Last Wednesday, Buzzlife Promotions announced that Buzz, its weekly club event at D.C.’s Nation, was canceled without future plans to resume. Buzz had been held every Friday night at Nation (1014 Half St., S.E.) for the past nine years and had come to be regarded as one of the premier club events in the United States. The club was the first to bring many big-name DJs to American audiences, and had become a mainstay of District nightlife.
Amanda Huie, Director of Marketing for Buzzlife Promotions, explained some of the details behind the closure. The decision was a pre-emptive step taken by Buzzlife once it realized that increased police presence inside the club was leading to harassment of patrons and management alike. “It seemed as if there was a witch hunt,” she said. A recent incursion into the club by the Metropolitan Police Department had yielded eight arrests.
“Come on,” quipped Huie. “You could come to my house on a Saturday and get eight arrests.”
Additionally, Buzz had been under pressure from the U.S. military. On Aug. 22, local military installations decided that Nation would be off-limits for personnel. Apparently, military police were making their presence known at Buzz as well in an attempt to enforce this rule.
In addition to upsetting the Friday night plans of D.C. partygoers, the decision leaves both Buzzlife and the wider American club scene on shaky ground. Huie noted that Buzzlife will continue to promote events in Baltimore. Beyond that, the Buzzlife staff seems to be spending a lot of time in meetings.
Stephen Levy, president of LA’s Moonshine Music, the largest American dance label, lamented Buzz’s demise, describing the event as “one of the most professionally run venues in the country and one of the best setups in the world to hear electronic music.” He called the closure a “big shame.”
He was uncertain about the future of the American club scene, but noted that the East Coast seems to be coming under much worse pressure from authorities than the West Coast. New York City’s famed Twilo, which featured a residency by Sasha and John Digweed, two of the world’s most famous DJs, closed in response to city pressure in May 2001. Meanwhile, Los Angeles has seen the opening of several new venues, according to Levy.
So has American dance music suddenly become a “West Coast thang”? Not likely; a good deal of clubs remain in New York and Washington. Some New York commentators have actually suggested that the closure of Twilo produced a renaissance of sorts for the city’s nightlife. Weekends that were once dominated by nights at Twilo were opened up, forcing people to find new venues. Many Twilo fans became promoters themselves. It’s too soon to tell whether or not a similar transformation will occur in D.C., but the thought sure is nice.
Regardless, none of D.C.’s other dance clubs have been closed. And Nation, which is independent of Buzzlife, will remain open. The club hosts a Saturday night dance event, Velvet Nation, which is geared towards gay clubbers. Nation is also a popular local stop for punk rock tours. What isn’t clear is the financial relationship between Nation and Buzzlife, as the venue received a great deal of investment from the promoters. Among other things, they were responsible for buying the club its remarkable sound system. Most club sound systems consist of two large piles of speakers. Nation’s system, on the other hand, includes strategically placed speaker rigs suspended from the ceiling throughout the club’s first level. The result? No matter where you are standing, no matter which way you are facing, the music is all around you and loud as hell. A remarkable achievement, certainly appreciated by the venue’s fans. Buzzlife also placed a remarkable lighting system in the club, reconfigured the space’s layout and added a back deck.
“Nation was a baby of ours,” said Huie. “We grew it from an empty warehouse to the No. 1 club in America.”
