Foo Fighters To Open D.C.'s Atlantis, First of 44 Underplays That Include George Clinton, X, Joan Jett, The Pixies

I.M.P., Washington D.C.’s preeminent independent concert promoter, today announced the May 30 opening of The Atlantis, a new $10 million 450-cap venue. The new club, which pays homage to the original 9:30 Club, is opening in style: with the Foo Fighters on May 30 who are the first of 44 underplay performances representing the 9:30’s 44 years on the planet. These underplays, by performers who can and do play much bigger venues, include George Clinton, X, Joan Jett, The Pixies, Spoon, Drive-By Truckers, Jenny Lewis, Billy Idol, Jeff Tweedy, The Magnetic Fields, Gogol Bordello, Living Colour, Tove Lo and Bartese Strange among many others (full-line up below).

The Other Washington Monument: 9:30 Club Turns 40

Though The Atlantis pays homage to the original 9:30 club, which opened in 1980 on F Street before moving in 1996 to its current space on V Street, it’s certainly not just nostalgia that inspired the club. “We’ve been doing our smallest shows in other peoples’ venues for too many years now,” stated Seth Hurwitz, chairman of I.M.P. whose portfolio of larger venues includes the 9:30 Club (1,200 cap.), Lincoln Theater (1,225), The Anthem (6K cap) and Merriweather Post Pavilion (19.3K). “We needed a place that’s ours,” This can be the most exciting step in an artist’s career. This will be where we help introduce new artists to the world, and their story needs to be told right. Our smallest venue will be treated as important, if not more, than our bigger venues. If the stories are told right, both the artists and the fans begin their hopefully long-term relationship, and we as promoters do better too.”

The Atlantis will be booked by Zhubin Aghamolla, who also books The Anthem and Merriweather Post Pavilion. Sam Hurwitz has been named Atlantis’s general manager and since 2018 has served as Front of House Manager for The Anthem.

The new venue, located just around the corner from the 9:30, was formerly the Satellite Diner, co-owned by a member of Thievery Corp. and was designed by CORE architecture + design and the general contractor is MCN Build.

While hindsight may be 20-20, and past is sometimes prologue, there’s still virtually no one on God’s green earth who ever went to Washington, D.C.’s original 9:30 Club and thought for a second it would ever be replicated four decades later. That’s because the original was a hovel, with horrible sight lines, rank odors, rat-infestations and pillars in the middle of the floor. It also had some of the city’s greatest performances ever by artists ranging from R.E.M., Nirvana, Dolly Parton and James Brown to The Slickee Boys, Fugazi, Trouble Funk, Public Enemy and far, far beyond.

Tickets for the inaugural run of shows will cost $44 and are non-transferrable. The Atlantis is using Ticketmaster Request for the inaugural run of shows, which is open now at TheAtlantis.com and will run through Friday, April 7 at 11:59pm ET.

As Hurwitz rightly noted, “There is nothing like seeing a great act in a small venue,”

The Atlantis 44 Opening Shows:
May 30 Foo Fighters
May 31 The Walkmen
June 2 Hot Chip
June 3 Rainbow Kitten Surprise
June 4 Modern English
June 5 Franz Ferdinand
June 6 Pixies
June 9 Tank and the Bangas
June 10 Yo La Tengo
June 16 Marc Roberge of O.A.R.
June 17 Hannibal Buress + Eshu Tune
June 19 Sylvan Esso
June 20 Darius Rucker
June 24 Rodrigo y Gabriela
June 25 X
June 28 Jeff Tweedy
July 2 Barenaked Ladies
July 6 Tegan and Sara
July 7 The Head and The Heart
July 15 The Magnetic Fields
July 20 Clutch
July 21 Jenny Lewis
July 23 The Struts
July 27 Third Eye Blind
July 28 Portugal. The Man
July 29 Living Colour
July 30 Iron & Wine
Aug. 5 Gogol Bordello
Aug. 6 Bush
Aug. 8 Shakey Graves
Aug. 10 Drive-By Truckers
Aug. 14 Parliament Funkadelic feat. George Clinton
Aug. 17 Thievery Corporation
Aug. 27 Joan Jett
Aug. 28 Gary Clark Jr.
Sept. 2 Ben Gibbard
Sept. 6 Luna
Sept. 9 Bartees Strange
Sept. 13 Spoon
Sept. 15 Tove Lo
Sept. 17 Billy Idol
Sept. 21 Bastille
Sept. 22 Matt and Kim
Sept. 29 Maggie Rogers