9:30 Club Informations

Coordinates: 38°55′5″N 77°1′26″W / 38.91806°N 77.02389°W / 38.91806; -77.02389

The 9:30 Club (originally named Nightclub 9:30, also known simply as the 9:30) is a nightclub and concert venue in Washington, D.C. In 2018 the 9:30 Club was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by Rolling Stone. The club was originally housed in the ground floor rear room of the Atlantic Building at 930 F Street NW,[nb 1] in the city's downtown area, where it opened on May 31, 1980, with a legal standing capacity of only 199 patrons. In 1996, due to its increasing prominence, the club was moved to a roomier space, its current location at 815 V Street NW, where it anchors the eastern end of the U Street Corridor.

The 9:30 Club's name was derived from its original street address, which was also the reason to set the venue's original opening time of 9:30 p.m. Early advertising on D.C.'s WHFS radio featured the slogan "9:30 – a Place and Time!"

As a special feature, the club has a wheeled stage mounted on rails, which can be moved back and forth as needed. This way, the place can feel as packed with 500 people in attendance as it would during a sold-out, full capacity show.

Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump once said of the 9:30, "it's got so much character, you wonder if the locals know how lucky they are."

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, 9353, The Slickee Boys, Urban Verbs, Chuck Brown ("The Godfather of Go-Go") in '05, Maiesha and the Hip Huggers featuring E.U., Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band, and Dain Bramage, whose teenage drummer, Dave Grohl from Alexandria, went on to become part of Nirvana and to found the Foo Fighters. (The Foo Fighters also played there in '99)

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 Police, 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.

On May 21, 1981, Washington music programmer and writer Tom Terrell was instrumental in masterminding the U.S. premiere of reggae band Steel Pulse on the night of Bob Marley's funeral, which was broadcast live worldwide from Nightclub 9:30.

In 1986, after six years of operating the club, 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. The old Nightclub 9:30 closed its doors on December 31, 1995, and moved to a new location.

The club's final shows at the original location were memorialized on a two-CD set released in 1997 and entitled 9:30 Live – A Time, A Place, A Scene. This live CD, recorded between December 28, 1995, and January 1, 1996, includes local music from the Urban Verbs, Tiny Desk Unit, Mother May I, the Insect Surfers, Tru Fax and the Insaniacs, and Black Market Baby.

On January 5, 1996, after receiving extensive remodeling, the former WUST Radio Music Hall at 815 V Street opened as the new 9:30 Club. The opening night show included the Smashing Pumpkins. Prior to the reopening, the club owners organized a "christening" show for media and friends featuring the Fleshtones and Too Much Joy.

NPR's online music show All Songs Considered had broadcast some concerts at the venue. There is an archive of these shows.

D.C. acts that played at the 9:30 Club in the 2000s include: Vertical Horizon in 2004, Mýa in 2007, and Wale in 2010. Good Charlotte from Maryland played there in 2004, and Joan Jett (who lived in Maryland) played there in 2006.

Popular local band Emmet Swimming played one of the first shows at the new 9:30 on a snowy night and recorded part of their live concert CD Earplugs 50¢ at the venue.

Bob Dylan played two dates on December 4 and 5, 1997, when he was in Washington, D.C. to receive the Kennedy Center Honors. Dylan returned again for an unannounced show on April 2, 2004, prior to scheduled dates at the Bender Arena and the Warner Theatre. Dylan treated the crowd to a rare performance of "Hazel", a song that had been absent from the set lists of his Never Ending Tour for many years.

On June 12, 1998, the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed a surprise eleven song set at the club. Money Mark and the Propellerheads were the opening acts. The show, which was the band's first ever at the venue (they had previously performed at the old 9:30 Club five times from 1985-1987), was their first public performance since recently reuniting with guitarist John Frusciante, who had quit the band in 1992; although the band had performed a short in-studio acoustic set of mostly cover songs a week early for a radio show in Los Angeles. The 9:30 Club show was seen as a warm-up for their performance the next day at the Tibetan Freedom Concert, which was held at the RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.; nevertheless that, due to bad weather, their set at the concert had been cancelled; however, Pearl Jam agreed to perform a shorter set, so the Chili Peppers could perform a few songs.

O.A.R., who grew up in nearby Rockville, Maryland, recorded the live album Any Time Now at the 9:30 Club on November 23 and 24, 2001. The venue was also home to the band's first stop on their 2012 tour, Extended Stay, where O.A.R. played four shows.

On June 2 and 3, 2002, Arizona band Jimmy Eat World recorded their live DVD Believe in What You Want at the nightclub, following the release of their album Bleed American. The video was released on November 26, 2002.

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