Nation to close its doors July 16

i saw this buried in the prodigy thread so here you go. good riddance? or 1 less mid sized venue with now more bands than ever skipping DC to hit Baltimore? comments.

http://www.alchemy-dc.com/NationStatement.pdf


NATION Nightclub is closing on July 16th 2006.
The increasing real estate development and looming baseball stadium construction has forced one of Washington DCâ??s largest and well known nightclubs to close its doors for good on Sunday, July 16th of this year. Nation nightclub, located on Capitol Hill near the Navy Yard, will be torn down to make way for a new, mixed use office building. Nation was carved out of the former Hurley Boiler building, originally built in 1924, and takes up the block between K and L and Half and South Capitol streets. John Boyle, nightlife entrepreneur and son of Jack Boyle, founder of Cellar Door productions, designed Nation and first opened its doors in 1999. John envisioned a mixed use facility that would feature national acts on the main stage and host DJ driven dance parties featuring the top national and international DJ talent on a weekly basis. His vision came to fruition thanks in large part to a loyal dedicated staff, many of whom have been with Nation since the beginning.

Nation is recognized locally for the wide variety of concert events it has hosted over the years. Acts such as Eminem, Prince, Social Distortion, 311, VNV Nation, Limp Bizkit, the Violent Femmes, Big & Rich, James Brown, Creed, Snoop Dogg, David Bowie, Coal Chamber, NOFX, Lenny Kravitz, Slayer, Jay Z, Bad Religion, Soul-Fly, Dropkick Murphyâ??s and Ozzy Osborne have all graced the main stage at Nation. Nation is also recognized on a national and even international level for its three weekly DJ and theme driven nightclub parties.

Fridays play host to Cubik, formerly Buzz, originally the brainchild of Scott Henry and Lieven DeGeyndt and operated now by Henry of Buzzlife Productions. Cubik hosts the worldâ??s top electronic house, and techno djs such as Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto, Sasha and Digweed, and Paul Van Dyk as well as live acts like Rabbit in the Moon and The Prodigy. It was named the countryâ??s top event of its kind numerous times by international publications such as Urb and BPM.

Saturdays play host to Velvetnation, a gay dance event, created and operated by John Guggenmos and
Ed Bailey. The event is respected worldwide as one of the top events of its kind in the US. For many years it has hosted circuit event djs and talents such as Junior Vasquez, Abel Aguilera, Victor Calderone, The Pet Shop Boys, KD Lang, and The Village People. It is also known for its innovative theme events such as Madonnarama, a night of all Madonna music and video, which draws the clubs largest crowds annually.


Thursday nights have been home to Alchemy, one of the country's largest weekly parties catering to the darker realm of club land. Tony Tribby led a team that created Alchemy and used Nation's multi-room layout to combine music ranging from industrial, ebm, goth, 80's, punk, electro-clash, trance, alternative and indie into a package with a Goth esthetic. Alchemy has also introduced DC to the live shows of top
electronic acts VNV Nation, Icon of Coil, Hocico, Terrorfakt, and presented classic acts including Siouxsie and the Banshees, Pigface, Laibach and Juno Reactor.

While Nation will disappear, the owners and promoters will not. The owners are actively scouting locations for a new club to help fill some of the void that will be felt by Nation closing. The promoters have been approached by other notable DC clubs hoping to host their parties. There is a very highly charged final schedule planned for the last few months as each night has booked the biggest talent available to send the club out on a high note. For final schedule details visit www.primacycompanies.com for concert information, www.alchemy-dc.com for Thursday nights, www.buzzlife.com for Friday nights and www.velvetnation.com for Saturday nights.
Yeah i should have made a seperate thread about it, but calling Nation a mid-size venue is pretty off. It can hold a lot more people than the 930 Club, but certainly never sounded nearly as nice as the 930 Club :)

MindCage
Mindless Faith
Deep6 Productions
Isn't a midsized venue something between a small club and arena sized?
It's absolutely a mid-sized venue. Cap for that is usually between 2,000-5,000. DAR and Warner, both bigger than Nation, would be mid-sized venues.
all the bands that play there suck
I have been there a zillion times…went there the first night buzz was there, and was there almost every friday til about 1998. then i even hung outside and promoted our events for another 3 years,…never going in.

that place is a shithole…not because of the management or the venue itself..but the patrons….

glad it will be closing so it cant infect anyone else!!!
Originally posted by Shadrach:
Isn't a midsized venue something between a small club and arena sized?
I always thought that too. Something that can hold anywhere between 1000 to a couple thousand people. A place that can sell out shows on a semi-regular basis for popular acts but also not be big enough to take to an arena or amphitheatre.
I don't mean to pile on, but my lasting memory of nation for years has been the time I went to a show and a fight broke out and security just stood around doing nothing.

I never went back after that no matter who was playing.
Originally posted by Shadrach:
I don't mean to pile on, but my lasting memory of nation for years has been the time I went to a show and a fight broke out and security just stood around doing nothing.

I never went back after that no matter who was playing.
I use to know some Baltimore Shitty school administrators like that. Except they would eventually find a way to blame the teachers; even though they rendered them powerless to do anything about it in the first place; just to punish someone and cover their own asses.

I never went back either after I finally accepted that that's way life is in that Hell Hole and there was no changing it.

Have never been to Nation but have had very little reason to go. Some things are better off closing down.
My lasting memories of Nation….
-getting propositioned by a prostitute
-getting panhandled by a crack head
-getting spit on by someone from the balconies above
-getting body cavity searched by dudes :(

I went there for a few shows out of necessity (Social Distortion, Deftones) but thank god I won't have to back again.
Originally posted by you be pickup:
all the bands that play there suck
Do the Breeders suck?
No mention of its former life as The Capital Ballroom? Saw the Butthole Surfers there, that was pretty cool.
Originally posted by Shadrach:
I don't mean to pile on, but my lasting memory of nation for years has been the time I went to a show and a fight broke out and security just stood around doing nothing.

I never went back after that no matter who was playing.
really? my memory of nation is getting kicked out after a show ended early, and having to spend half the night outside with a friend at 13 (both of us) during an 18+ dance party after our show was over, while we waited for a ride. security stayed with us the whole time outside, and they were awesome. when i wasn't worried about getting shot in a drive-by or raped, they were a really cool group of guys. then again, nothing actually broke out that they needed to fix. so i guess i'll speak for myself…
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Originally posted by you be pickup:
all the bands that play there suck
Do the Breeders suck?
totally dude
Originally posted by you be pickup:
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Originally posted by you be pickup:
all the bands that play there suck
Do the Breeders suck?
totally dude
if you hate The Breeders; you're not worthy of a "you be" username. sorry, Charlie.
Originally posted by Shadrach:
I don't mean to pile on, but my lasting memory of nation for years has been the time I went to a show and a fight broke out and security just stood around doing nothing.

I never went back after that no matter who was playing.
I HATE the security there. They don't know what they are doing. Their idea of crowd control is to get in front of the stage and keep pushing the crowd backwards until everyone falls down and gets trampled on. I'm glad it's getting shut down….although I wish it was going to be a month earlier, beacuse my favorite band is booked there in June. Sigh.
Originally posted by lukas:
Originally posted by Shadrach:
I don't mean to pile on, but my lasting memory of nation for years has been the time I went to a show and a fight broke out and security just stood around doing nothing.

I never went back after that no matter who was playing.
I HATE the security there. They don't know what they are doing. Their idea of crowd control is to get in front of the stage and keep pushing the crowd backwards until everyone falls down and gets trampled on. I'm glad it's getting shut down….although I wish it was going to be a month earlier, beacuse my favorite band is booked there in June. Sigh.
that's the aquabats/aggrolites show right? :mad:
Another "fond" memory. Waiting in line for a show (forget who) and some girl in line decides that she has to pee really bad, drops trow right in line and pees in the gravel to the left of the sidewalk.
Happy to see it will be gone soon. I hates to go there (when I left the place I always expect my car to be broken into or stolen), but did see two good shows there (Tool and Bowie) when it was the Capital Ballroom.
Originally posted by andyrichter:
Originally posted by lukas:
Originally posted by Shadrach:
I don't mean to pile on, but my lasting memory of nation for years has been the time I went to a show and a fight broke out and security just stood around doing nothing.

I never went back after that no matter who was playing.
I HATE the security there. They don't know what they are doing. Their idea of crowd control is to get in front of the stage and keep pushing the crowd backwards until everyone falls down and gets trampled on. I'm glad it's getting shut down….although I wish it was going to be a month earlier, beacuse my favorite band is booked there in June. Sigh.
that's the aquabats/aggrolites show right? :mad:
oh, crap. i wanted to go to that too. they better play somewhere else closeby.