“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.”
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.