By Anna Marden, News Staff
Just four days after Wadzilla Mansion’s one-year anniversary show, the DIY basement venue announced the city of Boston notified its landlord of a building code violation: Failure to secure a permit to operate a live entertainment venue.
The announcement came at a time when hype about the venue was growing, just one week after a feature article on Wadzilla ran in The Huntington News. The basement venue also received several recent mentions in other Boston publications including The Weekly Dig, Boston Phoenix, Dirty Water News and numerous local music blogs.
“We are of course, supremely saddened by this news and we shall see what the future holds. Over the past year Wadzilla Mansion has become a unique gathering spot for musicians, artists, and open-minded people of all backgrounds throughout the city; a true musical oasis which we fervently believe has helped reinvigorate the local music scene in a profound way,” the residents of Wadzilla Mansion said in the statement released on their Facebook page Wednesday.
The statement also said the residents are trying to obtain permits from the city in order to operate as a legitimate venue and that the landlord has been supportive of what they are doing there and will help them try to secure these permits. The landlord was unable to respond to a message for comment left Wednesday evening.
Regardless of what the future holds, the Wadzilla crew maintains a positive outlook.
“This is not the end of the novel; it is merely the end of chapter one. We are excited to see what the next chapter holds and would love for all of you to be there with us,” the statement said.
Wadzilla resident Socrates Cruz, a Harvard graduate, said they are happy to try and find a way to continue.
“We’re proud of the Boston music scene and are thankful for the opportunity they provided us,” he said.
Cruz said he was moved by the community response to the announcement and said that he has heard offers from friends to help raise money, raise awareness or hold a benefit show, whatever it takes to keep the venue running.
Other people involved in the scene at Wadzilla also said they maintain hope for the venue’s fate.
“I really hope the community can come together to help them become a legit venue,” said Sean McDermott, a 2010 Northeastern graduate and the guitarist for the Boston band Red Bellows, who played at Wadzilla for their one-year anniversary show Saturday.
Wadzilla is not the first underground venue in the city to be shut down by the city.
Max Jeffers, 22, a Berklee College of Music student, said he used to live at and help run Unit 11, a loft-space music venue in lower Allston. He said the locale was zoned for both residential and business, but was also shut down by the city in April 2010 about a year after it began booking shows. He said prior to holding shows at Unit 11, he knew of another underground venue in the neighborhood called Awesomeville that was shut down about a month before Unit 11 opened.
“There will always be people in this town that are enthusiastic about music,” Jeffers said. “I think the guys that were running that place will definitely continue to be involved in bringing good music to Allston.”
Jeffers, who studies sound design, said he has been to Wadzilla five or six times and has an optimistic outlook for Wadzilla Mansion and for the future of the underground music scene in Boston.
“Things like this will always be around,” he said. “It’s cyclical. There’s a strong underground scene in Boston of artists and musician that congregate at these kinds of spaces.”
