New Portland concert venues could reshape live music scene
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Live Nation's Steelhead concert venue is located on Southeast Water Avenue and Salmon in the Central Eastside. Photo: Meira Gebel/Axios
Portland's live music landscape is poised for a major shakeup in the next year, with two new hotly debated concert venues expected to open within months of each other.
The big picture: The new spaces could help the city land acts who currently skip us because they're too big for indies like Mississippi Studios but too small to fill Moda.
- The spaces will test whether Portland's famously independent, but struggling, music scene can absorb two corporate-backed venues.
- Plus: We'll see if a city with a deep anti-establishment streak will actually show up.
State of play: Located about a block north of the Hawthorne Bridge near the Eastbank Esplanade, Live Nation's 3,500-capacity Steelhead is taking shape with an opening targeted for next summer.
- The project is Live Nation's first in Portland, which had been the last major U.S. city without a venue operated by the concert giant.
- Local music advocates have opposed the project for years. MusicOregon co-chair Cheri Jamison told the Portland Mercury her group will be watching whether Steelhead competes directly with smaller venues and whether Live Nation expands its footprint here.
About 2 miles north in the former Nordstrom at Lloyd Center, Monqui Presents and global entertainment conglomerate AEG Presents are building a competing midsize venue.
- The 68,000-square-foot space will hold between 2,000 and 4,250 people, depending on its configuration, and is expected to open early next year.
- Monqui's location could have a few advantages. It's near MAX, bus service, parking and major highways like I-5 and I-84. Steelhead's location could jam concertgoers up behind Central Eastside's infamous passing trains.
Meanwhile, the City Council is expected to consider advancing plans Thursday for a new performing arts venue at Portland State University.
What we're watching: The city's small venue scene is already in a precarious position, plagued by razor-thin margins, rising costs and several recent closures.
- Adding two, or potentially three, new major venues could reshape where artists play and how audiences spend their money.
- It could be a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats situation, or some of Portland's smaller stages could be left underwater.