The Foo Fighters are to open the new Washington DC venue that is a detailed replica of the city’s iconic 9:30 Club.
Dave Grohl’s band will play the I.M.P.-owned The Atlantis on May 30 – some 43 years after the original 9:30 opened on F Street, Northwest. Pixies and Billy Idol will also play the venue in its opening months.
Grohl announced the new 450-capacity club when Foo Fighters played a surprise show at 9:30 in 2021.
The Atlantis will open with a slate of 44 shows through to the end of September to celebrate the 9:30’s 44th year in business. Shows will cost $44 and will feature established and emerging artists.
“After the opening series, our intention is to book only the shows that matter,” said Seth Hurwitz, chairman of I.M.P and owner of The Atlantis, in a statement. “We want people to rely on us to tell them that someday you will say you saw them when. We have no calendar to fill. We will curate like no other venue.”
I.M.P., which owns and operates 9:30 Club and the Anthem and operates the Lincoln Theatre and Merriweather Post Pavilion, bought the original 9:30 Club in 1986.
Real estate developer Jon Bowers and Dodi Disanto bought the Atlantic building at 930 F Street in May 1980. The original club’s slogan was “9:30 – a place and a time.” I.M.P. founder and owner Hurwitz began booking shows at the club that year.
Bands like Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fugazi and REM played the original 9:30 over the years, but its capacity was only 200. The larger Black Cat opened on 14th Street, Northwest, in 1993, around the same time that the Atlantic Building’s owner wanted to bring in new tenants. Hurwitz and his then co-owner, Rich Heinecke, decided to move the club to the former home of DC radio station WUST, a building that already had a remarkable music history and could hold 1,200 people.