The best things about the Church Nightclub: The venue itself, Though a lesser copy of Limelite in New York, this is stilla great big club with a strong sound sytem and good lighting system. The multi rooms full of different music is a definite plus. I also like that they moved the main dancefloor's DJ booth from way up high where you couldn't see anything, to the dancefloor level itself. The Con to that, When I went to see Diplo perform, people nearly tore his laptop down and both his laptop and his phone kept moving around because of the Bass.
The booth is better where it is but needs some improvements. One it needs a bar or a glass barrier to keep dumb asses away from the DJ and the equipment and two it needs an edge/lip around the entire shelf on both sides to keep the DJs drinks, phone and anything else they put on it from falling down due to the bass rumble.
The main floor DJs are usually major acts brought in from around the world and generally do a good job. Diplo was dope, except for his ultra weak Chiga Chiga scratch, shouldn't a big name DJ like that learn at least a few things about scratching? But I digress, cause his music was dope and he rocked the crowd far outweighing his shortcomings with the technical aspects of turntablism.
The Church would be my favorite spot if it wasn't for the ultra lame DJs that were bumbling their way through songs and pre fabricated mashups downstairs in the main downstairs room. I'm not sure who these two were on the CDJ's but they were a sorry lot that in my opinion should not be Deejaying anywhere other than house parties. and maybe not even that. The only thing that saved these two clowns was the fact that the downstairs was filled with mostly teenagers that perhaps still didn't have enough experience watching better DJs to realize just how badly these two DJs sucked, and the room also had some break dancers and pretty girls to distract people from this fact as well.
The other room downstairs had a set of skilled DJs to make up for the lack of skills in the other room.
Of course this was on one particular night so don't judge the club by this One comment.
What eats me up about the church is their intolerance of high quality cameras. I mean if I spent extra money to pick up a high quality digital SLR camera and I'm bringing it with me to the club does that not indicate that I fist of all have money, second of all might be in an industry that would like to help publicize your club, perhaps a magazine, a blog, a website etc... lets face it others can bring in their smaller cameras, which these days are capable of taking pictures almost as detailed as those of my own camera only with a lesser battery capacity and a slower picture taking rate.
I was there one night check out DJ Jazzy Jeff, but they wouldn't let me in with the camera so rather than pay the hefty $25 that night decided to go to another spot. I was disapointed to not see Jazzy that night but rather see him another time in another city if need be, if I am not going to get pictures I need from the event.
I'm there to publicize their club and write about their night and they are giving me a hard time at the door about bringing in my camera. Not smart, not smart at all. I can understand wanting to control what pictures are posted of your club, so every picture looks like a packed event etc... But you can't control it all, too many camera phones, mini cameras etc... So you might as well let the people that are going to take good pictures and post them online into the club. Any free publicity you can get should be welcomed.
In any case overall the Church is a great club, but they need to re-evaluate some of their weaker DJs and find better resident DJs. The DJs downstairs in the windowed section of the downstairs main room just were not very entertaining, could barely mix and did not posses even One ounce of creativity. Do some research and find better DJs.
Pros: Great Venue, Several Areas, Good Sound and Lights
Cons: Weak Hip Hop DJs in the basement, Door Staff can be rude
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