According to a published report by the website Vanyaland.com, two indispensable places in the Boston music scene for underground music, culture, and food have closed permanently and will not re-open following the COVID-19 pandemic. ONCE Somerville announced today on Facebook that their venue and lounge, as well as Cuisine En Locale, will not re-open following the COVID-19 pandemic. “Cuisine en Locale is going out of business, and the space we call the ONCE Lounge and Ballroom will not reopen,” reads the announcement made by ONCE founder JJ Gonson. Both venues were unique and essential spaces in the area, with ONCE hosting many underground and extreme bands we covered many times. Although tiny, Cuisine En Locale also had some live music and hosted unique shows like Andrew WK and the Body. ONCE has held online shows via its Virtual Venue, which launched in late April. The Virtual Venue will continue to broadcast livestreams of live music in the meantime while a future plan is developed. There had been a successful crowdfunding campaign, and some government assistance that kept the clubs from immediate shutdown and layoffs, but now that the money has run out, the clock has run out too. Gonson has said that hope is alive to reopen the ONCE Ballroom venue in some other location someday when things get back to normal. We will miss these Boston Music Awards nominated wonderful venues where we attended and covered many shows, and even held our charity event, Metal For Nepal there.
