ONCE Ballroom, one of Somerville’s few independent venues for live music, is looking ahead to reopening in September after a brief hiatus for regrouping and remodeling.

By Blake Maddux

Being a naysayer can be fashionable when things seem to be on the cusp of going sour.

When Cambridge’s TT the Bear’s Place and Somerville’s Johnny D’s Uptown Restaurant & Music Club both closed within a year of each other in 2015 and 2016, respectively, there were those who seemed sadistically eager to sound the death knell for the Boston’s independent venue scene.

That would-be sounding quickly proved premature, as ONCE Somerville soon began welcoming many of the artists – and myriad others – who made Johnny D’s their office for the night when their tours routed through the Boston area.

ONCE Somerville – aka ONCE Ballroom and ONCE Lounge – started under that name in January 2016. However, it hosted shows as Cuisine en Locale far earlier than that. The very first live music show took place in the space now known as ONCE Ballroom in 2013, and it featured Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys.

In Cambridge, meanwhile, the newly built Sonia opened its doors on March 31, 2017, in the same spot that TT’s previously occupied.

Being a small and independent enterprise like this has its boons and burdens. The latter are commonly of a financial nature.

JJ Gonson and Sue Minichiello of ONCE are practical, prudent, and good-humored about the current financial situation of the venue, which will reopen on September 16 after being closed for all of August.

The vandalism and theft that the location suffered in late May was only one cause of this distress.

Somerville’s own Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys played the first live show at ONCE Ballroom in 2013. — Photos by Coleman Rogers Photography

“It was sort of a whole string of kind of very abrupt hardships that threw our business off course,” Gonson, the owner of ONCE, said. “Aside from the robbery and vandalism, which was more publicized, we also had some revenue losses. Those included things like cancellations and the changing of things that left dates open.”

But why would ONCE, which includes the 300-capacity Ballroom and 100-capacity Lounge, cut itself off from tickets sales and bar tabs for a month and a half?

Minichiello, ONCE’s PR Manager, said that it is because August is customarily a quieter time for live music operations.

“A lot of people are doing vacations,” Minichiello explained. “If they’re parents in the area, they’re doing a lot of their last-minute stuff with family before the kids go back to school. So it seemed like a good time.”

She also emphasized the extra time that this temporary closure will afford them.

“We don’t have to focus on the day-to-day of running the club, which is a lot. We can focus on really working our plan to address the things that have gone wrong and how we can best recover from them and make the improvements that we know we want and need to.”

Gonson listed desired refinements that were cosmetic, constructive, and fundamental.

“The way that the bar is set up needs a little bit of work so that it’s more expedient. Then there’s also some requests by some promoters that there’s a better kind of space for the bands on the side of the stage, so that when they enter it’s a little more discreet. And we need to paint. We have to paint. It just needs a fresh coat. There was damage that was done when we were vandalized, and that also physically needs to be fixed. There was equipment stolen that needs to be replaced. Also, writing better employee training materials, which will also make things better, smarter, faster.”

Minichiello added that creating new positions in the upper echelons will serve to minimize Gonson’s multitudinous responsibilities.

Carissa Johnson & The Cure-Alls play OnceBallroom.

“JJ wears about 500 hats at any given moment, and we would like her to have maybe three hats if she has to. One of the things that we really want to do is hire a general manager and a production manager so that the weight of the club side of things can sort of be taken off of JJ’s shoulders.”

Easing some of the fiscal concerns is the fact that a GoFundMe campaign, which went live in the immediate wake of the previously mentioned crimes, exceeded its $20,000 goal. Interestingly, this was neither Gonson nor Minichiello’s idea.

“That was something that Anngelle set up,” Gonson explained, “which is like the nicest thing in the world ever.”

She is referring to Anngelle Wood, the host of WZLX’s Boston Emissions and organizer of the annual Rock ‘N’ Roll Rumble, which took place at ONCE in 2016 and 2017 after the closing of its erstwhile home, TT the Bear’s.

Through it all, Gonson and Minichiello remain optimistic but realistic about getting back to housing not only live performances but charity events, art exhibits, weddings, and birthday parties.

According to Minichiello, “There’s certainly no way that we’re going to accomplish everything on our to-do list by our reopening on September 16.  We’re trying to do as much as we can and at least demonstrate some progress.”

Thankfully, it is a group effort that Gonson ardently describes as “all for ONCE and ONCE for all.”