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Nation was a live music/club venue located at 1015 Half Street SE, in the Navy Yard/Near Southeast neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Its was larger than any other club in the D.C. area with three levels indoors and a multi-level outdoor patio. Its large rooms, sound, and lighting systems made it a popular club for the rave, goth, drum & bass, and gay communities.
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History
Built in 1924, the building initially comprised the front entrance of what became Nation, serving as a carriage factory. The building later expanded as it changed hands, at one point serving as a warehouse for the military and finally as a factory for Hurley Boiler before it was ceased operations. The club first opened its doors as The Capitol Ballroom in August 1995, with The Ramones, Björk and Lords of Acid being among the first acts to take the stage. The club was located near the other seminal Navy Yard club called Tracks, a large gay club at the time. The Capitol Ballroom began hosting "Buzz" nights on Fridays, which hosted a number of national and international talent in dance music. It eventually became the country's largest weekly dance party/rave hybrid.[citation needed] On Saturdays, the party "Industrial Revolution" brought industrial and dark electronic acts.
Nation became recognized locally for highly diverse concert events. Nation was also recognized on a national and even international level for its three weekly DJ and theme driven nightclub parties.[citation needed]
Nation was managed by Primacy Companies, Inc. On July 16, 2006, the club closed after longtime lot owners Potomac Investment Properties decided to move forward with a planned 400,000-square-foot (37,000 m2) office building on the site. In July 2007, Potomac Investment sold the site to Opus East for $41.5 million, and in spring 2008 construction began on the office building.[1] The area is now considered part of the "Ballpark District" due to the fact the Nationals Park stadium has been built two blocks away.[1]
Events
Nation had been host to hundreds of bands and solo acts from David Bowie to Rage Against the Machine. Acts such as Eminem, Prince, Social Distortion, Rancid, 311, VNV Nation, Blur, Front Line Assembly, Limp Bizkit, the Violent Femmes, Big & Rich, James Brown, Creed, Snoop Dogg, Coal Chamber, NOFX, Lenny Kravitz, The Prodigy, Slayer, Jay Z, Evanescence, Bad Religion, Soulfly, Mindless Self Indulgence, Basement Jaxx, and Ozzy Osbourne had all graced the main stage at Nation.[citation needed]
Staff at Nation included lighting director K. Clark, along with Jeff Night and Shaggy on sound and site manager Henri Fadli. The main room was equipped with a 40-foot (12 m) stage, a large mezzanine walkway, and a third level skybox was added in 2000 for VIPs. The lighting in the main room consisted of 8 Studio Spots, 12 Studio colors, 72 par-cans, 6 lekos, 5 Studio 250s, and 6 MAC 500 moving heads; all controlled by a Hog 1000 with the pars and lekos going through a dimmer rack. Video was processed through an Edirol v-4 mixer and fed to the upstage, downstage, circular, and rectangular trusses for projection. The sound was legendary and consisted of EAW cabinets and drivers, amplified by Crown, and fed by a post-processor in the DJ booth that received signal via a Pioneer 500 mixer or, if the talent on hand preferred something a little more "old-school", a Rane mixer. Front of house sound was managed by contracted third parties, usually Springfield Sound or MSI.
Nation did many shows of their own such as concerts, sporting events, trade shows, and even a six week run of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was home to events such as "Alchemy/Alias" (Thursday), "Buzz," and alternately "Cubik" after a brief move to Redwood Trust in Baltimore (Friday), and gay night "Velvet Nation" (Saturday).
"Alchemy" was one of the country's weekly goth/industrial nights.[citation needed] Tony Tribby led a team that created Alchemy and used Nation's multi-room layout to combine music ranging from industrial, ebm, goth, 80s, punk, electro-clash, trance, alternative into a package with a Goth aesthetic. Alchemy had hosted VNV Nation, Icon of Coil, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Juno Reactor, and others at their Thursday night event.{Fact|date=February 2008}}
"Buzz" and "Cubik" were named the country’s top electronic dance music events numerous times by international publications such as Urb and BPM. Buzz and Cubik hosted the world’s top electronic house, drum and bass, breakbeat and techno djs such as Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto, Sasha and Digweed, Dieselboy, Andy C, The Freestylers, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method and Paul Van Dyk as well as live acts such as Rabbit in the Moon and The Prodigy.[citation needed]
Saturdays played host to Velvet Nation, a gay dance event. The event was respected as one of the top events of its kind in the US.[citation needed] For many years it hosted circuit event DJs and talents such as Junior Vasquez, Abel Aguilera, Alyson Calagna, Mike Reeze, Manny Lehman, Tony Moran, Victor Calderone, The Pet Shop Boys, KD Lang, and The Village People. It was also known for its theme events such as Madonnarama, a night of all Madonna music and video.
References
External links
- Nation Nightclub homepage
- Alchemy DC -- the country's largest weekly goth/industrial night
- Buzzlife -- DC's largest weekly Electronic Dance Music night
- Nation Nightclub: Press Statement
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