When Sophie Ernst says she’s going to Church, she’s not talking about the chapel down the street. Instead, she’s referring to the concert venue in her basement.
Ernst, a senior at Drake, first learned about house shows through a friend from high school, Brandon Scharf, who performs in a band of his own.
When it came time to find housing for her junior year, the decision to live in a house was practically a no-brainer for Ernst — but the real deciding factor came at the subterranean level.
“The minute we got into the house, I looked at the basement, and I was like, ‘We’re having house concerts,’” Ernst said. “‘This is gonna happen.’”
The rest, as they say, is history. With Scharf’s help, Ernst began to build her legacy from the ground up — literally.
As Des Moines natives, the pair had easy access to the local music scene, which they used to their advantage. Utilizing Scharf’s connections, they were able to plug themselves into a network of local musicians across all genres and lend them a space in which to showcase their art.
“We get a lot of deathcore [and] metal,” Ernst said. “There’s [also] an indie band that’s been to three or four of our shows. We’ve had folk, we’ve had spoken poetry and improv, sometimes we do open mic and I’ve also had drag queens there.”
The variety of acts that have been featured at Ernst’s shows plays right into the philosophy she had in mind when bringing her dream to life.
“The intention behind [the name of the venue] is the idea of what a church should be; a really welcoming place for everyone,” Ernst said. “That’s why I called it the Church because everyone can come here and have a community and have fun and celebrate and just have a good time.”
The sense of community Ernst hopes to provide through hosting shows is one local musicians say prevails throughout the greater Des Moines music scene. One such musician, a first-year student named Phelan Finley who performed at the Church this past fall, said that for him, making music is about more than just creating to create.
“You make music and you put it out, and hopefully you’ll resonate and mean something to [someone],” Finley said.
Finley’s band, Exiled IA, belongs to a genre called deathcore, which fuses elements of death metal and hardcore punk. The genre has a fanbase that Finley admits can be “a little scary,” but noted that “overall, it’s a very, very strong, tight-knit community, [and] everyone’s always very welcoming.”
As a member of a smaller band, Finley has a special place in his heart for small venues like Ernst’s.
“I think especially a DIY kind of show like that, as opposed to Lefty’s [Live Music], is really more about the community,” Finley said. “You play in that tiny little basement with whatever DIY equipment you have, and… it gets really packed in. Instead of ‘I’m playing on a stage and there are people there to watch me,’ it’s more like we’re all kind of there together.”
Both the host and the performers agree that the memories they’ve made at the Church will always stick with them.
“I’m not gonna do this forever,” Ernst said. “The one thing that will stick out to me when I stop doing shows… is just the feedback from [attendees], and people being really into it and grateful.”
The next show at the Church will be held on Thursday, February 27 at 1441 29 St. It will feature bands from a variety of genres, and the $10 cover fee will go to Des Moines Mutual Aid. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and performances will begin at 7 p.m.
