Music

Lizard Lounge will reopen in late September

After a two-and-a-half year shutdown, the music venue will welcome guests again.

Eillen Jewell (front) and Eric Royer (right) of the Sacred Shakers perform at Lizard Lounge. Globe Staff/Charlie Mahoney

By Shira Laucharoen

2 minutes to read

The popular live-music venue Lizard Lounge has announced that it will reopen on Sept. 30 in Cambridge, following a two-and-a-half year closure during the COVID-19 pandemic. The intimate basement club, which opened in 1996, is known for its featuring of local musicians and its poetry slams. To begin, Lizard Lounge will only be open three days a week, but staff mentioned that they plan to resume a full-week schedule eventually.

Co-owner Holly Heslop said that during the shutdown, the venue had planned on reopening several times, but the pandemic “had a way of interrupting those plans.” It wasn’t until mid-summer that welcoming guests back began to seem like a real possibility.

“What we want is just to recreate the Lizard Lounge vibe that everyone knew,” Heslop said. “That’s what we’re hoping for. For our opening weekend, the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday shows are all veterans who have been performing at Lizard Lounge and have called it home for decades.”

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During the first weekend, Club d’Elf will perform, as will MC Kabir & the Krush Faktory. The lounge will also hold a poetry jam. Later in the fall, audience members can expect to see old favorites like OldJack and Vapors of Morphine. New performers are expected to play as well.

Heslop said that the shutdown was discouraging for many musicians and that the staff knew so many people who had gotten their start at places like Lizard Lounge and Toad. With the reopening scheduled for September, this feels very much like a comeback.

“It’s a return to the kind of thing that made Lizard Lounge special,” Heslop said. “It’s very intimate. There’s no stage. You are essentially right in the performer’s lap. You are up close and personal, and it feels very personal. There’s an incredible connection between the audience and the band members. It’s kind of magic, when that happens, and it’s the perfect environment for that.”

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Lizard Lounge, 1667 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge

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