The 2016 Rock & Roll Rumble Has a New Home

This post originally appeared on Vanyaland.

Nemes at the Rock & Roll Rumble in 2015 / Photo by Derek Kouyoumjian

As expected, the Rock & Roll Rumble will have a new home for 2016.

Curator Anngelle Wood announced Sunday night on WZLX’s Boston Emissions that the long-running annual local music festival (disguised as a battle of the bands) will relocate to Cuisine En Locale’s ONCE Ballroom in Somerville for its 2016 edition. The new venue is a necessity after the Rumble’s recent home, T.T. the Bear’s Place in Cambridge, closed in July, just a few weeks after Zip-Tie Handcuffs were crowned 2015 champs.

“It’s the worst kept secret in town,” Wood said on Boston Emissions in announcing the new venue and dates, joined in the WZLX studio by Cuisine En Locale’s JJ Gonson. “The more I thought about it, the more I thought it was the perfect choice.”

The Rumble will kick off Sunday, April 3, with the finale going down Friday, April 22. Wood says the overall format of the Rumble—24 bands competing over six nights of preliminaries, with two semi-final nights and one final battle—will not change. That means the six Rumble preliminary dates would be, based on the start date, April 3-6 and April 7-9. The Wednesday in between brings the traditional “day of rest.”

ONCE’s capacity is around 300 people, a similar number to that of T.T. the Bear’s, where the Rumble was held since 2011.

The Rock & Roll Rumble began in 1979, and over the past few decades has been won by the likes of the Dresden Dolls (2003), the Sheila Divine (1999) and ‘Til Tuesday (1983). Notable bands that “lost” include Mission of Burma, Letter To Cleo, Morphine, the Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield’s Blake Babies, the Del Fuegos, Powerman 5000, Piebald, and Cave In.

This year’s crop of participating bands will be announced in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out the 2016 flyer, designed by Daykamp Creative: