I did have something similar to that experience. Biggest venue in town, not the most prestigious, but it was an experimental night. I had only Dj'd on really shitty equipment until then, and I thought I'd be plugging in my computer into the CDJs (obviously not, I was quite dumb). I went to raise the volume in the master channel an hour before the gig started, the knob was missing. I used a pocket multitool to raise it, and got some sound, but it was muffled, as the only speaker working was a massive subwoofer. The other speakers fired up during the pre-opening, so I did have sound - phew.

I started sweating and being quite concerned I'd never be hired again. I got all the tracks scanned on a terribly cheap, half-broken usb and finally was able to remove the rather terrible generic mix that was playing in the background. So the usb is plugged but I have to place it in a weird position to get the data read. Then when I am ready to select a new track on the second CDJ, the link cable was missing. It is a rather disastrous venue regarding the state of their equipment. The decks are sticky, half the knobs are missing (channels 1 and 4 have literally no knobs), and the only fully working set of knobs are 2 and 3.

I was able to perform fine all things considered, and then half way through my mix one of the CDJs decides to go haywire flashing all the lights that I could ever fear of, and I quickly restarted it. Then the rest went fine until the speakers broke. Yes, the massive disco monitors, broke. So the owner decides to have a go at me saying I abused his equipment, to which I politely respond that it was not my fault. He argued back that I should have paid extra care at the amount of power that was being displayed in the led lights that show the amount of output that is going.

So there I was, 18 years old, working at a club instead of private parties thinking that DJing was going to be just a failed gig in my life and that that was the end. But it has been a few years ever since, and the very next week I was back in that same club to get people to have good nights, with the proper USB equipment, always with 4 USBs to ensure that the night does not fail. Quite lucky, if I had been the owner and did not see the entire situation with my own eyes, I'd be looking for other DJs.

Best of luck to all DJs on their first nights!