Last week, after nine epic years, Bass Church gave its last two rabble-rousing sermons. If you’re new to the world of EDM, you may not have heard of Church*, but to anyone under the spell of the turntables, Bass Church was a ritual. “Bass Church pretty much was a religion, in some sense. It meant so much to so many people. It built this community that would come together, all the time, around music that I deeply loved,” said founder Erik Browne a.k.a. Unicorn Fukr.
Countless DJs and producers got their start or built their base at Bass Church. “If you were a dubstep producer from 2010 on, Bass Church was almost a rite of passage. New Zealand-based dubstep duo Truth [who performed at the final sermon], were literally my favorite to watch. They would travel all this way, at least twice a year, just to play in New Orleans,” reminisced Jake Basquait, a.k.a. Jaek, Resident DJ at Bass Church and engineer/producer at The Embassy.
Pretty Lights made a Church* appearance, as did Christian Martin, KTRL, Nile Ashton, Otto, Beverly Skillz, Wayvz, even Skrillex, for a memorable surprise Voodoo afterparty in 2012. Local boy Boogie T was a resident DJ at Bass Church for years before he got signed to Ganja White Night’s label and began touring all over the nation. Jake added, “There’s also Sfam, another breakout duo from New Orleans that’s on the festival circuit right now and lady lavender, who’s playing BUKU this year. So many… the more I think about it the more I realize how influential this event was for basically every EDM artist from Louisiana.”
There was a scare, last year, when Church* shifted venues to Santos, that it might be over, but it looks like, this time, it truly is. “This last show was really moving. I was crying during my set at many moments. I was playing a history of the music at Bass Church over the last decade, the songs that I had played frequently or at various times that people knew well and liked, so I kind of dug through all of the music from the past few years to create my set. It had a pretty amazing impact. You could hear people start to cheer and get excited when they recognized the next tune that was getting mixed in.” Erik said, choking up, just thinking about it, while we spoke. “For me, Church was everything. It was the last decade of my life…. I don’t know. It’s hard to sum it up… but what really moved me over these last few days and the week leading up to the final event was so many people sharing stories of how much Church* meant to them: from people saying their whole social group grew from the friends they met there to people saying that the music brought them out of a bad space and actually saved their lives. So many messages were sent to me, texts, comments on Facebook, a lot of people reaching out. I’m still reading comments now, a few days after the event and it makes me tear up again. The community that grew up around this event is just something really special and music is clearly very powerful.”
“Bass Church went from a fabled destiny to a place filled with family. From 2015 through 2017, I spent almost every weekend in NOLA, balancing school at LSU and my involvement with Church* and Kompression” said Mariah Gwin a.k.a. RYE, now a fully fledged live DJ, radio DJ and pioneer of minimal house and techno events.
“Favorite Church memory would be all of the amazing friends that I have met through each function. Still have most of those great friends today and will always remember getting down on the dance floor,” said Brandy Hirsch, visual artist and avid Church*goer.
“It was a family. I shudder to think what my life would have been like without all the pivotal relationships I made because of Bass Church,” Jake added.
“Some of the first sets I ever played were at Church*, some of my favorite, too. It was a place where everyone was welcomed. I learned so much about my style as an artist along with the ways of our scene. Church is about family and that’s something that will live on forever. Thank you, Erik,” shared Chase LaBure a.k.a. C-Lab, co-founder/artist at Dohm Collective.
“There’s nothing quite like Church* and never will be.” I was told by multiple people dancing, hooping, standing, grooving around me in the crowd. “Techno Club seems to have taken up the roll of underground music’s new home in New Orleans. [They are not exactly the same genre but] They’ve been committed to creating a positive space and community and continually featuring local, as well as national talent,” said Jake. “ Also, who knows what will happen next in the vacuum of Church* but the community developed there definitely fostered a group of people committed to supporting and helping each other and those artists and individuals are taking up leadership roles and really changing the way the music scene operates in an amazing way.”
Let’s all take a moment of silence, pre-bass drop, to pray that Bass Church will be honored as much as it will be missed. Amen.
*“being required by law to drop the bass”
