Since the start of the century, no one in El Paso has thrown parties quite like Joe and Alex Nava.
The brothers “El Paso natives” along with an extended family of friends, fellow DJs, fans and followers who make up their Late Nite Social Club, have for nearly 20 years kept dance music alive and bumping along the border. From their early guerrilla raves to their current home base, Club Here I Love You, LNSC is paving the way and pushing the envelope for the next generation, paying forward the halcyon days of El Paso’s underground scene.
Through it all, Joe said they’ve stayed inspired by those first parties and earliest introductions to underground music—literally, underground.
“The scene was out of this world when I started going to parties,” he said of the early 2000s scene. “The place that inspired me and has continued to inspire me was a place named The Ohm Lounge, which was an underground, all-night rave club in the basement of The Plaza Theater. That will forever keep me inspired. That was about a decade before starting LNSC.”
Before the ubiquity of cellphones and the rise of social media, Joe said, “We relied on each other to find out what the locations or who the headliners were. I remember it felt like every bit of the experience was passed on by older friends who had been doing it before I got in. From how I learned to dance, to how I eventually would come to dress, was all inspired by other OG DJs, dancers and ravers.”
When he decided to make his own move into booking shows, Joe said he received a warm welcome from those who came before.
“I remember going to some of my hero promoters and asking for their blessings to start doing my own parties,” Joe recalled. “Everyone was always so loving and welcoming to me: from DJ Rich and the BSP crew, to Labwerks which was run by fellow LNSC DJ Maci and his then-partner Ray Mendoza, DJ brothers like Vinn-E and DJ Dan-E were great teachers to me.”
After throwing parties under different monikers—Bubble Productions, Deepdown, Bonus Beats Music, Bossa Soundsystem and Broken Hearts Club among them—Late Nite Social Club was officially formed in 2007.
“After a small hiatus…I started to get the itch again to throw some parties,” Joe said. “I felt there was a lot missing in the scene at the time, and I started to build the concept of Late Nite Social Club. The idea was to create more of a membership club where we would use off-the-cuff locations, which we had done in the past, and grow a membership where we could communicate the locations without having to promote it.”
Their vision in mind, it was time to set a roster; with a wealth of talent in town, curation, rather than quantity, the key.
“The original lineup consisted of myself, DJ Rich, Hector (Funk Parties), Big O, DJ Polar, Slow Hands aka my brother Alex, and LNSC Rob,” Joe said. “Others that have been part of our lineup include Jason O, Cult Heroes, Maci, Glitterface, and our brother the Kid Smalls aka Soulbomber.”
The first party—a tribute to one of Joe’s musical heroes, Arthur Russell—was named GO BANG; its first guest was James Curd, followed by Peanut Butter Wolf, Prince Language, Pace Rock, Mark Farina, Madlib, J Rocc and others.
Of those early years, Joe said, “I think we were doing something no one had successfully done before, and that was having such a diverse and eclectic series,” Joe said. “I would say about half of the crowd was going to these parties because they knew they were going to be a blast, rather than for the headliner, which allowed us to take many chances with guests.”
Their first few parties were thrown in the desert, but soon LNSC moved on to gigs in downtown nightclubs, bars and handful of “warehouses all spread around downtown we won’t go into detail about,” Joe said laughing. In time, Joe was holding down residencies at the original Club 101 on Union Plaza, the nearby, long-gone E9 Nightclub and Capone’s on San Antonio.
After making its debut at Dominic’s Italian Restaurant, LNSC has called home The Lowbrow Palace, The Network, The Tango Room inside The Garden at Union Plaza and 1914. Today, in the space that once held 1914 and the crew’s infamous Bumpswing parties, Late Nite Social Club makes its home at the brothers’ Club Here I Love You, a home base after more than a decade as nomads.
“When we opened CHILY, we had been moving around town for about 15 years—it was time we built our hub,” Joe said of their motivation to open the club. When the club formerly occupying the space (1914) was set to close its shutter, the owner came to Joe with an idea.
“He had known that we were looking to do something, and he pitched the idea of me taking over,” Joe said. “After about a year of him pitching it, I finally decided we just had to do it and figure out details later.”
Three years on, Club Here I Love You has hosted some of the world’s top house, techno, tech-house, trance and disco artists—some bigger names, others less-known, but all chosen with the brothers’ constant, curatorial spirit, extending well beyond dance music.
“Before I got into house music, I was a huge hip-hop head; my brother was always into indie bands and eventually got me into it too, so we were always into different genres of music,” Joe said. “Naturally, when we opened our place, we needed that to echo that. We plan to build and put more focus into that this year.”
LNSC’s 10-year anniversary is going strong; house legends Mood II Swing rocked the club Valentine’s Day, Rybo took control of the club for “The Love Hangover” the next day, and the mushroom jazz maestro himself, Mark Farina, will take over the decks open to close on Feb. 28th.
Still to come are UK house veterans Nick Warren (March 6th), Steve Lawler (March 15th), turntable legends DJ Jazzy Jeff and DJ Scratch on their “Vinyl Destination” tour (March 14th) and making his El Paso debut for the club’s 3-year anniversary, Audion live on March 28th.
Those are just the bigger names set to come through Club Here I Love You in the coming months; most other days of the week you can find some the area’s most talented local DJs, producers, bands and musicians on stage, backlit by the club’s signature neon heart.
“We want to be able to give all the up and comers and new ravers or bands or whatever you are, a cool place to go,” Joe said. “We also haven’t even gotten started when it comes to the club, and what other possible clubs or bars we might be opening. The goal is to always break the mold and push the envelope. We have a lot more work to do!”
As for what’s to come,
“That’s totally a secret!”