiant was definitely somebody you don't want to run into in a dark alley. Right before they kiss, I see them playing with their mouths they put blood capsules in crunched on them and kissed with the blood capsules running down their shirts or running down their wedding dress. It looked like a scene out of I mean, listen, you're going to be like Ooh, I'm. I was like yo, that shit was cool. I mean, that's just me. Anything different's cool, right.

Speaker 1:

So you get to the cocktail hour. Everybody's playing around. It'd been the urban effect Institute, it the hard is, we can walk through the hard and everybody's hanging out playing. And you know it was nice, because background music for Cocktail was all strings. So now we get to the main party. We do the grand entrances, we do the first dance, we do the toasts and then the bride looks at me and she goes. Now, mind you, 300 people, danzig, just Danzig. So now I'm playing Danzig, okay, whatever. Now I'm playing dancing, okay, okay, whatever, I'm playing dancing. And there's 15 people dancing that look like a complete mosh pit. Now all of the other 285 people are sitting around the tables watching what's going on on the dance floor and just sitting there, peaceful, like, completely peaceful, like watching, like they're watching a theater production. So the bride and groom go outside and now they're having a cigarette or weed, whatever the fuck they're doing. Their friends go with them.

Speaker 1:

At which point in time I'm like, okay, it's time for the Madonna. So I put on the Madonna. I'm like, why not? And 285 people get up out of their seats and on the dance floor. And this dance floor is fucking packed, like. It is fucking like. I'm playing you name it, I'm playing Holiday, I'm playing Borderline, I'm playing Vogue, I'm playing, like you name, the Madonna song. And I'm fucking playing it. All of a sudden, like somebody just fucking loaded up on the dance floor, the dance floor clears and behind me the bride's like, like get this shit off and put on my fucking music. And I'm like, okay, we're back to dancing. That's 15 people and 285 people sat down on their chairs and just watched like a theater show. Nobody said a fucking word, they just sat back down and watched. So so, about 45 minutes later the bride and groom go outside again and this time they're going out for pictures on the parkway. There's a big parkway out there called the Ben Franklin Parkway.

Speaker 1:

I'm sure you've seen it on. You know episodes of different things that go around in Philly. You've seen it on Live Aid, you've seen it on. You know the parade that we had. You've seen it on. You know the parade that we had. You've seen it. I mean, if you've been to Philly, the Rocky Steps, you've seen the parkway.

Speaker 1:

So they're out there on the parkway and I go listen to my DJ, I go or me. I'm watching them. I'm like I'll watch the door. I see them come back, get back to dancing, threw the Madonna back on. All right, now we're playing. I fucking forget. There's so much Madonna that I was playing every piece of it. If it was a Madonna song, I was playing it. The whole crowd got up. They were dancing the whole time. All of a sudden I see the bride start walking back around the corner. I'm like she's coming back. He goes and sits back down. The dancer comes back on. She walks in the door, she goes hi, this is cool, she. And then and now she's dancing.

Speaker 1:

So the wedding went on. At the very end she was like you can play some stuff for my, for my, uh, adult friends. Now, whatever she met her, like her parents, I played some 80s stuff, you know, stuff I knew she would be okay with, like joan jett, pat benatar heart, like stuff that was a little bit deeper, you know, andy Lennox. So I went that direction and when it was over, you know, they sort of said thank you. They gave me the peace out and handed me a blunt or handed me something it was. It was some kind of weed, was the tip? I forget exactly what it was. It was something in an envelope and it definitely wasn't money and I forget what the fuck me and my DJ did with it. Um, so father and mother walk up to me when it's over and they're walking over and they go. Let me talk to you for a second. I'm like sitting there, dad puts his hand on my shoulder and it's me, dj Rick, because we did a two-man show back then. It was a lot of people. Franklin Institute all company I worked for used to do two-man shows, especially when there was that many people I worked for used to do two-man shows, especially when there was that many people Because we understand.

Speaker 1:

Nothing you did was your fault. You did exactly what you were supposed to do. We all knew this was going to happen before we even got here. We knew what we were walking into. Everybody that's not their friends, you know. They had a wedding to appease us. We knew that. We thought, going into it, that it would be a little more 50-50. As we got closer to the date, we knew it was going to be 99-1. We stopped arguing about it and we just went with it. But you I'm letting you know it wasn't you guys. You did the only thing you could have and if you didn't do what she asked you to do, she would have screamed bloody murder and she may have killed you.

Speaker 1:

Okay, mom and dad gave me an extra tip. It was cash. It was cash tip Me and Rick held it. Okay, thank you. They both shook our hands and they said God bless you. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

Um, you will probably never hear from them again. They will not say thank you, they will not say anything and um, um, they'll probably shit on you tomorrow and just understand that it won't go up online. It's like okay, and uh, and then they get. And then I was just like whatever. That's the weirdest thing ever, but I've never in my life experienced anything like that before and I never will again. And I don't know how that came about or what happened or how they even found me. It was what it was and I'll tell you this right now. It's something that I will keep with me.

Speaker 1:

There's nothing that will ever happen at a wedding that will top that story. I don't care what you do, who you are, you know, other than somebody dying. God forbid 5, 6, 7, 8. My wife tells me all the time, because I'm Jewish, or just the craziest thing happening like somebody leaving somebody else, nothing's going to happen. That was like that at a wedding. So that's my story for today. God bless you all. Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah I know they both happen on the same day this year night one and Christmas. Hope you guys have a great day on Wednesday. Wednesday, I'm DJ ESG. Peace, love and God above, and I'll be back Bye-bye.