The new U Street Music Hall officially opens tomorrow with performances by the Belgian duo Aeroplane and locals Beautiful Swimmers, but it’s already been taken for a test run. The venue had a mostly unpublicized soft opening last night featuring DJs and local indie-poppers Casper Bangs, and it’ll open its doors for free again tonight at 8 p.m. DJs will DJ. The stratospheric electronica ensemble Alvin Risk will play a set. The booze, I’m fairly sure, will not be free. But it should be moderately priced!

For the local dance-party scene, the 300-capacity space is undoubtedly a big deal. Some popular dance nights are moving to the music hall. Other DJs say they’re pumped. Blogger Marcus Dowling checked out the space last night, and was impressed:

U Street Music Hall will be an experience. It resets the order for the non-big room underground dance scene in DC. As much as it’s obviously a great venue to see bands, it’s more THE BEST place to appreciate electronic dance music in the city. Sad to say but true, if you’re really going to see anything EDM related on an underground level anywhere else in the city, it had better be a quality event with incredible promotion and a killer lineup, or, you just need somewhere small and local to hang out with friends. Otherwise, you could be at the U-Hall, having an out of body sonic experience.

After tomorrow’s opening: On Thursday, Bluebrain performs at the music hall following DJ sets by Empath and Ponytail’s Molly Siegel. And the venue finally launched its Web site, which lists a few more gigs.