Nightclub 9:30 (originally known and still commonly referred to as the 9:30 Club) is a nightclub and concert venue in Washington, D.C.. The club originally opened in 1980 at 930 F St. NW in downtown Washington (hence the name). Co-owned by Rich Heinecke and Seth Hurwitz, it later moved to its current location at 815 V Street NW, anchoring the eastern end of the U Street Corridor.

The 9:30 Club is served by the U Street station of the Washington Metro. The club has a capacity of 1200 people and is a standing-only venue. It won the Top Club awards at the 2007 through 2011 Billboard Touring Awards, except in 2008, when the award was not presented.

Founded by Dody DiSanto and Jon Bowers, the 9:30 Club was the home for alternative music in D.C. during the early 1980s and was a regular stopping point for bands touring the east coast as well as local D.C. artists, such as Chuck Brown, Maiesha & The Hip Huggers featuring E.U., Root Boy Slim, and the Sex Change Band. Other performers in the early days of the venue included X, Blue Angel (with lead singer Cyndi Lauper), The Bangles, Marti Jones, Marshall Crenshaw, Mod Fun, Nash the Slash, The Go-Go's, and Betty (Alyson Palmer of Betty tended bar in the club at the time). Washington music programmer and writer Tom Terrell was instrumental in masterminding the U.S. premiere of reggae band Steel Pulse on the night of Bob Marley's funeral, which was broadcast live worldwide from the 9:30 Club on May 21, 1981.

Robert Arthur “Bob” Mould (born October 16, 1960) is an American musician, principally known for his work as guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for alternative rock bands Hüsker Dü in the 1980s and Sugar in the 1990s.

Born in Malone, New York, Mould lived in several places, including the Minneapolis-St. Paul area where he then attended Macalester College. There, he formed Hüsker Dü in the late 1970s, with drummer/singer Grant Hart and bass guitarist Greg Norton.

Hüsker Dü first gained notice as a punk rock group with a series of recordings on the independent label SST Records. One of the first 1980s underground bands to sign a contract with a major record label (Warner Bros. Records), Hüsker Dü found only moderate commercial success, but were later often cited as one of the key influences on 1990s alternative rock.

In the late 1980s, Hüsker Dü broke up acrimoniously amid members' drug abuse and personal problems. Mould and Grant Hart, the band's other songwriter and vocalist, still take occasional jabs at each other in the press, though the two revisited their Hüsker Dü back catalog together at a 2004 benefit concert for an ailing friend, the late Karl Mueller of Soul Asylum.

Chuck Brown (August 22, 1936 – May 16, 2012) was a guitarist and singer who is affectionately called "the Godfather of Go-go". Go-go is a subgenre of funk music developed in and around Washington, D.C. in the mid and late 1970s. While its musical classification, influences, and origins are debated, Brown is regarded as the fundamental force behind the creation of go-go music.

Brown's musical career began in the 1960s playing guitar with Jerry Butler and The Earls of Rhythm, joining Los Latinos in 1965. At the time of his death he was still performing music and was well known in the Washington, DC area. Brown's early hits include "I Need Some Money" and "Bustin' Loose". "Bustin' Loose" has been adopted by the Washington Nationals baseball team as its home run celebration song, and was interpolated by Nelly for his 2002 number one hit "Hot in Herre." Brown also recorded go-go covers of early jazz and blues songs, such as "Go-Go Swing" Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing If Ain't Got That Swing", "Moody's Mood for Love", Johnny Mercer's "Midnight Sun", Louis Jordan's "Run Joe", and T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday".

Benjamin "Ben" Gibbard (born August 11, 1976) is an American musician known as a member of several successful indie rock bands. He is the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service, and is also known for his project ¡All-Time Quarterback! and his first band, Pinwheel.

Gibbard was born in Bremerton, Washington, where he spent his formative years, during the time of the grunge musical explosion in the early 1990s. He graduated from Olympic High School in 1994. Growing up he was influenced by Elliott Smith, Nirvana, The Stone Roses, Superchunk, Built to Spill, Teenage Fanclub, Pixies, Pavement, Daniel Johnston, Fugazi and Hall & Oates. He also cites Jack Kerouac as a major influence. He studied engineering at Western Washington University. He was raised Roman Catholic and referred to himself as "this indoctrinated Catholic even though I haven't been to church of my own volition in 10 or 15 years now." In a 2003 interview Gibbard stated that while he had previously been a vegan, he had recently become a pescetarian.

Andrew Wegman Bird (born July 11, 1973) is an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

Trained in the Suzuki method from the age of four, Bird graduated from Lake Forest High School in 1991 and Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in violin performance in 1996. That same year he self-released his first solo album, Music of Hair. Vastly different from his later work, this album showcased his violin skills and paid tribute to his fascination with both American and European folk traditions, as well as jazz and blues. Following this, his initial commercial exposure came through collaborative work with the band Squirrel Nut Zippers, appearing on three of their albums (Hot, Sold Out, and Perennial Favorites) between 1996 and 1998.

Taking on the role of bandleader, Bird released Thrills on Rykodisc in 1997 with his group Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, shortly followed by second album Oh! The Grandeur in 1998. Both albums were heavily influenced by traditional folk, pre-war jazz, and swing, with Bird relying on the violin as his primary musical instrument, as well as providing vocals along with his trademark verbose lyrics. The Bowl of Fire featured musicians from Bird's home town of Chicago, including Kevin O'Donnell, Joshua Hirsch, Nora O'Connor, Andy Hopkins, Jimmy Sutton, Colin Bunn, and Ryan Hembrey. During this period, Andrew Bird was a member of the jazz group Kevin O'Donnells Quality Six, for which he was the lead singer and violinist and contributed to arrangements and songwriting for the albums Heretic Blues (Delmark 1999) and Control Freak (Delmark 2000) (both Delmark albums were produced by Raymond Salvatore Harmon).