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Stream Over 100 Shows From The 9:30 Club

Sylvan Esso, performing live at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on June 13, 2014.
Zac Visco for NPR
Sylvan Esso, performing live at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on June 13, 2014.

For nearly a dozen years, from 2005-2017, NPR Music streamed live concerts from the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. out onto the Internet. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the club's opening on May 31, 1980, we've put together a handy guide to all those shows with links to the original audio — and in the later years, video.

Our first show was with Bright Eyes — at the time the band with Conor Oberst had just released two extraordinary records, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn and I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. Bands that played the early days of our live webcast series included Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Toots and the Maytals, Cat Power, Regina Spector, OK Go, Richard Thompson, Wilco and well, scan the list to find your favorite.

The 9:30 Club changed my life. I was there in the beginning as a musician in the first band to play that club, Tiny Desk Unit. I wrote an essay to commemorate that club and to highlight the importance of nightclubs across the country as we all ponder their future. While we have some time before we can be back in the venues we all love, dig through this archive and spread the word.

2005

Bright Eyes
Bloc Party
David Gray
Lucinda Williams
Secret Machines and Kings of Leon
My Morning Jacket
Son Volt
Death Cab For Cutie
Calexico and Iron and Wine

2006

Belle and Sebastian and The New Pornographers
Arctic Monkeys
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Neko Case
Toots and the Maytals
Mogwai
The Walkmen
Sonic Youth
Gomez
Fiery Furnaces
Sleater-Kinney
Regina Spektor
Jenny Lewis
The Black Keys and Black Angels
OK Go and French Kicks
Cat Power
Ray LaMontagne

Animal Collective
Shantel Mitchell / for NPR
/
for NPR
Animal Collective

2007

Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Explosions In The Sky
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Low with Loney, Dear
The Frames
Ben Gibbard
Andrew Bird
The National
Richard Thompson
The Polyphonic Spree
Femi Kuti
Travis
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the film Once
Gogol Bordello
The Apples in Stereo
Rilo Kiley
Animal Collective
Iron and Wine
Jose Gonzalez
Josh Ritter
Stars
Spoon
The New Pornographers
Nickel Creek
Broken Social Scene
The Hold Steady

Left to right: Dinosaur Jr., Gossip, Dan Deacon
Shantel Mitchell / for NPR
/
for NPR
Left to right: Dinosaur Jr., Gossip, Dan Deacon

2008

Wilco
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
Nada Surf
DeVotchKa
The Raconteurs
The Ting Tings
Spiritualized
Of Montreal
Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band

2009

Andrew Bird
Animal Collective
Dan Deacon
Metric
The Dead Weather
M. Ward
Sunny Day Real Estate
The Gossip
Dinosaur Jr.
Benjamin Gibbard and Jay Farrar

2010

Shout Out Louds
Public Image Ltd.
The New Pornographers
Superchunk
The Tallest Man On Earth
Deerhunter
Jonsi

2011

Best Coast and Wavves
Bon Iver
Beirut

Left to right: Best Coast, Wye Oak, Dirty Projectors
Shantel Mitchell / for NPR
/
for NPR
Left to right: Best Coast, Wye Oak, Dirty Projectors

2012

The Kills
JEFF The Brotherhood
The Soul RebelsGalactic
Kishi Bashi
Of Montreal
fun.
Spiritualized
M83
Best Coast
Wye Oak
Dirty Projectors
Patrick Watson
Grizzly Bear

2013

James Blake
Volcano Choir
Marijuana Deathsquads
Poliça

2014

Future Islands
tUnE-yArDs
Sylvan Esso

Sleater-Kinney performs live at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Guitarist Carrie Brownstein is in the foreground, with Janet Weiss on drums.
Alex Schelldorf / NPR Music
/
NPR Music
Sleater-Kinney performs live at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Guitarist Carrie Brownstein is in the foreground, with Janet Weiss on drums.

2015

Sleater-Kinney

The <em>All Songs Considered </em>Sweet 16 Celebration, January, 2016
AJ Wilhelm / for NPR
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for NPR
The All Songs Considered Sweet 16 Celebration, January, 2016

2016

From the All Songs Considered Sweet 16 Party: Glen Hansard, Sharon Van Etten, Kishi Bashi, Laura Gibson, The Suffers, Dan Deacon
Savages
Explosions In The Sky
Lucius
Warpaint

2017

From NPR's 10th Anniversary Party: Gaby Moreno, Robert Glasper and Bilal, Kronos Quartet, Margo Price, Bon Iver, Jeff Tweedy, Tank and the Bangas

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.
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