While down on the Wharf in SW DC to see a show at a different (not new to me) venue, I asked the nice folks at Union Stage if I could just go inside and look around. I had been curious about this venue, had seen a few interesting bands advertised there, and wanted to check it out. The nice folks at Union Stage, seeing the admission bracelet for the other venue on my wrist, figured I probably wasn’t just going to camp out there and see a show for free, so they let me go in.

With a bar upstairs and some eating options upstairs (and some videos projected oddly onto on wall) and a pretty good-sized, black-walled music venue downstairs, with some additional pre-show dinner seating, Union Stage has all its bases covered. Somehow, though, despite some cool neon signs, I found the design concept a little lacking in imagination–nothing really surprising. Or perhaps it was just too new and squeaky clean, no history, no lived in feeling yet, no graffiti or nicks in the wall yet to give it dimension. I think the artists have to come and break this space in a little bit!