Music halls, as lively as they are at nighttime, tend to have a pretty deathly effect on the streetscape when the tour buses roll out. Think about the 9:30 Club just off U Street, or the Black Cat on 14th Street, both long blank expanses while the sun is shining. It’s almost part of their appeal: What could pass for an empty warehouse, which your eyes skip over while walking beside it, suddenly roars to life at around 8 p.m. (even though 9:30 Club owner Seth Hurwitz told me, somewhat testily, that he thought his club’s shadowy location had nothing to do with the experience when I asked about JBG’s plans for the vacant buildings that now surround it).

Anyway, Dan Reed at Just Up the Pike says the Fillmore Silver Spring shows that rock clubs can rock during the daytime, too. And windows certainly help dissipate the empty warehouse feel—-though, I would submit, not any more than your average office building.