It’s a New Day at The Anthem
9:30 Club’s new venture fills a distinct need in the city’s musical ecosystem.
This article has been edited for additional context and thoughts.
I turned 27 last month, an age benighted by ghosts of rock stars past. As a birthday present to myself I bought a ticket to see Broken Social Scene at 9:30 Club, for the first night of a back-to-back engagement.
It was an incredible show — filled with fan favorites, impromptu raps, positive energy and genuine love. I shouted along to “Forced to Love” and “7/4 (Shoreline).” But, since the band was popular enough for two nights, I had to leave at the end of the night wondering in the back of my head if they’d play “It’s All Gonna Break” on the second night.
Shows like that, by bands too big for one night at the 9:30 Club and too small for Verizon, used to be shoehorned into dates at the terrible, outdated Constitution Hall or play a nightclub environment Echostage.
No more. The Anthem fills a distinct need in the city’s musical ecosystem, a place where the critically-acclaimed and popular can converge.
It’s partially just math. 9:30 Club holds up to 1,200, Howard Theatre up to 1,000, and Black Cat up to 700. Echostage holds up to 5,000; Constitution Hall up to 3,700.
The Anthem will hold up to 6,000. It achieves this with a wide-open general admission floor, much bigger than I expected, and two seated decks. (It can also be ratcheted down in several configurations for smaller shows, down to 2,500.)
The overall vibe is similar to the Fox Theater in Oakland, I guess, but just turned up by 50%. Or Terminal 5 in New York, but much wider — it’s practically an airport hangar in there. (Or maybe a Jawa sandcrawler?)Inside, small touches like hanging hi-hats and illuminated wire grilles in movie-theater retro styles color a generally restrained design. The sightlines are unconstrained except in a couple spots in the decks. There’s a bar on every side of every floor.
The other thing is that it’s new, in a weird way. I mean, the whole area is new; the Wharf is basically a neighborhood built over a razed area (that once housed several vital music venues, ones that served a different crowd than the relatively homogeneous Anthem-goers), and that comes with drawbacks as well as sheen. The Wharf feels artificial, because it is.
Little touches like the pinball arcade at Merriweather or the record history at 9:30 are so far absent. We’ll give the place time to acquire some personality.
In any case, personality wasn’t lacking last night: Andrew WK brought it in spades.
He was a kinda weird choice for the second night of 9:30’s previews offered to members of its Friends with Benefits promotional program. Scanning The Anthem’s calendar, it’s impossible to say which act he’s most similar to — how many faux-metal bands fronted by motivational speaker/classical pianists are there?
“Ready to Die” and “Party Hard” were, inexplicably, on one of the first mixtapes my high school girlfriend made for me, so I was there for the show. But I wasn’t sure how many others in the crowd — which wasn’t informed ahead of time of the performer — would be. Almost two hours of WK’s party-positive riffage sounds exhausting, and yeah, there were moments where I wished I’d been at the first preview show, which featured an all-local lineup of punk supergroups.
But damned if, more than an hour through the set, if I didn’t start noticing more arms pumping along with WK’s (massive) biceps. By the time the encore rolled around, the staid guy who’d been on his phone at the back earlier was up front with us, bobbing along, tapping his feet instead of his cell.
That has as much to do with WK’s theatrics and rapport with the audience as the music itself. He doesn’t exactly call it confidence, but that’s what it looks like. Flanked by three guitarists, a bassist with mutton chops, another keyboardist and a capable drummer, between stints on keys he worked in karate chops— he did do an entire cover album of Gundam music, after all — and hammed it up with a brief Bach (?) prelude and a solo on a “Taco Tuesday” guitar.
Ultimately, his positive attitude carried the night. Between requests that we party forever, or remember to party, or party with him, he managed to express a philosophy that’s actually pretty Zen. (See also: the best of Andrew WK’s Village Voice advice column.)
The other stuff:
- Beer selection is pretty average; they do have DC Brau, though.
- Food looked good, and reasonably priced — around $10 for a meal — but I have no idea how they’ll manage a line or pickup with a packed house.
- The seated capacity is much smaller than standing; if you plan on sitting, get there early.
- There’s only about fifteen feet in front of the venue until you’re at the water. There’s a gorgeous little porch accessible from the second floor that’ll make for some romantic moments. However, this means the lines to get in snake around the side of the venue, which I imagine will get annoying for the people who actually live here, because…
- …this thing is built into the side of an apartment building. How are they not going to hear Dave Grohl rattling through the pipes? If no one quits their abode over this, it’ll be the pinnacle of modern soundproofing (after Scott Pruitt’s secret phone room).
- Everything is cashless! Not sure why.
- They sell earplugs for $1 at the merch table, which is not any bigger than the one at 9:30 Club.
I knew I’d be back to The Anthem soon; I’ve got tickets for LCD Soundsystem next week, and The National in December. (Sort of insanely, this isn’t the first time WK has “opened” for Foo Fighters.) I’m really not the kind of person who looks forward to things; it’s not until I’m on the plane, for example, that I start to think about what I want to do on vacation. But now that I’ve seen the space, I’m much more excited for these shows.
I can’t wait to Party Hard. (And to see the Pearl Street Warehouse, about to open just down the street!)
