Sneak peek: New nightclub Night We Met aims to make Nashville an EDM destination

• Night We Met is a state-of-the-art nightclub space dedicated to regular live DJ performances.
• Co-founded by Austin Knight, the club aims to foster a growing EDM scene in Music City alongside EDM music festival Deep Tropics.

As a kid, Austin Knight listened to EDM and house music with his mom, Allison Knight, whose love of music grew from making her own mixtapes on her boom box and listening to DJs Bad Boy Bill and Julian Jumpin Perez. Her favorite artists include Royal House, S'express and Inner City.

Years later, Austin Knight, along with his parents Jim and Allison Knight, is opening a club in Nashville dedicated to the genre — somewhere to feel and see the music as well as listen to DJs from across the globe.

The nightclub scene in Nashville is, in a word, lacking. But Knight anticipates that changing very soon. His club, Night We Met, opens to the public Thursday, March 28. It's located at 114 12th Ave. N in The Gulch.

It's been more than a year in the making.

Knight works on the music booking and curation side of the business, through music promotion company Full Circle Presents. His partners include Full Circle Presents founder Blake Atchison, who co-founded the Nashville-based EDM festival Deep Tropics with his brother, Joel Atchison, and John Hanna, a DJ, producer and co-owner of Full Circle Presents.

The team envisions Night We Met and Deep Tropics working together to foster a growing EDM scene in Nashville, a city that has historically skewed more strongly toward live country and rock music.

Night We Met aims to be a dedicated space for EDM

Knight said there's no place like Night We Met in Nashville.

There are bars and clubs with bottle service and VIP experiences. There are nightclubs that play house music, but not every single night. Knight believes creating a dedicated space with top-notch service where electronic music is built into the club from day one is the best way to grow Nashville's music scene.

At entertainment destinations — think New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Las Vegas — dynamic clubs with high quality sound systems and performances from DJs with global fan bases are commonplace.

In Nashville? The concept is relatively novel.

"Nashville is changing culturally as a city," Knight said. "It's growing at an accelerated pace, on top of house music being bigger than ever in the U.S. More people are being exposed to this type of music."

In Music City, country music is king, and honky-tonks are the first genre that comes to mind upon mention of live music in downtown Nashville. Standout venues, such as the Ryman Auditorium, enjoy cult-like followings.

But Knight and his business partners want to plant their flag. Nashville can be a destination city for EDM, they believe.

"It comes down to how you want people to experience the music," Knight said. "We got to the point where we wanted a space that was curated for this sound and the kind of culture we want to build here."

A dedication to sustainability was also paramount for the founders. Following in the footsteps of the Deep Tropics music festival, there will be no single-use plastic in use at the club, and the bar will use composting to reduce waste.

Nightclub to host DJs with global platforms

The unassuming, low-to-the-ground exterior of Night We Met doesn't hint much at the party going on inside. Upon entry, guests see strips of LED lights lining the walls, illuminating the lounge space complete with cozy booths, high-top bar tables and a DJ booth tucked in the corner.

The lounge is named for a metal torso that watches over the bar -- a sculpture that nightclub owners dubbed "Vera." Allison Knight picked out the art piece, made by a UK-based artist named James Lomax.

Down the hall, behind a hidden sliding door, is the club space, equipped with an elevated stage and Void sound system. The bar, which serves house-made cocktail recipes on draft, is accessible from the club side through a literal hole in the wall. The atmosphere is modern enough to match the music, but it doesn't give the impression of trying too hard.

In the club room, a large wrought-iron face peers out of the wall from behind the DJ stage. That sculpture, also sourced by Allison Knight, was created by Nimrod Messeg, an artist based in Marbella, Spain.

The lounge space is open to anyone Thursday through Sunday from 5 to 8 p.m., no cover charge. On Fridays and Saturdays, tickets are required to enter the club space, where a schedule of DJs and musicians from around the world are set to perform.

The opening weekend roster includes South African producer and DJ Kyle Watson on Friday. Knight's duo with Billy Cave, called Lux Velour, will perform Saturday.

Canadian DJ Demuir will play Friday, April 5 and UK-based DJ Ocula will take the stage Saturday, April 6.

Tickets for all performances are available on Dice.fm, the club's booking partner. Current ticket prices range from $25 to $37, and are subject to change based on the performer scheduled for any given night.

Now that a year of construction, planning and promotion is done, Knight and his partners are excited for Nashvillians to come in and experience the club.

"I think in the South, we can be a destination for electronic dance music," he said.