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“Before the original 9:30 Club opened its doors on May 30, 1980, it was briefly home to another venue: The Atlantis. Now, The Atlantis is back.”

I.M.P. is honoring 9:30’s original live music space by recreating the small venue (450-capacity) with a star-studded starting lineup that is made up of artists that want to celebrate this moment in music history, many who have played the Club in its early days. It seems too good to be true!

Foo Fighters will play its inaugural show on May 30 (the anniversary of the 9:30 Club’s opening), and the city is buzzing with excitement. Fans from near and far don’t want to miss this chance to see their favorite artists in such an intimate setting.

June consists of shows such as the Rainbow Kitten Surprise, the Pixies, Marc Roberge (O.A.R.), and Darius Rucker. July will bring artists such as the Barenaked Ladies, The Head and the Heart, The Magnetic Fields, Third Eye Blind, and Portugal. The Man to the District. August highlights include Drive-By Truckers and Joan Jett, while September will bring artists like Bartees Strange, Tove Lo, Billy Idol, Bastille, and Maggie Rogers. There will be something for everyone!

Amy K. Bormet is a D.C.-based pianist, vocalist, composer, activist who organizes the Washington Women in Jazz Festival every March to uplift women and nonbinary artists in the jazz community.
D.C.-based pianist, vocalist, composer, activist, and more, Amy K. Bormet is a staple to our music community, especially the local, but not limited to the national and international jazz realm. As well as putting out fantastic music – both solo and collaborations – Bormet has organized the Washington Women in Jazz Festival every March since 2011. Bormet is also the co-owner of Strange Woman Records, a record label she began in 2019 with her husband, guitarist/sound engineer Dr. Matt Dievendorf that “presents live events and recordings of adventurous improvised music”, featuring many artists from the DMV.

Bormet grew up around music, with a family of singers and a mother who played clarinet.

Even when fixing teeth, Advait “Avi” Shah can’t stop thinking about music. A dentist by trade, Shah nonetheless enjoys a lively side hustle performing on the tablas and the dhol, traditional Indian instruments that he incorporates into various ensembles that marry Eastern musical motifs with Western modes such as rap and beatboxing. It’s a unique way to bridge his ethnic heritage with the experimental firmament of the American soundscape.

“That’s why I kind of fit in with this whole fusion of Western culture. Every band I played with has that,” Shah said recently from his Maryland home. But, because he’s mostly self-taught, he freely admits that “if I ever had to [play] something traditional, I’d be completely lost.”
On May 13, Shah will leave his drills and scrapers behind to join violinist Nistha Raj and Grammy-nominated progressive hip-hop artist Christylez Bacon at the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Festival at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.

Hello Alchemical Records. I hope you all had a lovely Earth Month! Sustainability is a very important topic to me, as it should be for everybody. Since 2019, I have had the pleasure of working professionally combining two of my favorite things, live music and creating a better environment for us and generations to come. I have seen artists use their platform for the greater good, which has given me hope in what can seem like a lost cause sometimes. There are quite a good number of artists that fall in this category, but I wanted to share what I have experienced or seen.
Coldplay:

In 2021, I tweeted that I wanted to work/tour for a sustainability team for Coldplay. Not only is Coldplay a band that I have listened to for as long as I can remember, but they are the band that made me aware of concert sustainability, or lack thereof. One of my best friends, mentors, and former supervisor Lexis Yelis referred me to work the Coldplay show at FedEx Field and it was a dream come true learning experience.