9:30 Club Backbar

I’ve been a fan of 9:30 club for a long time and last night I went to Backbar for the first time. It’s very small, but offers a really fun dance music scene.

If you’re going to a concert at the 9:30 Club, and you’re one of the first 30 or so people in line, you’ll be able to hit the Backbar and get dibs on admission to the club. The bar is down a steep flight of steps around the corner from the main entrance of the club and is a bit gloomy inside, with a few tables and an alcove near the steps to the club. While you’re there, you can grab a bite; the menu has sandwiches, salads, paninis, and the like separated into Vegetable Matters (with vegan items marked) and Meatier Issues. The food isn’t spectacular, but I don’t go for the food; I just want to get a bite before whatever show i’m seeing. However, the prices are reasonable and the portions are fairly good.
So if you find yourself in the Backbar before a concert, grab a bite to eat to give you energy for enjoying the show.

I come here for Drum N Bass. Small space but comfortable. It has that basement bar feel-​kinda grimey in a good way. I guess it depends on what night you come here for and whats going on, but overall I like it-​havent checked out anything but the DnB nights though.

Dive on down.
Went here for an EDM Meetup event and absolutely loved the atmosphere. Small, intimate, and a sketchy entrance on 9^th St. NW to get in.
Awesome.

A sweet little dive bar that I noticed a while back but never had the chance to check out. When I got to a show early on Monday they re-​routed the first part of the line down here to clear off the sidewalk. It’s a really small space with pretty limited seating but it works well. It fits well will the 9:30 Club and I assume it is more low key during the shows since it’s not in direct contact with the stage area.

I hate dive bars, but this might have been the most fun I’ve had underground in a long, long time.
Kinda disorienting when we walked in at midnight because NO ONE WAS THERE. I figured, maybe there’s a show and the place will get packed around 1am. Nope. Stayed virtually empty, which super sucked because the DJ kicked ASS, and I wished more people had been there to share in the joy and the witness this skinny white boy (aptly named DJ Skinny Freeman, I believe) lay down some amazing, amazing beats. I mean, wonderful stuff! When we arrived, he was playing some Baltimore club music, which is just funny (particularly because the Percolator has ruined the Circulator bus route for me. I can only think «It’s time for the Percolator,» while I’m waiting for the bus), then he transitioned into some heavy house music. Then, the brilliant bastard blended house and hip-​hop, but not in the cheesy mash-​up kind of way. THEN, he broke into full hip-​hop mode! AMAZING! I mean, if I were a DJ this would be the kind of stunt I’d pull. I had to go and both applaud and thumbs-​up the dude. I try not to be prejudiced, but I was WELL surprised that this nerdy-​looking white boy was able to pull out all that great stuff. Amazed. I hear the other DJs are just as good, including DJ Jackie O, who wasn’t spinning while I was there, but she was wearing sparkly leggings. SHINY!
9:30 Backbar certainly isn’t my «scene» at first glance, given that it is pretty small and a little dingy. But the drinks were fairly strong and not that expensive, so that would entice me back. That, and that amazing, amazing little DJ man.

Best part of 9:30! I always start out here before shows. This bar is less crowded, and there are tables — so you can eat before things get crazy!

Although this is physically part of the 9:30 Club, with some sort of back staircase connecting the two, I think it has a character distinct enough to warrant its own listing. The Backbar has its own, slightly sinister basement entrance on 9^th Street, illuminated by a single red-​lit steel sign over sharp concrete steps.
I had never even heard of this bar until a couple of days before I dropped in, exhausted and hammered on a frosty Friday night in January to get down to DC’s own Jackie O and Baltimore’s Lemz spinning electro and Bmore club at $weat$hop which, for me, is the musical equivalent of Narcissus boning Helen of Troy and producing a species of earth-​shatteringly beautiful Homeric child. Uh, got lost in my own metaphor there.
Anyway, the music, the low ceilings, the exposed pipes, the copious amounts of alcohol in plastic cups, and the humid jungle air, perhaps contributed to the mind-​boggling number of guys and girls, guys and guys, and girls and girls, girls, guys, and girls, and other permutations making out all over the place, and may have facilitated my own shameful behaviour, which involved not only tripping over the mic wires and bumping into one of the two live MCs during Lemz’s set, among other wasted Kinseyan doings which I, unfortunately, was not blacked out for. I would give this place five stars, if not for the crippling shame.
This, I hear, is what people my age are supposed to be doing. So if you’re interested in getting wasted with an unlikely group of people to awesome music with live MCs, I guess this is your venue. Grnahhh. Sorry, just fighting a spasm of ignominy there.