9:30 Club

Nightclub 9:30 (originally known and still commonly referred to as the 9:30 Club) is a nightclub and concert venue in Washington, D.C.. The club originally opened in 1980 at 930 F St. NW in downtown Washington (hence the name). Co-owned by Rich Heinecke and Seth Hurwitz, it later moved to its current location at 815 V Street NW, anchoring the eastern end of the U Street Corridor.

The club has a capacity of 1200 people and is a standing-only venue. It won the Top Club awards at the 2007 through 2012 Billboard Touring Awards, except in 2008, when the award was not presented.

History

The 9:30 Club

Founded by Dody DiSanto and Jon Bowers, the 9:30 Club was the home for alternative music in D.C. during the early 1980s and was a regular stopping point for bands touring the east coast as well as local D.C. artists, such as The Slickee Boys, Chuck Brown, Maiesha & The Hip Huggers featuring E.U., Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band. Other performers in the early days of the venue included X, Blue Angel (with lead singer Cyndi Lauper), The Bangles, Hüsker Dü, Erasure, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, The Violent Femmes, the Butthole Surfers, That Petrol Emotion, The Police, The Replacements (band), Marti Jones, Marshall Crenshaw, Mod Fun, Nash the Slash, The Go-Go's, and Betty (Alyson Palmer of Betty tended bar in the club at the time). 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 the 9:30 Club on May 21, 1981.