Washington, DC's 9:30 Club turned 40 (stream over 100 shows via NPR)
Washington, DC’s the 9:30 Club celebrated its 40th anniversary on Sunday (5/31). Across the four decades years, the venue has been an integral part of D.C.’s vast music scene, from punk, to go-go, and beyond — first at its original location (930 F Street) and then at its current home of 815 V Street NW where it’s been since 1996.
To celebrate, NPR released “a handy guide” compiling the concerts that NPR Music recorded and streamed live from the 9:30 CLub from 2005 through 2017. The first of those was a 2005 set from Bright Eyes (recorded just after the release of their two excellent records, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn). 2005 continues with sets from My Morning Jacket and Death Cab for Cutie, among others.
Throughout the rest of the list, you can find the coverage of 9:30 Club sets from Arctic Monkeys (2006), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2006), Sonic Youth (2006), Rilo Kiley (2007), Spoon (2007), The National (2007), Animal Collective (2007), The Raconteurs (2008), Spiritualized (2008), Metric (2009), Public Image Ltd. (2010), Jonsi (2010), Bon Iver (2011), M83 (2012), Grizzly Bear (2012), James Blake (2013), Sylvan Esso (2014), and Sleater-Kinney (2015) and many more.
NPR Music’s Bob Boilen, whose old group Tiny Desk Unit were the first band to play the club, said “The 9:30 Club changed my life” and we know he’s not the only one. He wrote a lovely essay about the club, too.
Happy 40th anniversary, 9:30 Club. Like most all venues in the U.S, it is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic but here’s to many more years of shows ahead.
Check out a few of the livestreams (Bright Eyes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The National, Wilco, PiL, and Bon Iver) below and the full list is over at NPR.
You can also watch shoegaze greats Ride play the original 9:30 Club in 1992.
