“It’s gonna be a long, hot, fucking loud show,” Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl told the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd Tuesday night after The Atlantis, a replica of the original 9:30 Club on F Street NW, opened its doors to music lovers for the first time.

Fans in attendance were mostly ecstatic about D.C.’s new, extremely intimate music venue. And while Grohl, a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and Northern Virginia native, told a lot of jokes on stage throughout the night, he wasn’t kidding about the show. It was indeed long, as the band took the stage just after 9:30 p.m. and led the crowd in screaming, head banging, and moshing until midnight — because, as Grohl put it, “We have a lot of songs.”

Before the show started, guests like local businessman Mark Ein and restaurateur and humanitarian José Andrés trickled in to pay their respects. Outside the venue, fans from as far as Buenos Aires waited in a long line that reportedly began forming around 8 a.m., according to staff at venue owner I.M.P. Some arrived early to get a spot close to the stage — other hopeful waited outside the venue looking for any chance to buy unused tickets. (This was not an option, according to I.M.P. An extremely competitive online lottery doled out tickets to this and the other 43 shows that are part of The Atlantis’ opening schedule, and the venue required proof of I.D. at multiple security checkpoints before people gained admission.)

Lucky lottery winner Todd Wooten, 46, and his friend Barry Creeton, 50, said the show was an experience they’d never forget. They moved to D.C. two decades ago — after 9:30 Club had moved to its current location on V Street NW — and never got to experience the original location, but are huge Foo Fighters fans. It was their first time seeing the band live.

“That was an outstanding show — just insane,” said Creeton, who came to the show from Arlington. “If you asked me before I walked in what I was going to see, I couldn’t have described this.”

“It was a confluence of so many things,” Wooten, of D.C., added. “To see someone from here … It means something to him to be in that club, playing with one of the best bands in the world, that’s used to playing for 70,000 people, play for 400. It’s indescribable.”

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But stellar performance aside, old-timers aren’t sure The Atlantis is doing the original 9:30 Club justice. Nancy Morgan said she remembers seeing shows at the original 9:30 Club back in the ’80s and doesn’t see the resemblance in the reimagined version.

“This doesn’t seem anything like the old one,” Morgan said after the show. “[At the original] there was like a dance area, the pole, of course, and the bar was around the corner. If you were at the bar, you couldn’t even see the stage.”

One similarity she did notice: “The intimacy.”

In that aspect, Creeton says the venue is unmatched.

“It’s a fantastic venue. It’s small, it’s intimate. Sound is fantastic I don’t think there’s a bad spot in the house,” Creeton said. “I was in the back — I was 30 feet from the stage, and I was in the back. So you’ve gotta take a minute and just appreciate that.”

Plenty of nostalgia — but none of the oft-discussed stench from the original 1980s-location at 9:30 F St NW — filled the air, as the Foo Fighters played over 20 tracks ranging from covers to fan favorites and rare live versions of early tracks. They opened with a rendition of Bad Brains song “At The Atlantis,” accompanied by Pete Stahl from Scream, the legendary punk band that gave Grohl his start as a drummer in the ’80s, before he’d go on to drum for Nirvana and form the Foo Fighters as a solo project.

Between songs, Grohl reminisced on the original club and its “shitty pizza,” its long hallway that stretched from a strange front desk to the dance floor, and the infamous pole that blocked many patrons’ views.

A version of that pole sits to the side of the stage at the new, 450-person venue, complete with the “crow’s nest” — an elevated seat where Grohl says a cameraman would sit and record shows. “This is still subzero temperatures compared to the old 9:30 Club,” Grohl said, remembering his teenage years, when he’d clamor to get into the club and witness his rock heroes play.

The pole isn’t the only relic of the past fans get to see at the next 43 opening shows, which are all sold out. The rooftop bar is covered in graffiti tags, old concert bills, an original liquor store sign, and newspapers from D.C. history. The name, The Atlantis, refers to a club that predated 9:30 at the F Street location in the 1970s.

With the current 9:30 Club situated right next door to The Atlantis at 9th and V streets, Grohl admitted the night felt a bit dizzying.

“Foo Fighters never played the original 9:30 Club. We played the one next door, which is now the old 9:30 Club. Is this the new, old 9:30 Club?”

I.M.P. chairman Seth Hurwitz, who owns the club and other popular D.C. venues like The Anthem, cut a guitar-string ribbon earlier in the day alongside Grohl and Mayor Muriel Bowser. Hurwitz later joined the band on drums for a performance of “Big Me.” Grohl’s 17-year-old daughter Violet also joined took the stage and provided vocals for “Shame Shame” and “Rope.”

Josh Freese, the band’s touring drummer, had an outstanding performance, met with loud applause and screams from the crowd. Freese filled in for Taylor Hawkins, who passed away in 2022 at age 50. Grohl said of Hawkins’ death during the show: “There’s not a day that goes by when we don’t talk about it, or it doesn’t come up.”

While other upcoming Atlantis shows for festival headlining acts like Maggie Rogers and Gary Clark Jr. are sold out, I.M.P. has announced a number of new shows for up-and-coming acts through December. Tickets are available online, starting at $20.