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| ...with four distinct spaces within one new club, we're lucky to have a superb place to hear music, drink a beer, hear a poem, eat a veggie burger or just slouch on a couch.
-Eric Brace, Washington Post |
In the early ‘90s, DC suffered from a lack of good concert venues, especially spaces that catered to the area’s underground music scene. Hoping to revive the tradition of independent music in Washington, a group of investors (most of them musicians) opened the Black Cat in September 1993. Among the first bands to play were the Fall, Rancid, Morphine, Stereolab, Slant 6 and 9353. Since opening its doors, the Black Cat has been a home for local and national talent, thereby playing its own part in the explosion of indie rock that marked the last decade.
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| Dante, the owner |
Located in the heart of the historic U Street Corridor, the Black Cat has seen some remarkable changes as the neighborhood has transformed around it. Once the hub of an active and exciting music scene in DC's jazz age, the U Street Corridor fell on hard times beginning with the '68 riots and continuing through a period of urban neglect that spanned the ‘80s. However, the 1990s found the neighborhood undergoing its own renaissance and the area has once again emerged as a nighttime hot-spot, offering a number of popular nightclubs, bars, restaurants, and retail spaces that cater to a diverse blend of DC's culture-hungry population.
The Black Cat has also managed to weather the transitions of both an ever-changing local music scene and, on a larger scale, an evolving rock music industry. In 2001, the club itself underwent a major move, relocating to a larger space only three doors down from its original spot. Nevertheless, we remain committed to our community-oriented atmosphere and our established identity as an alternative/independent music venue.
A few of the performers to grace the stage have included:
The Afghan Whigs, The Arcade Fire, Atmosphere, At The Drive-in, Bad Religion, Beck, Belle & Sebastian, Bikini Kill, Andrew Bird, Bloc Party, Blur, Frank Black, Blonde Redhead, Bow Wow Wow, Bright Eyes, Broken Social Scene, Jeff Buckley, Built to Spill, Bush Tetras, Neko Case, The Cramps, The Damned, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Ani DiFranco, Digable Planets, Dinosaur Jr., Dismemberment Plan, The Distillers, The Dirty Three, The Donnas, Drive By Truckers, Elastica, El Vez, John Entwhistle, The Ex, The Fall, Fantomas, Fear, Flaming Lips, Foo Fighters, Fugazi, Garbage, Girls Against Boys, Goldie, Kim Gordon, The Gossip, Gray Matter, Nina Hagen, Helium, The Hives, Hot Snakes, Ivy, Wanda Jackson, Jamiroquai, Jawbox, The Killers, Kings of Leon, KMFDM, Korn, L7, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Le Tigre, The Libertines, Lightning Bolt, Liquid Soul, Los Amigos Invisibles, Love, Luna, Luscious Jackson, Lydia Lunch, Shane MacGowan, Magnetic Fields, Make-Up, Johnny Marr, Mazzy Star, Meat Puppets, Medeski Martin & Wood, Melt-Banana, Melvins, Moby, Thurston Moore, Modest Mouse, Morphine, Mr. Bungle, My Morning Jacket, New Pornographers, New York Dolls, The Offspring, Will Oldham, Kelly Osbourne, Pavement, Pennywise, PJ Harvey, The Postal Service, Portishead, Q and not U, Radiohead, Rancid, Amy Ray, Res, Rilo Kiley, Rocket from the Crypt, Rocket from the Tombs, The Roots, Scream, Sebadoh, Pete Seeger, Shellac, The Shins, Shudder to Think, Slant 6, Sleater-Kinney, The Slits, Elliott Smith, Social Distortion, Spearhead, Regina Spektor, Stabbing Westward, Stereolab, Sufjan Stevens, Stiff Little Fingers, The Strokes, Suicide, Sum 41, Sunny Day Real Estate, Superchunk, Supergrass, Tegan & Sara, Thursday, Tomahawk, Tortoise, Trans Am, Tricky, Turbonegro, Tuscadero, TV On The Radio, Unrest, Unwound, Velocity Girl, Veruca Salt, Mike Watt, The White Stripes, Hank Williams III, Andrew WK, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yo La Tengo, John Zorn, and many many more.
