Music has always been a huge part of me, and the 9:30 Club in D.C. was my musical haven for many years. I was a regular at the Club, from about 1981 to Oct. 1990, when I moved out West to seek fame and fortune (still lookin...). I was working my way thru Grad School at GWU a few blocks away from the Club, and a bunch of us-- students from GW, friends who worked at National Geographic and the Archives, etc., would go to the 9:30 for Friday Happy Hour. It was fantastic to sit there after a hard week with a rum & coke amid the swirls of clove cigarettes and watch terrific cutting edge videos! It was pure exhileration! Afterwards, sometimes we would go to the AV Ristorante a few blocks away, and then go up to the Depot in Baltimore for dancing. Plenty of times we would stay for shows. One of the first bands I saw there was Tiny Desk Unit probably 1981 or so. I have two of their LPs, one of which was recorded at the 9:30 Club-- I might have been in attendence. Probably the band I saw most at the 9:30 was The Slickee Boys. They played a reunion at the 8x10 in Baltimore in 1996 and I finally decided to say Hi to Mark the lead singer after seeing them for 15 years. I told him one of my best friends had had a crush on him for years (Hi Elaine!). He expressed regret that she had never made her feelings known and offered me a swig of his Jim Beam. Other bands I saw were: Nico and the Velvet Underground ('82), The Fleshtones, Peru Ubu ('86?), DEVO ('88?). I often used to celebrate my birthday at the Club. The day after my birthday in April 1990, an opening band played the 9:30 on its 1st East coast tour: NIRVANA, which I friggin missed! I have a lot of the old flyers from the Club and happened to notice it recently. Even after I moved out West, I would come back to the East coast to visit my family at Christmas and made sure I was at the 9:30 for New Year's Eve. I saw Black 47 there in 1994. I was at the Club the final Friday it was open in 1995 and saw The Insect Surfers who I had been seeing since 1982. I have since learned that The Insect Surfers moved out to L.A. some years ago. It is nice to have a bit of D.C. out here! (Hi David A.!) I really miss those days a lot. It was so great to feel that you were on the cutting edge of music: great videos (The Cure, Caberet Voltaire, the Smiths, Ministry) and national bands. The 9:30 Club was so small that it had an intimate atmosphere-- you weren't just part of the audience: you were part of the music. Interestingly, there was a major punk scene in D.C. in the 80s which I wasn't really into at the time. I tended to be a New Wave baby in those days, and am now just really getting in touch with the rebel inside of me that's always been there. I guess I would best be described as a 'thinking punk'-- I am anti-authority like any proper anarchist, but believe in personal integrity and social responsibility. I am retro-actively getting into punk bands like Fugazi that have some intelligence. But bands which exhibit only apolitical energy can't be denied either.* I still try to keep up with the local D.C. scene when I go back to visit. Tho the old 9:30 is gone, there are traces of its spirit in clubs like The Black Cat. Amazingly, there is a pub in Belfast that smells just like the ol' 9:30! But you 'can't go home again', as they say. You gotta make new realities-- they will be tomorrow's good memories. Please sign my guestbook and inscribe your memories of the original 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Years you visited the club, dates, bands you saw, videos you remember, people you met, sights, sounds, smells... or E-mail me instead if you like... :)
10/13/00: Yipes! Geo-Cities (now owned by Yahoo) has done it again: they changed the guestbooks and didn't tell us, so I had to reinitialize it. So, for several months, visitor's could not sign the book. I was able to save all the old posts, tho! IF YOU TRIED TO INSCRIBE MY GUESTBOOK BEFORE WITH YOUR ORIGINAL CLUB MEMORIES AND WERE UNSUCCESSFUL, PLEASE TRY AGAIN!
M 4/8/02: I have added a new guestbook.
...Sign Guestbook... View Guestbook...
M 4/8/02: My old guestbook is available for viewing.
...View My Old Guestbook...
COOL MUSIC LINKS
New 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.
WHFS @ 99.1: D.C's Alternative Radio Station
Artist-specific World Wide Web sites
Band Photos
The Canonical List of WEIRD Band Names
SYN.LINKS: Nice Site for Industrial Band Links
ministry.nu: The Best Site for Ministry, the GODS of music!!!!!
Matt's Ministry Page
Al Jourgensen
The Officiality-Challenged Lard Page: Ministry
Side Project with Jello Biafra
Front 242: Official Web Site
Filter: Official Web Site
Noise Level 9: Great Laguna Hills, CA Industrial Band
Radio Free America: a fine Phoenix, AZ Industrial Band
Led Zeppelin - Electric Magic, the home of Led Zeppelin on the internet: The First Band I Ever Saw Live!!!!!
Led Zepagain - A Live Tribute To Led Zeppelin: A fine L.A.-area Led Zeppelin tribute band
ArloNet: The Official Arlo Guthrie Home Page
The Official Web Site of the Insect Surfers: ORIGINAL 9:30 CLUB BAND, NOW IN L.A.!!!!!
The official Southern web site of Fugazi: D.C. punk band evolved from Minor Threat
CLUB DEVO: part of website of MUTATO MUZIKA, Mark Mothersbaugh's studio
Man... or Astro-man? Intergalactic Interface
NuWorld: The Official Gary Numan Web Site
The Cure: Official Page
Official Depeche Mode Web Site
Richard Barone Page
Black 47: Official Page
The "official" home page of The Young Dubliners, a great L.A.-based Irish band
Jyrath's Tribute to the Death of Hanson
Rock City's WHISKY A GO GO page, plus good links to L.A. Clubs
The Dragonfly: Club in Hollywood
Search the Comedy Central Schedule: good for re-runs of your fave musical artist
* VISIT MY PUNK PAGE!
HERE IS MY VERY OWN RADIO STATION, it is on LAUNCHcast, it has a really groovy interface.
HERE'S ANOTHER RADIO STATION OF MINE, BUT THE SITE IS NOT AS COOLIO:
I am a member of CD Now, if you are intending to buy records and would like to order through this link, that would be cool, as I will get a small commission. They seem quite a bit cheaper than Amazon. Cheers!
MY AMAZON LINK: You can type a search and hit 'GO' or you can click on the logo below the search box to go directly to the Amazon home page. If you purchase something, I will get a small percentage back. Thank you for supporting your poor, pitiful disabled archaeologist! :)
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