March 29, 2024
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Foo Fighters to open up DC’s newest concert venue

I.M.P., the independent concert promotions and production company, announced today the headliner for the inaugural night of its newest venue. The Anthem will open its doors at The Wharf on D.C.’s Southwest Waterfront October 12, 2017 for the first time — with none other than hometown favorite and world-beloved Foo Fighters taking the stage.
 
Tickets go on sale Friday, June 16 at 10am through ticketfly.com and at the 9:30 Club, Merriweather Post Pavilion and Lincoln Theatre during normal box office hours.
 
Foo Fighters founder Dave Grohl spent much of his formative years at the original 9:30 Club on F Street, first as a patron then behind the drums in Scream and Nirvana. Years later Dave would play the new 9:30 Club location fronting Foo Fighters and again on drums with Them Crooked Vultures.  Most recently Dave popped into Lincoln Theatre as a surprise guest with Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and before that Foo Fighters opened the summer 2015 leg of the band’s 20th anniversary tour at RFK Stadium, an all day stadium extravaganza promoted by I.M.P.

“There was never any question about who would open. There was no Plan B,” said Seth Hurwitz, chairman of I.M.P., co-owner of the 9:30 Club and The Anthem, and operator of the Lincoln Theatre and Merriweather Post Pavilion. “It was always just the Foos. I texted Dave some photos of the venue after we started building it and asked him ‘Who else should open it?’ He said ‘Nobody.’ That was the end of it.” 

AnthemA couple of months ago, Hurwitz walked Grohl through The Anthem while in the midst of construction. “There was one thing that really stuck with me that Dave said when I gave him the tour,” said Hurwitz. “He stood where the stage is and looked all around and said, ‘It’s like an arena — but it’s like the 9:30.’ That was exactly what I wanted to hear.”
 
“The new place is set to become the number one venue in America, I shit you not,” said Grohl. “It has the illusion of a stadium, but the intimacy of a nightclub. It’s perfect. From a production standpoint it’s got everything an arena-touring band would need, but it offers a tighter vibe with an audience than those bigger rooms. Every vantage point is the best seat in the house. I mean, they really put a lot of thought into the audience perspective. Doesn’t matter where you are: on the floor, in a balcony, at the bar, you’re going to feel close to the band.”
 

To date, D.C. has lacked any mid-sized, pure music venues, creating a significant void. “For years agents asked me ‘When are you going to build the solution?’” Hurwitz said, “So we finally did.” The Anthem is the first venue of its size in D.C. specifically built from the ground up for music.  Later this month I.M.P. will announce a slate of more than a dozen shows that will appear at The Anthem in 2017.

The Anthem will have a flexible capacity of anywhere from 2,500 to a maximum of 6,000, with many seated and general admission configurations. It accomplishes this as the 9:30 Club does, with a moveable stage and backdrop, virtually undetectable between one capacity and another.  Friends with Benefits members can use their loyalty card at The Anthem, just as they do at 9:30 Club, Merriweather Post Pavilion and the Lincoln Theatre, enabling them to build points redeemable for tickets, food, beverages and merchandise at any I.M.P. venue.
 
Just blocks from the National Mall, The Anthem will cost $60 million to build and is part of The Wharf, the waterfront development by PN Hoffman and Madison Marquette. 
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