DC’s top blog for live concert reviews
9:30 Club (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
Places have power.
At the very least, entering particular locations steeps you in the sense of the place. Your mind becomes open to the possibilities of what that place has to offer.
Nowhere is this truer than 9:30 Club, the most renowned of DC’s music venues. When you enter 9:30 Club, you’ve entered a place wired for performance, and you feel it right away.
Failure playing during their tour with Swervedriver in March of 2019. (Photo by Marc Shea)
Editor’s note: Parklife asked our contributors to revisit some of the best shows they’ve ever seen in a series titled My Favorite Concert.
One of the best concerts I ever saw took place almost a year ago. Failure was co-headlining a bill with Swervedriver at 9:30 Club. I’ve been a fan of both bands since the mid-90’s and this was a chance to see two bands that I had never been able to see.
The English Beat performs at 9:30 Club on Oct. 11, 2016. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
The 9:30 Club may be closed at the moment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but you still can visit the nation’s No. 1 music hall virtually.
In 2016-17, 9:30 Club teamed up with PBS for a live concert series called Live at 9:30 Club. Those concert performances are available for you while you’re home alone (or any other time you may want to watch)!
A sign announcing a coronavirus closing (Photo by Ted Eytan)
DC has closed its music venues to efforts to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19). As such, staffers at concert halls around town are out of work.
Management at several music venues have established relief funds for their workers, allowing the public to donate directly to efforts to provide money directly to venue staff.
Should you ever have enjoyed a show at any of the venues below, please consider a donation to thank the hard-working staff who helped make it a great experience. Parklife has compiled a list below of music venues administering support funds, along with a statement posted by the management of each.
Parklife will udpate this list as relevant. Feel free to add info on relief efforts for music venue staff in the comments.
The Districts perform at 9:30 Club on March 10, 2020. (Photo by Casey Vock.)
Sometimes an album comes to life when a band needs it most, and the tour to support it is how the group actually reaps the spiritual, and financial, benefits of their work.
The Districts’ latest release — You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere — is said to have almost never happened: the band had nearly exhausted itself after an intense few years on the road and seemed to be searching for direction when founder and head singer Rob Grote isolated himself and put pen to pad to nurture the words that would comprise the newest LP.
Dead Kennedys frontman Skip Greer impressed with flair and deadpan comedy at 9:30 Club on March 11, 2020. (Photo by Paivi Salonen)
Coronavirus couldn’t stop our District’s vulnerable punk population from coming out in droves to support one of the scene’s most iconic bands, Dead Kennedys. Despite increasingly dire news around the global pandemic, and a declaration of emergency from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser mere hours before doors opened, 9:30 Club was packed to near capacity with diehard DK fans eager to see these living legends in the flesh.
Music gear on DC9’s stage (Photo by Jon)
Prior the declaration of a national emergency on March 13, DC’s IMP concert venues, including 9:30 Club and The Anthem, declared they would voluntarily close down through March 31 as part of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
But a clarified order issued by DC’s mayor on Sunday shut both venues indefinitely all the same.
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