Music has always held an exalted position in houses of worship. For some, venues like the Black Cat and the 9:30 club are home to many nontraditional spiritual awakenings. So when representatives of the Live Nation public relations company and the Rock and Roll Hotel came knocking on Sixth and I Historic Synagogue's newly restored temple door, it was not as much of a shock as one might think.
"They were looking for a venue that was bigger than Rock and Roll Hotel to put on their shows, and they came here," Michelle J. Weiner, senior outreach associate at Sixth and I, explained. "They loved it and that was the start of our relationship."
In fact, Sixth and I is no stranger to hosting concerts.
"We've had a fair amount of musicians here," Weiner said.
Last October, Matisyahu performed to a sold-out, Halloween costume-clad crowd of 900. In December, JDub Records' national "Jewltide" tour, which takes place annually around Hanukkah, brought hardcore punk-klezmer fusion band Golem and critically acclaimed Socalled's witty rhymes and Yiddish yarns to kids not at home unwrapping presents on the 25th.
"We even had an Israeli hip-hop group in here, which you wouldn't necessarily expect in a synagogue," Weiner said. "It's a learning experience each time we have a show; at that show, we found out there was actually some crowd-surfing taking place."
This Tuesday, after nearly nine months of planning and partnership with Live Nation, Reykjavik natives and Sigur R¢s affiliates Amiina will fill the synagogue's characteristic dome and reinvigorated stage with everything from guitars to glockenspiels.
The performance kicks off a three-month, three-concert series of indie folk. Devendra Banhart is scheduled to let his freak-folk fly on Oct. 1, and Iceland's M£m will show concertgoers what a hybrid of hardcore and classical music can produce in the way of electro lullabies on Nov. 7.
"Live Nation brings us really great and interesting, diverse talent that we otherwise wouldn't necessarily be able to get on our own, or wouldn't necessarily think to get on our own," Weiner said. "The acts are really unique; we've had concerts here before, but not quite this type of concert."
The ethereal effigy of sound is expected to be all the more poignant under Sixth and I's Byzantine-style stained glass and celestial dome ceiling.
"People who come by the box office to pick up tickets who haven't been here before and want to see the space, we show it to them and they're just blown away, like, 'Oh my God. It will sound so good in here. It'll be such a moving experience,'" Weiner said.
The series marks Sixth and I's passage into more recognized and sought-out venue status, one that is sure to grow in the coming months.
"People now know that this is a wonderful, open, creative venue," Esther Foer, executive director of Sixth and I, said of the series and partnership with Live Nation. "It's a beautiful venue; we're attracting a lot of people, so people are eager to become our partners."
But the building was not always universally regarded as beautiful. After nearly a century of enduring the District's ever-shifting Rubik's Cube of a neighborhood grid, Sixth and I called on those it once saved to save itself. As one of the oldest synagogues in the city, the building has been transformed into a church and nearly a nightclub in its lifetime.
"It was supposed to be turned into a night club, but the executive director of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington found out about this," Weiner explained. "Within just 48 hours, three local Jewish developers got together to arrange for the purchase of the building."
With partners like Politics and Prose, HBO and The New Republic, Sixth and I's growing community can expect a veritable culture shock.
The synagogue will host two Jewish Supreme Court Justices, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and hold a screening of "The Kite Runner," Foer said.
"We're really looking forward to everything to come," said Abbey Cantor, Sixth and I's PR and marketing associate. "We're starting to do things like 'Salsa and Sangria' at night to bring the younger people together, and we're in a prime location where there's lots of restaurants and bars, and the Verizon Center down the street."
Roots in Judaism are not a prerequisite for involvement in all that Sixth and I has to offer.
"We really strive to reach out to people who are unaffiliated or under-affiliated with Judaism, who wouldn't normally come to a Jewish space or a Jewish program," Weiner said.
A calendar of upcoming events and ticket information is available at www.sixthandi.org.
