Photo by Julianna Marie Clarke.

Some sad news for the local DIY music community: Casa Fiesta, the unsuspecting Mexican restaurant that doubled as a premiere venue for the city’s underground punk and hardcore scene, will stop hosting shows. Tonight’s show, featuring regional hardcore heavyweights Full of Hell, Canada’s Column of Heaven, Pennsylvania’s Nyodene D, and local punks D.O.C., will be its last.

Tyler Osborne, a local musician and one-third of Tenley Empire, the booking collective that started doing shows at Casa Fiesta, says that the restaurant is getting new management and they don’t want to have shows upstairs anymore. Here’s what Robin Zeijlon, another local musician and part of Tenley Empire wrote on the Facebook event page for tonight’s show:

Unfortunately tonight will be the last show at Casa Fiesta. New management are going to take over the restaurant and they don’t want to have shows upstairs anymore. If you have ever been to/played/or run a show at Casa Fiesta you know that the people who work there are nothing short of the greatest people on Earth. We have been doing shows at Casa Fiesta for over two years which is a modern day miracle. If you are able to go to the show tonight stop by and say thanks to management or support them by buying something to eat and drink and tipping well. RIP

In the two years since Tenley Empire began booking shows at Casa Fiesta, it’s hosted hundreds of shows, mostly local punk, hardcore, and metal bands, but sometimes rising touring bands, like Waxahatchee and Diarrhea Planet, that would go on to sell out some of D.C.’s larger music venues.

“It’s been an honor, both booking all sorts of punk and hardcore shows at Casa Fiesta and working with [the staff] over the past few years,” Osborne tells DCist. “[It’s] been an absolutely pleasure getting to know the staff. Despite the fact that they are closing shows, Casa Fiesta will always be one of my favorite restaurants in D.C., and I will continue to frequently eat their quesadillas, shows or not.”