Washington (AC) DC
JERRY LAWTON heads to the US capital and plugs in to its reputation for exhilarating live music
CHICAGO may be the home of the blues, New Orleans jazz, Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco, Elvis put Memphis on the map and Frank Sinatra loved crooning about New York so much he named it twice. But now the United States has an unlikely new music capital – the nation’s capital.
Until now Washington DC may be best known for its political – rather than musical – heavyweights. Its top tourist attractions were the US President’s pad The White House, the Lincoln and George Washington monuments in honour of the nation’s two great leaders and the Capitol Building.
But as I discovered there is far more to it than just political hot air. The world’s biggest artists have emptied their lungs singing in the city’s wealth of live music venues which nightly host performances in everything from blues and bluegrass to hip-hop and opera.
Hailing from a family of musicians I’m a natural night owl with a nose to sniff out a live gig wherever I roam. But I didn’t need it on this trip – it hit me the moment I stepped outside my hotel. Perhaps it should be renamed Washington AC/DC.
While the entertainment industry across much of the world struggles to emerge from pandemic lockdown, Washington’s is positively exploding. Live music seeps from bars and clubs on every stroll giving the city a buzz of electric excitement.
Its rich and diverse musical heritage dates back to 1798 with the founding of the US Marine Band. Always progressive, it gave birth to the Coloured American Opera Society in 1872.
It is the birthplace of jazz band leader Duke Ellington, soul singer Marvin Gaye and Nirvana and Foo Fighters ace Dave Grohl grew up in the suburbs. The city launched the careers of a host of major artists across all genres from jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd, rock ’n’ roll pioneer Bo Diddley and The Monkees’ Peter Tork to Roberta ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ Flack, rocker Joan Jett and country music queen Patsy Cline.
It is home to the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Blues Alley Jazz Society and famous Levine School of Music which his honing a new generation of stars.
The city can even boast to have invented two entire musical genres – Sixties funk explosion go-go and harDCore punk in the Seventies. And it is home to a live club voted the best in the US by the musicians who’ve played there.
The 9:30 has been named club of the year by live music industry trade publication Pollstar 13 times, featured in TV shows The Gilmore Girls and Designated Survivor and was singled out by Rolling Stone magazine as No1 Big Room in America. And it didn’t let me down. When I popped along for a sizzling sell-out show by LA funksters The Scary Pockets, I felt I was stepping on to hallowed ground reserved for music gods. The club started out in 1980 in a tiny back room surrounded by boarded up buildings in a district then rife with drugs and peep shows. It fast became a cult venue for upand-coming local bands to perform to crowds of under 200. As its popularity grew it moved almost brickby-brick to its current location – once home to Duke Ellington’s jazz club – and has become a ‘mustplay-here’ for the world’s biggest artists.
Its Hall of Records features more than 8,000 CDs and vinyl albums by every performer to grace the stage, creating the ultimate music museum.
Bob Dylan played there in 1997 on his way to pick up a lifetime achievement gong, the Red Hot Chili Peppers stunned with a surprise set, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe sang at a secret show by Radiohead in front of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston on their first date, Courtney Love stripped off on stage, Adele sold out the place in under two minutes, Tony Bennett wowed with an intimate jazz set, James Brown left his hairdryer behind – now a museum piece – Green Day and ZZ Top’s gigs achieved legendary status and Rick Astley sang Never Gonna Give You Up on Valentine’s Day.
Grohl, who as a kid queued for tickets to watch his favourite punk band Bad Brains, performed there as a teen drummer with his debut outfit Dain Bramage, then Nirvana, before last year returning with the Foo Fighters to play a 44th anniversary gig for just $44 a ticket.
The night I was there, 9:30 was just one of 37 venues offering live music across the city. Among them was the Blues Alley jazz nightclub in trendy Georgetown – a favourite haunt of keyboard ace Ray Charles where singer Eva Cassidy recorded a classic 1996 live album shortly before her tragic death from cancer.
Historian Briana Thomas’s Black Broadway Tour reveals Ellington’s birthplace and murals of icons such as Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong whose performances helped propel the city into a music metropolis.
After the gig I visited the club’s rooftop garden which has been turned into a bar featuring street signs and frontages salvaged from the original site.
A century old law dictates no building can be more than 130ft tall. The urban myth is it was introduced so the 289ft Capitol would be the tallest in town but it was really because that was the longest firefighters’ ladders could stretch.
What 1899 law-makers may not have foreseen is how their health and safety rule would go on to define the city. Unlike most others there are no tower blocks or skyscrapers and locals have taken advantage by opening up their roofs to a host of bars, restaurants and clubs.
Sundowners are a must and I admit I took them into overtime at Tiki TNT – a funky three-storey bar overlooking the Potomac River in the city’s Wharf district.
The night I was there, 9:30 was just one of 37 venues offering live music across the city
Guinness and wine was flowing in copious amounts at US presidents’ haunt Martin’s Tavern in Georgetown. The iconic eaterie is where JFK popped the question to Jackie and used to secretly chew the fat with Republican rival Richard Nixon.
Nixon bit off more than he could chew in the 1970s Watergate scandal when Republican burglars were caught breaking in to bug the Democrat party headquarters. The Watergate building is now a hotel with a lavish rooftop lounge.
I could not help but smile at Chicken + Whiskey – a bustling cocktail joint yards from where, in 1919, Congress introduced Prohibition by bringing in a law banning the manufacture, sale and transport of booze.
I spent hours wandering 14th Street’s cocktail bars, restaurants, funky art galleries, boutiques, coffee shops and music clubs wondering where all this had been on my last visit to the city as a
sightseeing teen in the 1980s. All I could recall of Washington was the White House was not as big as I expected. The president’s digs have not changed – other than the introduction of extra security fences and what looked like snipers on the roof – but it’s still an Insta-snap must, along with the Capitol and the monuments. All are free to view as is the aweinspiring Library of Congress – the biggest in the world with 173 million exhibits – the National Archives Museum containing the US Constitution and National Gallery of Art packed with Picassos, Pollocks, Warhols and the only da Vinci painting in the Americas. Then there is the National Zoo plus the 16 museums of the Smithsonian dotted around the National Mall – each with a different theme. None of them cost a dime to visit. A great way to take it all in is on two wheels. Unlimited Biking runs a tour which visits the monuments at night showing America’s finest landmarks lit up in all their glory. Next year the city will host World Pride, DC JazzFest and the National Cherry Blossom Festival. There will be 19 new hotels and 20 more rooftop bars and restaurants – with 25 eateries expected to achieve Michelin stars. Washington DC is simply capital in every way.