Spring and summer bring more concert tours than other times of the year, and this year is no different. There are so many artists planning tours between now and September. With just two months until we are out for summer break, I’ve crafted a starter list of some of the best places to catch live music around DC.
The Anthem – The Anthem is definitely the best venue in the DMV due to its wide variety of artists. The Anthem has held concerts for artists that are well known across the world as well as artists that are extremely underground. My personal favorite concerts were held at the Anthem: Ken Carson’s A Great Chaos Tour and Destroy Lonely’s Forever Tour. The Anthem is also well known for its location on the water in DC, and its capacity of 6000 people.
Capital One Arena – Big tours head for places like CapOne since they do a great job of putting on spectacular shows for audiences of 10,000 or more. I’ve seen Metro Boomin and Future, Wu-Tang (with Method Man), Nas, and even De La Soul here. Concerts in a huge arena are fun, and Capital One is in Chinatown, so there are cool restaurants to go to before or after a concert.
The Fillmore – This venue is in Silver Spring and is one of my favorite places to see bands. It holds roughly 2,000 people with general admission, but it feels much more intimate. Their shows range from hip-hop to rock to metal and country, so pretty much everyone can find a show they’d like at some point during the year. You can see some well-known artists as well as new artists, and you can get so close to the stage it feels like you are part of the concert. I have seen Lucki, Ian, Nettspend and Osamason at this venue.
9:30 Club – The 9:30 Club is amazing. It holds roughly 1,200 people in a warehouse atmosphere, and is standing room only. It is just a couple of blocks from Howard University, and cutting-edge artists from all genres from Beach Bunny to Lords of Acid perform here. I saw my first concert here and it was a great experience.
The Black Cat – The Black Cat is also an amazing venue in DC best known for indie rock. Billie Eilish performed at the Black Cat in 2018 on her Where’s My Mind tour. This venue is also well known for punk, rock and metal artists. This venue is quite a bit smaller with a capacity of only 800 people, so this is a great venue for an artist’s first tour!
For my next column, I will compile a list of cool upcoming concerts this summer. If you have any recommendations, send me a note at [email protected] and I will make sure to include it. I usually see lots of other teens I know at concerts, so hopefully this column will get more of us out there to see live music.
