Nation to close July 16, 2006

This is the saddest news ever. The original is here.

NATION Nightclub is closing on July 16th 2006.
The increasing real estate development and looming baseball stadium construction has forced one of Washington DC’s largest and well known nightclubs to close its doors for good on Sunday, July 16th of this year. Nation nightclub, located on Capitol Hill near the Navy Yard, will be torn down to make way for a new, mixed use office building.

Nation was carved out of the former Hurley Boiler building, originally built in 1924, and takes up the block between K and L and Half and South Capitol streets. John Boyle, nightlife entrepreneur and son of Jack Boyle, founder of Cellar Door productions, designed Nation and first opened its doors in 1999. John envisioned a mixed use facility that would feature national acts on the main stage and host DJ driven dance parties featuring the top national and international DJ talent on a weekly basis. His vision came to fruition thanks in large part to a loyal dedicated staff, many of whom have been with Nation since the beginning.

Nation is recognized locally for the wide variety of concert events it has hosted over the years. Acts such as Eminem, Prince, Social Distortion, 311, VNV Nation, Limp Bizkit, the Violent Femmes, Big & Rich, James Brown, Creed, Snoop Dogg, David Bowie, Coal Chamber, NOFX, Lenny Kravitz, Slayer, Jay Z, Bad Religion, Soul-Fly, Dropkick Murphy’s and Ozzy Osborne have all graced the main stage at Nation.
Nation is also recognized on a national and even international level for its three weekly DJ and theme driven nightclub parties.

Fridays play host to Cubik, formerly Buzz, originally the brainchild of Scott Henry and Lieven DeGeyndt and operated now by Henry of Buzzlife Productions. Cubik hosts the world’s top electronic house, and techno djs such as Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto, Sasha and Digweed, and Paul Van Dyk as well as live acts like Rabbit in the Moon and The Prodigy. It was named the country’s top event of its kind numerous times by international publications such as Urb and BPM.

Saturdays play host to Velvetnation, a gay dance event, created and operated by John Guggenmos and Ed Bailey. The event is respected worldwide as one of the top events of its kind in the US. For many years it has hosted circuit event djs and talents such as Junior Vasquez, Abel Aguilera, Victor Calderone, The Pet Shop Boys, KD Lang, and The Village People. It is also known for its innovative theme events such as Madonnarama, a night of all Madonna music and video, which draws the clubs largest crowds annually.

Thursday nights have been home to Alchemy, one of the country's largest weekly parties catering to the darker realm of club land. Tony Tribby led a team that created Alchemy and used Nation's multi-room layout to combine music ranging from industrial, ebm, goth, 80's, punk, electro-clash, trance, alternative
and indie into a package with a Goth esthetic. Alchemy has also introduced DC to the live shows of top electronic acts VNV Nation, Icon of Coil, Hocico, Terrorfakt, and presented classic acts including Siouxsie and the Banshees, Pigface, Laibach and Juno Reactor.

While Nation will disappear, the owners and promoters will not. The owners are actively scouting locations for a new club to help fill some of the void that will be felt by Nation closing. The promoters have been approached by other notable DC clubs hoping to host their parties.

There is a very highly charged final schedule planned for the last few months as each night has booked the biggest talent available to send the club out on a high note. For final schedule details visit www.primacycompanies.com for concert information, www.alchemy-dc.com for Thursday nights, www.buzzlife.com for Friday nights and www.velvetnation.com for Saturday nights.