9:30 Club

This guide to the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. centers on the wall of records behind the stage, one for every act that has headlined the room since May 1980, and the strict rule co-owner Seth Hurwitz built around it. You'll hear about the 2016 sold-out run nicknamed the World's Fair, and how missing a headlining slot, or playing only as an opener, keeps a band off the wall entirely. It traces the venue's own path from a cramped 1980 stage on F Street to a building once run by Duke Ellington, later a hall where Malcolm X spoke.