The indie rock-ification of the U Street corridor continues as The Howard Theatre announced today a new booking partnership with Philadelphia-based boutique concert company Bonfire and Philly venue The Electric Factory.

The partnership, which begins in January 2014, a press release states, will “greatly expand the talent booking arm of The Howard Theatre” by bring a diverse slate of bands and artists to the venue. The Howard Theatre, which is one of D.C.’s oldest music venues, reopened last year and has since been primarily booking soul, hip-hop, R&B, world, and go-go acts. This new partnership will bring a wider variety of genres to the T Street theatre, similar to the acts that come through The Electric Factory in Philly (which closely resembles the type of bands typically booked by the 9:30 Club and Black Cat).

Blue Note Entertainment Group, which operates The Howard Theatre, is a New York-based company that owns and operates B.B. King Blues Club in Times Square and the Highline Ballroom in Chelsea, and the partnership will include those two venues. “This is a collaboration that will strengthen our collective venues in New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., by bringing their lineup of diverse, top-tier programming to some of the best performance venues on the east coast,” Blue Note Entertainment president Steven Bensusan said in the release. Bonfire partner Adam Spivak, whose father co-founded the original Electric Factory in 1968, said that “this dominant partnership will break through two seemingly crowded markets by adding to show counts, expanding the booking staffs of all three venues and focusing on younger acts that have historically played other venues.”

Over at the Washington City Paper, Bensusan clarifies what a focus on “younger” acts means, saying that “currently we are presenting primarily R&B, Hip hop, Soul and world music, but the demand is there for us to present more Rock, indie rock, Jam bands and electronic music. This partnership will enable us to meet this demand in new and exciting ways at a venue that offers an audience experience that is the best in town.” Recently, I.M.P. Productions—the company owned by 9:30 Club owner Seth Hurwitz—took over the Lincoln Theatre on U Street to do pretty much the same thing. Both venues are similar in size and both have a rich history in D.C., so it’ll be interesting to see if they compete for booking similar types of shows.