Babylon, SU’s only underground club venue, brings London club scene to Syracuse
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It’s past 11 p.m. on a Friday night, and the basement of a Westcott area residence is buzzing with a diverse group of people dressed to impress on the dance floor. Strobe lights are flashing red, green and blue as they cut through the milky clouds from the fog machine, covering the dancers enjoying themselves during the latest DJ set. This is only the beginning of what to expect at a night in Babylon.
“Babylon had a kind of nightclub environment, with hella cool lights which set a great vibe,” said Anwuli Onwaeze, a junior studying political science at SU. “Everything came together really well, so it didn’t feel like some random basement on the dance floor.”
Babylon is currently one of the only student-run venues that offers an underground club experience for SU and SUNY-ESF students. The venue was founded by six students at SU: bandier students Jack Franklin, Asha Fuller, Joe (Joseph) Cohn and Aidan Brown as well as computer science major Chris Rhodes and communications design major Max Goodin. Unlike the majority of the student-run venues off campus, Babylon does not have a stage for acts to play on, but a cage in which the DJs do their sets, Fuller said.
In early 2020, the founders of Babylon toured what is now their home and immediately knew its basement would be the perfect venue to throw parties. After moving in the summer following the start of the pandemic, they knew their aspirations of hosting parties would have to come to a halt for some time. During the pandemic lockdowns, many members of Babylon practiced their DJing skills.
Last fall, the group of roommates studied abroad for the semester in London, England. They arrived just as COVID-19 restrictions around nightlife were lifted, so they were able to experience the infamous London underground scene.
“We were going to different nightclubs every weekend, seeing the most insane DJs,” Franklin said.
Franklin and Cohn said they were especially inspired by the London sound and frequently found themselves practicing on the studio DJ decks at Pirate Studios in the city.
Their dreams to convert their Syracuse basement into a party venue slowly came together during their time in London. In their business of nightlife class while abroad, members of Babylon learned about how cages were commonly built over DJ booths to protect them from whatever the hostile clubgoers would throw in protest of what they were playing, Franklin said.
This inspired Franklin to draw up his plans for what the DJ cage would look like in the basement. After moving back into the house alone over winter break, Franklin said he got serious about building the DJ booth.
Joe Cohn, one of the founders of the venue, said partygoers should not expect just radio hits when they go to Babylon.
Isabella Uribe | Staff Writer
“Jack built it single handedly in like, three days. It was the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen,” Fuller said.
Franklin and his roommates put about $500 into building the whole setup, he said. It only took one concert — their first Babylon event — to make back the money back. They sold tickets from $5-$7 at this February concert, which was the only one where they charged an entrance fee.
Franklin said that the group chose not to charge for shows as they are just trying to have fun, and having to keep track of the money all night made it difficult for any of the founders to enjoy themselves at the party.
For Fuller, The End was a popular house venue that caught her eye as a freshman and served as inspiration for starting Babylon. She said SU has a unique house party scene, and she wanted to contribute to it.
“From the first house show I ever went to, I knew that the Syracuse house show scene was something I wanted to be a part of,” Fuller said.
The name of the venue was inspired by the early 2000s American-Canadian SHOWTIME series “Queer As Folk,” where the main characters frequented the fictional gay nightclub “Babylon.”
“We’ve been trying to come up with names for a really long time and I kept saying Babylon, because I was rewatching ‘Queer As Folk,’” Franklin said.
Fuller said that the name also ties into their intentions of making Babylon a queer-friendly space where everybody can feel welcomed, which is something that Fuller believes makes the venue special.
Using their experiences abroad, the house members wanted to create something a little bit more niche that Syracuse hasn’t seen before. Unlike most other student-run venues, Babylon would be booking DJs, not bands, to play their sets.
Franklin said their early shows were a success, but soon after opening their house to the public the members of Babylon came to realize the difficulties of running a venue in their own home.
“There were so many responsibilities. We were trying to keep people out of certain parts of the house or having to look after people,” Franklin said. “It was eye opening to see how much work went into it.”
On an average night, visitors can expect to find four to six different DJs playing their sets. Alpengeist, the DJ name of SU junior Destiny Wright-Butler, was someone that the Babylon founders met abroad in London. She frequently DJs at Babylon, playing high energy drum- and bass-fueled tracks. Franklin said he was impressed with her DJ skills and found them incredible.
Four out of the six residents of Babylon are also DJs. Franklin goes by J.A.Q., Fuller goes by Hesh2Death, Cohn goes by JOJO and Brown goes by Arthur Hustle.
“This is what we saw in England, in clubs in the U.K. The DJ is like a performer, it’s like an act,” Cohn said, referring to how DJs take on another name. “Whereas in bars, the DJ is behind the scenes just playing music.”
Cohn has been DJing since his freshman year, but Babylon was the first opportunity he had to DJ for a wide audience not solely consisting of friends and acquaintances.
Cohn described his current DJ style as drum heavy, with sets that are driven by the UKG (U.K. garage) sound. He also said he enjoys playing disco-influenced house music, and he finds DJing especially thrilling on those occasions where he sees that he’s consistently seeing the crowd react positively to whatever he’s playing.
Recently, COUCOU CHLOE, a London-based DJ and producer, played a set and danced among attendees at the third Babylon party on March 26. In 2021, COUCOU CHLOE collaborated with Lady Gaga on her “Chromatica” remix album, “Dawn of Chromatica,” for the remix of the song “Stupid Love.”
“COUCOU CHLOE DJing at Babylon was actual insanity,” Fuller said. “That was probably the most epic thing that has ever happened.”
Students from all walks of life on campus have found their way to Babylon to meet new crowds and sweat together on the dance floor. Onwaeze first heard about Babylon through a friend who sent her Babylon’s Instagram page because they knew she loved DJ sets.
“I haven’t seen anything like Babylon happening in the ‘Cuse community, so I was really excited to check out these student DJs,” Onwaeze said. “I go where there’s good music and good vibes and Babylon checked both of those boxes.”
Onwaeze danced the night away at the most recent Babylon event on April 8. She said she found the environment Babylon curated to be very fun and that the attendees were enthusiastic about dancing like nobody’s watching. Onwaeze said Alpengeist and JOJO were her favorite DJs of the night, and she’s looking forward to attending future Babylon events.
At April 8’s Babylon show, an attendee pressed his phone against the cage while Cohn was playing with the message “Play Bad Bunny.” The club’s founders said they want to emphasize that Babylon is not a place where partygoers should expect radio hits.
“When you come here you aren’t going to hear stuff like Bad Bunny,” Cohn said. “That’s part of what we wanna do, expose people to something that they’ve never heard before.”
Fuller said that every single Babylon event is different from the rest, from its theme of the night to the people in its basement.
“You never know what you’re going to expect at Babylon,” Fuller said.
