La Luna (Portland, Oregon)

Last updated
La Luna
SKatLaLuna1999.jpg
Sleater-Kinney at La Luna in 1999
La Luna (Portland, Oregon)
AddressPortland, Oregon
Opened1992

La Luna (or LaLuna) was a rock-'n'-roll nightclub in Portland, Oregon, United States from 1992 to 1999. [1] It played a central role in the city's music scene and prominence during the emergence of grunge in addition to other genres throughout the decade and was once dubbed "the center of gravity for the Portland music scene." [2]

La Luna helped propel bands from the Pacific Northwest and beyond to international stardom including: Nirvana, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Sweaty Nipples, The Dharma Bums, Pond, Hitting Birth, Hole, Hazel, The Spinanes, Elliott Smith, Everclear, Sublime, The Dandy Warhols, Cherry Poppin Daddies, Sleater Kinney, and Quasi. [3] [4] [5] [6] La Luna was once described as the "best medium-size venue in Portland" and "an all-ages venue that somehow manages to stay cool." [7]

Located at the corner of Southeast Ninth Avenue and Southeast Pine Street, La Luna's main performance space could accommodate around 1,000 spectators. [8] It was previously known as the Ninth Street Exit (in the 1970s) and the Pine Street Theater (1980–1991). [6] It was called RKCNDY Portland (Rock Candy) for most of 1992. [6] It later returned to its original name, the Pine Street Theater (2000–02), before being redubbed Solid State (2004–05) during its final years of operation.

The balcony served as a smaller performance space for more intimate shows and featured musicians like Elliot Smith. [1] An eatery named the La Luna Cafe opened in 2020 and is currently located in the same building. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Oregon</span>

The music of Oregon reflects the diverse array of styles present in the music of the United States, from Native American music to the contemporary genres of rock and roll, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, pop, electronic music, and hip hop. However, throughout most of its history, the state has been relatively isolated from the cultural forces shaping American music. Much of modern popular music traces its roots to the emergence in the late 19th century of African American blues and the growth of gospel music in the 1920s. African American musicians borrowed elements of European and Indigenous musics to create new American forms. As Oregon's population was more homogeneous and more white than the United States as a whole, the state did not play a significant role in this history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burnside Triangle</span> Human settlement in Portland, Oregon, United States of America

The Burnside Triangle, also known as Pink Triangle or Vaseline Alley, was a triangular district in Portland, Oregon, United States, known for its relatively higher density of LGBT and gay-friendly businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dante's</span> Nightclub in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Dante's is a nightclub and live music venue in Portland, Oregon. The venue, located along West Burnside Street and owned by Frank Faillace, hosts a variety of acts ranging from burlesque to rock music.

The X-Ray Cafe was a small music venue in Portland, Oregon, United States from 1990 to 1994. An all-ages and community-oriented club, the X-Ray played a "heavyweight role in shaping Portland's underground culture", fostering such musical acts as The Dandy Warhols, Dead Moon, Elliott Smith, Team Dresch, and Quasi, and hosted national acts like Bikini Kill and Green Day and was described by Details as one of the best rock and roll clubs in the country. Located at 214 W. Burnside St., it was characterized by a surreal environment and performers; owners Tres Shannon and Benjamin Arthur Ellis, who took over the U.F.O Cafe to establish the X-Ray and were in the band The Kurtz Project, encouraged acts that featured instruments that aren't typically associated with rock music, like Big Daddy Meatstraw, who performed on stage in clown costumes. As grunge and alternative music were emerging in Portland and Seattle under a national spotlight, the X-Ray served as an important stage for smaller acts in the genre, and along with nearby Satyricon nightclub, established Portland as an important regional performing destination for touring bands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinton Street Theater</span> Theater in Portland, Oregon

The Clinton Street Theater is a theater located in southeast Portland, Oregon. It is believed to be the second oldest operating movie house in the city and one of the oldest continually operating cinemas in the United States. The theater was designed by Charles A. Duke in 1913, built in 1914, and opened as The Clinton in 1915. It became known as the 26th Avenue Theatre in 1945 and the Encore in 1969, before reverting to a resemblance of its original name in 1976. The Clinton often screens grindhouse, cult and experimental films, and has become known for hosting regular screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Repo! The Genetic Opera. The venue also hosts the annual Filmed by Bike festival, the Faux Film Festival and the Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Independent Publishing Resource Center</span> Resource centre

The Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC) is a resource center based in Portland, Oregon that provides access to tools for the creation of books, prints, posters, zines, and comics. The studios include a computer lab and general workspace, screen printing, letterpress printing, risograph printing, and a zine library. The center was founded in 1998 by Chloe Eudaly, owner of Reading Frenzy and Show & Tell Press, and Rebecca Gilbert, worker-owner at Stumptown Printers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Rose (journalist)</span>

Joseph Rose is an American journalist, priest and theologian formerly based in Portland, Oregon. He currently lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, where he is associate rector of St. James's Episcopal Church. Rose was on the staff of The Oregonian as a writer, columnist and multimedia producer from 1999 until 2016. He has written about crime, prisons, government, Portland's world-famous bicycle scene, religion, popular culture, music, film, Oregon's methamphetamine epidemic and transportation. He is also a former freelance writer for Wired.com. As of January 2017, he described himself as retired from The Oregonian in order to go into ministry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roseland Theater</span> Music venue in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

The Roseland Theater, sometimes called the Roseland Theater and Grill, is a music venue located at 8 Northwest Sixth Avenue in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The building was originally a church, constructed by the Apostolic Faith Church in 1922. In 1982, Larry Hurwitz converted the building to a music venue called Starry Night. In 1990, the club's 21-year-old publicity agent was murdered in one of the theater's hallways; Hurwitz was convicted for this murder ten years later. Hurwitz sold the club in 1991, claiming he had lost support from the local music industry. The venue was given its current name during the 1991 ownership transfer. During the 1990s, Double Tee acquired control of the hall's operations, then purchased and renovated the building.

The James Beard Public Market is a proposed public market in Portland, Oregon. It is named after James Beard, a Portland-born chef and cookbook writer. The market was planned to be located at the west end of the Morrison Bridge in downtown Portland, in what are currently parking lots, but this site was dropped in November 2016 after concerns over pedestrian accessibility due to the bridgehead ramps. The developer, Melvin Mark Development, still plans to build a 17-story building at the same site. Original designs for the market called for it to have two halls, totaling 80,000 square feet (7,400 m2), along with 60 permanent and 30 to 40 temporary stalls for food vendors. Design for the market is being led by the Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Third Eye Shoppe</span> Defunct head shop in Portland, Oregon

Third Eye Shoppe, commonly known as The Third Eye, was a head shop in Portland, Oregon's Hawthorne district and Richmond neighborhood, in the United States. The shop was founded in 1987 and owned by cannabis and counterculture activist Jack Herer. His son, Mark Herer, took over as the shop's owner in 2001. The Third Eye closed on March 31, 2017, as a result of declining sales, development of the surrounding neighborhood, increasing health care costs, and increased competition. For nearly thirty years, the shop was associated with Portland's cannabis culture and recreational drug tourism, and was included in Willamette Week's annual "Best of Portland" reader's poll several times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roseway Theater</span> Historic theater in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

The Roseway Theater was a historic theater in northeast Portland, Oregon's Roseway neighborhood, in the United States, that operated for almost a century. The c. 1924 independent theater operated continually from 1925 to 2022, when it was destroyed by fire. Greg Wood had owned the Roseway since 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinemas in Portland, Oregon</span>

At the advent of the 20th century, the city of Portland, Oregon, was among the first on the United States West Coast to embrace the advent of the silent and feature film. The city's first movie palace, the Majestic Theatre, opened in 1911. By 1916, Portland had "the finest array" of movie houses on the West Coast relative to its population, pioneering venues dedicated exclusively to screening films. The popularization of the sound film in the early 1920s resulted in another boom of new cinemas being constructed, including the Laurelhurst, the Hollywood Theatre, and the Bagdad Theatre, the latter of which was financed by Universal Pictures in 1926.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lola's Room</span> Venue in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Lola's Room is a venue operated by McMenamins inside Portland, Oregon's Crystal Ballroom, in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holocene (Portland, Oregon)</span> Music venue and nightclub in Portland, Oregon

Holocene is a music venue and nightclub in the Buckman neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The venue, which opened in June 2003, is a former auto-parts warehouse with an industrial, modern interior. Holocene hosts a variety of events, and was named the city's "Best Place to Dance" by Willamette Week readers in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Liquor Store</span> Defunct bar and restaurant in Portland, Oregon, US

The Liquor Store was a bar, restaurant, and music venue in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2015, the business operated in a space previously occupied by the Blue Monk, a jazz club and restaurant, in southeast Portland's Sunnyside neighborhood. It was named the city's best new bar in Willamette Week's annual readers' poll in 2015 and 2016. The Liquor Store's upstairs had a bar and the owner's large vinyl record collection on display. The downstairs venue hosted live music and disc jockeys, playing a variety of genres, especially electronic music. The Liquor Store closed temporarily in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and two former employees filed a lawsuit claiming sexual harassment one month later. Sometimes confused for an actual liquor store, The Liquor Store closed permanently in September 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rontoms</span> Bar in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Rontoms is a bar in Portland, Oregon. It opened along East Burnside Street, in southeast Portland's Buckman neighborhood, in November 2006.

Berbati's Pan was a Greek restaurant, bar and music nightclub in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was located at 231 Southwest Ankeny Street and operated from 1985 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauretta Jean's</span> Bakery in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Lauretta Jean's is a bakery and pie shop with two locations in Portland, Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EastBurn (restaurant)</span> Restaurant in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

EastBurn, sometimes known as EastBurn Public House or stylized as Eastburn, is a pub and restaurant in Portland, Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippo Hardware and Trading Company</span> Store in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Hippo Hardware and Trading Company, or simply Hippo Hardware, is a hardware store in Portland, Oregon. Established by Steven Miller and Stephen Oppenheim in southeast Portland in 1976, the business has operated from its current location on East Burnside Street in the Buckman neighborhood since 1990. Hippo Hardware sells new and salvaged hardware, lighting, plumbing and other materials, as has a hippopotamus theme throughout. The store has supplied locally filmed television series and has been described as an institution and a landmark.

References

  1. 1 2 "Portland's Most Missed All-Ages Venues". Willamette Week. May 18, 2016.
  2. "Elliot Smith 1969 - 2003". Willamette Week. October 23, 2023.
  3. "Elliot Smith 1969 - 2003". Willamette Week. October 23, 2023.
  4. "Flashback: Radiohead rock Oregon in 1996". Oregonian. April 5, 2017.
  5. "Big Men on Campus" . Retrieved 23 January 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 Graham, John (1999). "Lunatics ball". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on January 26, 2012. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  7. Jewell, Judy (1998). Oregon . Compass American Guides. pp.  286–287.
  8. "CMJ New Music Monthly". Google Books. February 1998.
  9. "Vanished Portland brunch spot Simpatica will be reborn this spring". Oregonian. February 19, 2018.

45°31′16.36″N122°39′25.11″W / 45.5212111°N 122.6569750°W / 45.5212111; -122.6569750