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Pull out your party hats: The Black Cat turns 20 this year.
In September 1993, the Black Cat opened on a different part of a very different 14th Street NW. Over the years, it’s weathered hurdle after hurdle: urban blight, an influx of competing venues, false rumors of Black Cat Bill’s death, rampant condofication, small plates—-and has remained, almost surreally, the same spartan punk den it has always been.
So this fall, the club celebrates its 20th birthday with a lineup of headliners that old and new Black Cat regulars should know well.
On Sept. 13, the club’s mainstage hosts reunited Dischord harDCore band Gray Matter, the also reunited Girls Against Boys, ex-D.C. resident Ted Leo, garage punx The Shirks, pop-punk band The Max Levine Ensemble, and a DJ set from Alec MacKaye. The following night, it goes even bigger with reunions from Dischord post-hardcore band Shudder to Think, Teen Beat’s Tuscadero, and ex-Girls Against Boys band New Wet Kojak on top of sets from the great Mary Timony (with Shudder to Think’s Nathan Larson) and neo-soul outfit Coup Savage and the Snips.
Accompanying DJ nights—-including a special edition of Mousetrap—-take place backstage.
Check out the complete schedule after the jump.
Sept. 13
Gray Matter, Girls Against Boys, Ted Leo, The Shirks, The Max Levine Ensemble, DJ Alec Mackaye
$20 Mainstage, doors at 9 p.m.
Tariq, Soul Call Paul, and more DJs to be announced
Free backstage, doors at 10 p.m.
Sept. 14
Shudder to Think, Tuscadero, New Wet Kojak, Mary Timony and Nathan Larson, Coup Sauvage and the Snips
$20 Mainstage, doors at 9 p.m.
Mousetrap with DJ Mark Zimin
$8 Backstage, doors at 10 p.m.
Tickets are on sale now (here and here). Go grab ’em.
Photo courtesy Black Cat