Nation (formally The Capital Ballroom) was a live music/club venue, located at 1015 Half Street SE, in the Navy Yard/Near Southeast neighborhood, of Washington, D.C.
It was larger than any other club in the D.C. area, with three levels indoors and a multi-level outdoor patio. Its large rooms, sound and lighting systems made it a popular club for the rave, goth, drum & bass and gay communities.
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Built in 1924, the building initially comprised the front entrance of what became Nation, serving as a carriage factory. The building later expanded as it changed hands, at one point serving as a warehouse for the military and finally as a factory for Hurley Boiler before it was ceased operations. The club first opened its doors as The Capitol Ballroom in August 1995, with The Ramones, Björk and Lords of Acid being among the first acts to take the stage. The club was located near the other seminal Navy Yard club called Tracks, a large gay club at the time. The Capitol Ballroom began hosting "Buzz" nights on Fridays, which hosted a number of national and international talent in dance music. It eventually became one of the country's largest weekly dance party/rave hybrid. On Saturdays, the party "Industrial Revolution" hosted by D.C. DJ "Mohawk" Adam brought industrial and dark electronic acts. Nation became recognized locally for highly diverse concert events. Nation was also recognized on a national and even international level for its three weekly DJ and theme driven nightclub parties.
Due to its large size, The Capitol Ballroom did host many top-selling musical acts during its four-year tenure, but it also had a sparse schedule, as the neighborhood, located in the area of Near Southeast in D.C., was notorious for its high crime rate in the mid-1990s. In 1999, The Capitol Ballroom changed management and became known as Nation.
Nation was managed by Primacy Companies, Inc. On July 16, 2006, the club closed after longtime lot owners Potomac Investment Properties decided to move forward with a planned 400,000-square-foot (37,000 m2) office building on the site. In July 2007, Potomac Investment sold the site to Opus East for $41.5 million, and in spring 2008 construction began on the office building.[1] The area is now considered part of the "Ballpark District" due to the fact the Nationals Park stadium has been built two blocks away.[1] As of January 2010, Opus East is insolvent and construction has been halted.
Nation had been host to hundreds of bands and solo acts, from David Bowie to Rage Against the Machine.
The final event at Nation featured Mindless Self Indulgence
Technical staff at Nation included lighting director Kevin Clark, sound technician Jeff Night and production manager Joe "Shaggy" Conroy. The main room was equipped with a 40-foot (12 m) stage, a large mezzanine walkway, and a third level skybox was added in 2000 for VIPs. The lighting in the main room consisted of 8 Studio Spots, 12 Studio colors, 72 par-cans, 6 lekos, 5 Studio 250s, and 6 MAC 500 moving heads; all controlled by a Hog 1000 with the pars and lekos going through a leprechaun dimmer rack. Video was processed through an Edirol v-4 mixer and fed to the upstage, downstage, circular, and rectangular trusses for projection. The sound was legendary and consisted of EAW cabinets and drivers, amplified by Crown, and fed by a post-processor in the DJ booth that received signal via a Pioneer 500 mixer or, if the talent on hand preferred something a little more "old-school", a Rane mixer. Front of house sound was managed by contracted third parties, usually Springfield Sound or MSI.
Nation did many shows of their own such as concerts, sporting events, trade shows, and even a six week run of The Rocky Horror Show. It was home to events such as "Alchemy/Alias" (Thursday), "Buzz," and alternately "Cubik" after a brief move to Redwood Trust in Baltimore (Friday), and gay night "Velvet Nation" (Saturday).
"Alchemy" was one of the country's weekly goth/industrial nights. Tony Tribby led a team that created Alchemy and used Nation's multi-room layout to combine music ranging from industrial, ebm, goth, 80s, punk, electro-clash, trance, alternative into a package with a Goth aesthetic. Alchemy had hosted VNV Nation, Icon of Coil, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Juno Reactor, Shiny Toy Guns and others at their Thursday night event, and put on annual events such as Goth Prom in the Spring and Freaks United every July 4.
"Buzz" and "Cubik" were named the country’s top electronic dance music events numerous times by international publications such as Urb and BPM. Buzz and Cubik hosted the world’s top electronic house, drum and bass, breakbeat and techno djs such as Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto, Sasha and Digweed, Dave Clarke, Dieselboy, Andy C, The Freestylers, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method and Paul Van Dyk as well as live acts such as Rabbit in the Moon and The Prodigy.
Saturdays played host to Velvet Nation, a gay dance event. The event was respected as one of the top events of its kind in the US. For many years it hosted circuit event DJs and talents such as Junior Vasquez, Abel Aguilera, Alyson Calagna, Mike Reeze, Manny Lehman, Tony Moran, Victor Calderone, The Pet Shop Boys, KD Lang, and The Village People. It was also known for its theme events such as Madonnarama, a night of all Madonna music and video.