Longtime music venue Les Bobards closes its doors

Les Bobards, a popular bar and live music venue at the corner of St-Laurent Boulevard and Marie-Anne Street has closed down after 26 years, management confirmed on its Facebook page Saturday.

• Montreal musician lobbies to 'Save the Plateau' after $1,250 fine
• Les Bobards music venue faces new threat of closure

The note cited "breach of lease" for the closure. Management and the building owner were unavailable for comment Sunday but others close to the establishment said that the closure represents a major setback for local musicians. 

"The Bobards is an institution. It's been there for years, providing live music every night of the week," said musician Vincent Stephen-Ong. "Its loss will have a tremendous impact on the music scene."

Stephen-Ong, who had performed regularly at the bar for the past four years, also leads a group to defend such venues, which have increasingly been targeted by noise complaints in recent years. 

Bobards management went to considerable expense to soundproof its premises after it was slapped with a $1,250 fine for excessive noise two years ago.

While it's not known what factors led to the closure, noise-sensitive residents have tossed a wrench into such venues over the years.

"Noise complaints are a problem that doesn't seem to be going away. I think it's the natural outcrop of gentrification and the Plateau has had an explosion of condos. It's not the same kind of place it used to be and there are now different expectations of what the neighbourhood should be about," said Stephen-Ong.

Les Bobards was a licensed bar but was not eligible to obtain a license to present shows on an elevated stage because it sits next to residential buildings, borough councillor Christine Gosselin noted in a Facebook post last year.

On Sunday Gosselin mourned the apparent passing of what she descried as a "flagship" establishment, known for its homey atmosphere and peanut shells strewn on the floor at 4328 St-Laurent.

"The elected officials of the Plateau-Mont-Royal are very sorry that the Bobards was unable to overcome its difficulties to continue its mission. I, for one, hope that manager Rabah Mammouche will be able to translate his expertise in other projects that will revive the spirit of Bobards," she wrote in a note to CBC.