The Old
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ย. 2024
- On September 24th, 2022 I visited the site of the old location for the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C.
Nightclub 9:30 was founded by artist and dancer Dody DiSanto and her husband, Jon Bowers, a local real estate developer and music enthusiast who had just purchased the Atlantic Building in 1979. The venue hosted its first show on May 31, 1980, featuring New York-based jazz-punk outfit the Lounge Lizards as headliners, and local new wave band Tiny Desk Unit as the opening act. New York's The Fleshtones were the first band ever to be booked at the club.
Since its origins, Nightclub 9:30, which allowed fans as young as sixteen to enter, was known as a progressive venue noted for its talent in discovering up-and-coming acts. During the early 1980s, it was the home for alternative music in D.C., just as the genre was beginning to blossom. By that point, the club was based around local bands, mainly from the punk, hardcore, and go-go scenes; D.C.-area acts such as Minor Threat (played there in '83), Fugazi (also played there in '94), Government Issue, Iron Cross, the Slickee Boys, Urban Verbs, Chuck Brown ("The Godfather of Go-Go"), Maiesha and the Hip Huggers featuring E.U., Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band, Rites of Spring played in 1985, and Dain Bramage, whose teenage drummer, Dave Grohl, went on to become part of Nirvana and to found the Foo Fighters.
However, in a very short time, the venue also became a regular stopping point for punk and new wave bands touring the East Coast. Some of the most notable performers in the early days of Nightclub 9:30 were Black Flag, the Bad Brains from D.C. (also played there in '92), the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Psychedelic Furs, Einstürzende Neubauten, the Ramones, X, Blue Angel (with lead singer Cyndi Lauper), the Bangles, R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, Erasure, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, the Violent Femmes, the Butthole Surfers, That Petrol Emotion, the Replacements, Marti Jones, Marshall Crenshaw, Mod Fun, Nash the Slash, the Go-Go's, and BETTY, whose bassist and co-vocalist, Alyson Palmer, tended bar in the club at the time.
In 1986, after six years of operating the club, Bowers and DiSanto sold it to Seth Hurwitz and Richard Heinecke of It's My Party (I.M.P.), the Maryland-based concert promotion company they co-own.
Over the following years, as the club's prominence and lineup were growing, the need for a bigger space was becoming increasingly evident. In preparation for the move, the owners purchased and extensively renovated the former WUST Radio Music Hall at 815 V Street.
The old Nightclub 9:30 closed its doors on December 31, 1995.
While living in the area, from '87 to '92, I attended many, many shows there. Among the most memorable: Jane's Addiction (about 4 times), TSOL, Dag Nasty, Circle Jerks, Lemonheads....the list can be long. The best small venue in the country that rivals NYC's CBGB's as most iconic, the performing artists easily accessible, no divas. The shows used to be taped by staff while sitting on a crows nest mounted on one of the pillars. Those videos are a treasure trove, hopefully they will eventually surface. Best live act memories never to be erased.
They need to invent a time machine!
I saw a bunch of great bands there too in the late 80’s to early 90’s, such as Blur, Strange Boutique, Agent Orange, The Primitives, Xymox, Drivin n Crying with Peter Buck from R.E.M., Winter Hours, The Toasters, etc. great times! I enjoyed this video and seeing what the building looks like today. ✌️
Bad Brains, Marginal Man, The Exploited, My Bloody Valentine, Scream, Iron Cross, Beefeater, The FUs from Boston and Heart Attack from NY. To name but a few. Amazing place.
Best show I ever saw there was the Cro Mags in '86
Went to many shows there and also played on that stage with my band TOO VACANT from Vienna Va. I also appear in the audience of 9:30 in movie DC HARDCORE Punk Movie Salad Days. Saw legendary bands on that stage but if I have to nail it Down to one, I Will in no doubt mention FLAT DUO JETS. Rest In Peace DEX ROMWEBER.
Saw the Minute Men, Gang of Four, and Circle Jerks there and loved every ef'n minute of it. Came out with a black eye once, EPIC.
Sometimes I wish we could watch peoples memories!
Used to go there every Friday night my sophomore and junior year (1993-1994). We would pay a homeless guy to get us beer and sneak the 40s in with our backpacks. The hallway smelled like this ambiguous mix of sweat, beer and industrial cleaner. The basement black light room near the back bar was the site of many a hookup.
Me and a co-worker tried to go smell it in 2015 when we were in town for a conference but the smell is GONE!
I saw the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., the Screaming Trees, Unrest, They Might Be Giants, the Sugarcubes, Smashing Pumpkins and many others at the old 9:30 club. Almost saw Sinead O'Connor there in 1989 but she had a sore throat and cancelled the show. There was a sign on that door.
I used to always see P-Funk All Stars on their calendar but that was just before my time. I finally saw George Clinton in SF Dec 31 2010.
Saw Soul Asylum there a bunch. Redd Kross. 2LiveCrew, Goo Goo Dolls, Dag Nasty, SCREAM, Pfunk, Gwar, Kingface,
I saw so many shows there from the mid-1980s until it moved in the mid-90s. Being able to buy tickets to shows was a main reason to work back then lol. Like many, we went as much to just be at the club and see whoever was playing as we did buying tickets for specific bands.
Like someone said up above, the hallway reeked of sweat, industrial cleaning products and, always, a heavy coating of cigarette smoke. You basically smelled like a toilet after seeing a show there.
Bad Brains, Fugazi, Public Enemy with Swiz opening, Kingface, Soulside, Government Issue, P-Funk All Stars, Adrian Belew & The Bears, Royal Crescent Mob, Excel, Cro-Mags, Helmet, Dag Nasty, Scream, Ignition, Marginal Man, Descendents, Dead Milkmen, Pixies, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Jane's Addicition, NIN, The Cramps, Smashing Pumpkins, Strange Boutique, Clutch and The Melvins are among the bands I saw there and many others that escape my mind right now. I was pissed I missed out on seeing DEVO there....had the chance but was out of town.
And just up the street was D.C. Space, another great venue and bar that had a good bar as well.
9:30 Club, DC Space, Hung Jury, Fort Reno and church spaces....and food later in the night at Kramerbooks on Dupont Circle, Food for Thought or a Belgian Beer and Viking Death Ship sub at Dante's on 14th Street. Some good times and memories.
I remember waiting in that long sweaty hallway before a show. Somebody walking by outside yelled, "what a bunch of freaks." Someone in line yelled back, "flattery will get you nowhere."
It's those moments when you wish you could have had a hidden camera capturing that!
The hall was too dark to see much the shows were sometimes videotaped from the top of one of the pillars (a person in a cage thing a s I remember)I went there several times but a bit of a drive from home
remember getting your friend's hand stamp and trying to smear it on your own to get in for free?