Nation (nightclub)

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Nation was a live music/club venue located at 1015 Half Street, in Washington, D.C. Its size exceeded any club in the DC area with three levels indoors and the multi-level outdoor patio. Its large atmospheric rooms and powerful sound system made it a popular haunt of the rave, goth, and drum & bass scenes, as well as the gay community.

History

Nation nightclub, located on Capitol Hill near the Washington Navy Yard, was carved out of the former Hurley Boiler building. Built in 1924, Nation took up the block between K and L and Half Street. The club first opened its doors as The Capitol Ballroom in August of 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. The Capitol Ballroom began hosting the legendary Buzz nights on Fridays, which hosted a number of national and international talent in dance music, and eventually became the U.S.'s largest weekly dance party/rave hybrid. On Saturdays the party Industrial Revolution was hosted by DJ Mohawk Adam and brought industrial and dark electronic acts.

John Boyle, nightlife entrepreneur, designed Nation from the Hurley building.

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.

Nation was owned and managed by Primacy Companies, Inc. The club closed on July 16, 2006, and was demolished in May, 2007 to make way for new, multi-use office buildings.

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, 311, VNV Nation, 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.

It had also been home to three regular events for a number of years: "Alchemy/Alias" (Thursday), "Buzzlife," later renamed "Cubik," due to controversy of a possible drug reference (Friday), and gay night, "Velvet" (Saturday).

"Alchemy" was one of the country's largest weekly goth/industrial nights. 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.

"Cubik" was named the country’s top event of its kind numerous times by international publications such as Urb and BPM. Cubik hosted the world’s top electronic house and techno djs such as Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto, Sasha and Digweed, and Paul Van Dyk as well as live acts such as Rabbit in the Moon and The Prodigy.

Saturdays played host to Velvet Nation, a gay dance event, created and operated by John Guggenmos and Ed Bailey. The event was respected worldwide as one of the top events of its kind in the US. For many years it had 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 was also known for its theme events such as Madonnarama, a night of all Madonna music and video.

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