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9:30 Club Backbar
- Nearest Transit:
-
Shaw Metro Station (Green, Yellow)
U Street Metro Station (Green, Yellow)
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street, Private Lot
- Good for Groups:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Music:
- Live
- Best Nights:
- Fri, Sat
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Smoking:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
4 reviews for 9:30 Club Backbar
4 reviews in English
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Review from Vonetta Y.
Washington, DC
3/30/2010
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.Listed in: May I have this dance?
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Review from Laura T.
San Francisco, CA
2/5/2010
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 9th 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.Listed in: DON'T WINCE! [DC Nightlife]
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Review from Samantha E.
Alexandria, VA
7/27/2011 3 Check-ins Here
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.
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Review from Eileen O.
Alexandria, VA
3/2/2010
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!
Specialties
Underground. Dive bar. Basement of the well-known 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.
