Zodiac Disco hits In the Lowest Ferns this Saturday

Created with RNI Films app. Profile ‘None’

Somehow, with the contagious call-and-response chant “What’s your zodiac sign?” Fatman Scoop and the Crooklyn Clan popularized astrology as an unlikely dancefloor subject on the 1999 club hit “Be Faithful.”

Twenty-five years later, the anthem remains undefeated, and dance parties, like this weekend’s Zodiac Disco, are still asking you to proclaim your astrological sign with pride. Presented by the eclectic production firm, NOMADA—known for their chic dance parties, live music events, and production for A$AP Rocky’s “Riot (Rowdy Pipe’n)” music video.

Kansas City’s resident groove ambassador, Bill Pile, will be headlining this vinyl-only disco marathon at the recently opened West Bottoms warehouse lounge/club space, In the Lowest Ferns—the brainchild of NOMADA are co-founders Jason Eubanks, Dante Walton and Austin Goldberg.

Their only request is that you come dressed as your zodiac sign.

Make it as obvious as donning a pair of ram horns (Aries) or come as ambiguously bohemian (Pisces) as you wish.  Or, you can just be your best constellatory self and let your star sign shimmer and shimmy on its own.

Ahead of the event, The Pitch spoke with both NOMADA co-founder Dante Walton and Bill Pile about collaboration, design, Kansas City’s ever-evolving dance music scene, and more. 

The Pitch: So, what is the assessment after a few months of In the Lowest Ferns being open?

Walton: That’s a great question. There’s a lot of assessments. Every week we learn and implement new things at the bar, with the music, the programming, or work flow. But what we assessed is that we’re really proud of our press coverage—from local Kansas City articles, to major feat of ours, which was coverage in Resident Advisor—A worldwide underground electronic dance music scene. People really only got to experience NOMADA maybe once or twice a month. Now that we’re open every weekend, I’m really seeing people respond to it well. You can feel that it’s been needed here. It’s very thoughtful and we’ve been paying a lot of attention to detail, and we care about every aspect of it. We like hearing feedback from our guests. We listen to our team. It’s growing every week. We’re getting to a point now where we have lines out of the door and having to do one in, one out. We’re pretty pleased. 

How receptive do you think the creative and larger community has been toward NOMADA’s vision and In the Lowest Ferns? 

Walton: What NOMADA does is hold space. We’re really good creating immersive environments, connecting, curating great spaces for other artists of all sorts. We’re cultivating these spaces where we’re attracting like minds. Before COVID, we used to run a proper underground speakeasy, and we’ve been throwing parties for over 10 years now. So, we’ve just been building relationships with producers and DJs and beyond.

Pile: Well, people were really excited about this room. The people who I know that have already been there are excited about going back. And there are people who still haven’t seen it. That room is really open to creative people. It’s not a place where you’re going to hear the same stuff. There’s a really diverse set of DJs and different vibes—the best of all genres. 

What is the significance of the zodiac theme for this week’s party? 

Walton: Actually, Austin came up with the Zodiac Disco theme. We just try to throw a themed night once a night at In the Lowest Ferns just to keep things interesting. We just noticed that people like to dress up and express themselves. We want to give people that opportunity to do it through clothing and fashion. 

Pile: We did this party at El Pozo years ago and it got me excited to bring it back. The room responded really well to the theme. I’m just looking forward to matching the vibe with the records I’m going to play. 

Can you two describe the collaborative relationship with each other and how it has evolved? 

Walton: We’ve been hosting Bill for a while. He’s one of the most talented vinyl DJs that we have here. Again, NOMADA is here to provide space for artists like this and elevate this scene. He’s one of the best in the city. We have played a lot of electronic and house music at In the Lowest Ferns, but we like to put disco in there at least once a month. It’s electrifying. Bill is known for doing these long extended sets. There’s something about disco music that really brings people together. To be honest, nights like these are about embracing the energy of what we’re doing. To reference Studio 54, it’s like this freeing music that connects everyone. 

Pile: They used to have a little room in the Westside called El Pozo, which  was an off-the-radar spot in the basement of a building on Summit St. They used to throw parties there, pre COVID. They’d invite me to play records down there once every other month. They enjoyed what I played, so they kept having me back. I also played a few of their BARRACA parties. I just always seem to be a good fit for their events. I played the second week of In the Lowest Ferns’ opening and I believe that besides the guys that own it, I’m the first person to have a return gig there, even though it’s only been open for a couple of months. 

I’m wondering if you could address this idea of spectacle versus space at In the Lowest Ferns and how NOMADA makes the two interplay without interfering aesthetically?

Walton: I look at it from an interior design and props perspective. It’s about aesthetics and how we design spaces. We have had actual art installations and performers. We try to keep things interesting. We’re definitely visual people, but we try to hit on all of the senses. I think that’s the big difference between us and a lot of other places—we really care how things look. We’re natural stylists and designers. It’s all a part of the experience. 

Now that we’re in the warmer months, does that change In the Lowest Ferns approach to programming?

Walton: Not so much musically, but we’re definitely thinking of expansion. In the first year of our BARRACA project, we did it at Crossroads. Last year, we did it in the In The Lowest Ferns park, before it was even open. I think that what we’re looking at during last spring/early summer is essentially doing more inside-outside activations, where there will be simultaneous programming in both areas. What we’re in discussion about is opening up on Thursdays for jazz or other live music.

I think I can speak for my partners and say that we really loved it when we did our Love Cycles event with saxophonist Ernest Melton for Valentine’s Day. He came in and we rented some cafe tables, and dressed them with linens and candlelight. It was a super sexy and moody night at In the Lowest Ferns. People were sitting down and lounging and we want to implement more of those listening events. We’re considering that different experience where things are more chill. “Lounging” is always happening at In the Lowest Ferns, but naturally, people start to want to move and dance, and it turns into a club. We just want to open up a day where people can lounge all night. 

Bill, How have you been able to DJ that fine line of In the Lowest Ferns being a lounge, and eventually turning into what Dante describes as a “club” later on in the night? 

Pile: The music that I’ve been playing over the years has been everything from lounge to club music. In the 1990s, I started doing a radio jazz program in college on KJHK 90.7  and I was playing a lot of downtempo jazz-influence beats, hip-hop, and straight up jazz. Most of my gigs back then were in that realm. That was my wheelhouse, but I kind of evolved into playing a lot of more dance-oriented music like house, disco, funk, and nightclub records. Also, traveling, and my career as a concert promoter has also broadened the kind of music I play now. 

Locally, was there some sort of void that you helped fill? 

Pile: There was kind of a void. Formats evolve. They change every several years. Right now, we’re in a place where a lot of local DJs have been doing the same thing for a long time and there’s a lot of newer, younger DJs coming onto the scene. It’s changing the entire scene as a whole. I play a lot of old and new music. A lot of disco and rare stuff.  What I do is vinyl-only. I don’t play digital at all. Even when I wasn’t DJing as much, I never stopped collecting records. Everything just got bigger than I anticipated.

What’s really great right now in Kansas City is that people are pretty much open to whatever. If you’re just playing good music in any genre, people are into it. You don’t have to stick to one thing. One genre isn’t as dominant as it used to be. People want to hear different stuff. That may be a reflection of younger club-goers now, and older club-goers who have years of listening to different styles of music. I think a lot more younger people have way more mature interest in music than I recall from years ago.

Zodiac Disco is this Saturday, March 16, at In the Lowest Ferns. Details and tickets available here.