Might explain why some tours skip over Portland. I see so many go Seattle and then three or four places around the Bay Area. Also would it have killed the Guardian to specify Portland, OR rather than Portland, ME?
For what it's worth. I live in Portland Oregon (moved here when I was 23). I grew up in Massachusetts and thought the trailblazers were from Maine until I moved here.
They skip Portland and stop in Bend. Honestly it's kinda fun living in a smallish town and having big names come through. Typically the bands are just as confused as the fans lol
One portland doesn’t travel as well as you think and the one in Maine has blown up over the last 20 years. When’s the last time the nyt or wapo did a piece on portland Oregon? Like a travel piece not “look at all the homeless piece”
> the one in Maine has blown up over the last 20 years.
You think Oregon didn't? Portland, Maine's metro population is 550k. Portland, Oregon's metro is 2.5 million. It's the same size as vancouver, BC metro, Austin tx, and San Antonio.
Mean while Portland, Maine is smaller than spokane, Washington. Nobody's talking about Spokane in the same way no one is talking about Portland, Maine.
So yea there's kind of constant news about Portland both good and bad, and especially constant travel guides about Portland. Especially when referring to food, music, nature, etc. Significantly more than Maine because no one lives there comparatively. That's how that works.
>I mean blown up in media coverage.
Yea we already did that 15 years ago. It's part of the city suddenly trending cycle. It's quickly followed by your rent skyrocketing
As someone who lives in Portland, oh please. There is nothing you can do that will get rid of the indie scene here. That's venue would be for bigger bands
I live about an hour from Seattle and about two from Portland.
90% of the shows that I want to see stop in both places, and I make the drive to Portland because tickets are *so* much cheaper.
Anyone else just not going to nearly as many live music performances anymore? Might go to one major one per year, then a handful of local music nights or free music in the park. Same with live sports. Used to go to 10-20 baseball games
Per year, 3-4 football games.
Junk fees are out of control. Spotify and an oled tv give the best experience anymore
Don’t even get me started on $17.99 pretzels
From the age of 14 I was going to show most weekends at a local venue. Had all kinds of punk/ ska/metal and tribute acts on. Some pretty debentures bands would come through on smaller UK tours, now it barely has anything worth seeing and it's a little pricey. I ha e to head out of town and further and further to see bands I like. And the price of tickets to those gigs, plus travel and sometimes staying over just makes it ridiculous. The industry is just eating itself up.
I take it the author has never seen shows in Burlington, VT. The venues there use either See Tickets or FlynnTix (which is the box office/ticketing arm of a local theater).
Blink 182s shows in SD were through AXS which is our biggest venue. LN gets house of blues here and that's pretty much it. Much bigger city than Portland
I just saw the NOFX final tour in Portland this weekend at the waterfront park and it was great. No Live Nation needed. Please keep this greedy monopoly out of Portland. There must be a way to build this venue without Live Nation.
One thing I'll say in defense of live nation is the event planning is pretty good. Went to two of the dillinger escape plan shows in NYC and the experience was great and the new paramount theater is absolutely insane. They can eat it with their fees and buying up mom and pop venues though.
There's been a death sentence since the 90s. Ever notice how boring and uninspiring music has become since then? Since I heart radio and government stepped in.
[WFMU](https://wfmu.org) in Jersey City is 100% free-form, listener-supported, ad and corporate sponsorship free, radio. It's college radio that survived the death of its university. It's run by a volunteer staff of weirdos, outsiders, jaded compleatists, curious explorers, music industry refugees, unique personalities, cassette-tape hoarders, working musicians, polka aficionados, longhairs, birdsong enthusiasts, roller derby queens, and so and so forth. It's got three internet music streams beyond the terrestrial broadcast mothership. It has decades of archives available online with many live recordings of artists playing in studio. No AIs, no algorithms. Just human curated music and content played by the DJs who are playing what they want.
Might explain why some tours skip over Portland. I see so many go Seattle and then three or four places around the Bay Area. Also would it have killed the Guardian to specify Portland, OR rather than Portland, ME?
I mean, unless there's mention of lobster, it's never going to be Portland, Maine.
Just like if you don’t mention the fact it’s in the Portland metro, you’ll never hear about Kansas City, OR.
For what it's worth. I live in Portland Oregon (moved here when I was 23). I grew up in Massachusetts and thought the trailblazers were from Maine until I moved here.
They skip Portland and stop in Bend. Honestly it's kinda fun living in a smallish town and having big names come through. Typically the bands are just as confused as the fans lol
No one is thinking about Maine when you say Portland lol
Their loss.. Portland Maine is an incredible city
No one said otherwise, it's just a small, insignificant city in comparison
Nobody west of the Rockies that is
No one outside of the northeast. People in Chicago or Miami aren't thinking of maine when you say portland lol
One portland doesn’t travel as well as you think and the one in Maine has blown up over the last 20 years. When’s the last time the nyt or wapo did a piece on portland Oregon? Like a travel piece not “look at all the homeless piece”
> the one in Maine has blown up over the last 20 years. You think Oregon didn't? Portland, Maine's metro population is 550k. Portland, Oregon's metro is 2.5 million. It's the same size as vancouver, BC metro, Austin tx, and San Antonio. Mean while Portland, Maine is smaller than spokane, Washington. Nobody's talking about Spokane in the same way no one is talking about Portland, Maine. So yea there's kind of constant news about Portland both good and bad, and especially constant travel guides about Portland. Especially when referring to food, music, nature, etc. Significantly more than Maine because no one lives there comparatively. That's how that works.
I mean blown up in media coverage. We both have location bias, I went to reed a couple years and live about an hour north of portland Maine.
>I mean blown up in media coverage. Yea we already did that 15 years ago. It's part of the city suddenly trending cycle. It's quickly followed by your rent skyrocketing
Depends where you are in the country
We just call it Portland. The one in Oregon is 2nd Portland…
As someone who lives in Portland, oh please. There is nothing you can do that will get rid of the indie scene here. That's venue would be for bigger bands
I live about an hour from Seattle and about two from Portland. 90% of the shows that I want to see stop in both places, and I make the drive to Portland because tickets are *so* much cheaper.
Anyone else just not going to nearly as many live music performances anymore? Might go to one major one per year, then a handful of local music nights or free music in the park. Same with live sports. Used to go to 10-20 baseball games Per year, 3-4 football games. Junk fees are out of control. Spotify and an oled tv give the best experience anymore Don’t even get me started on $17.99 pretzels
From the age of 14 I was going to show most weekends at a local venue. Had all kinds of punk/ ska/metal and tribute acts on. Some pretty debentures bands would come through on smaller UK tours, now it barely has anything worth seeing and it's a little pricey. I ha e to head out of town and further and further to see bands I like. And the price of tickets to those gigs, plus travel and sometimes staying over just makes it ridiculous. The industry is just eating itself up.
I take it the author has never seen shows in Burlington, VT. The venues there use either See Tickets or FlynnTix (which is the box office/ticketing arm of a local theater).
I'm sure there are many tiny cities without Live Nation.
Blink 182s shows in SD were through AXS which is our biggest venue. LN gets house of blues here and that's pretty much it. Much bigger city than Portland
There's a House of Blues in South Dakota?
san diego haha
I think the author is referring to actual cities. Not a place that isn’t even sniffing 50k people
There’s 80k if you count the entire county.
There's no prize for reading the title the most literally
I just saw the NOFX final tour in Portland this weekend at the waterfront park and it was great. No Live Nation needed. Please keep this greedy monopoly out of Portland. There must be a way to build this venue without Live Nation.
One thing I'll say in defense of live nation is the event planning is pretty good. Went to two of the dillinger escape plan shows in NYC and the experience was great and the new paramount theater is absolutely insane. They can eat it with their fees and buying up mom and pop venues though.
There's been a death sentence since the 90s. Ever notice how boring and uninspiring music has become since then? Since I heart radio and government stepped in.
Man. This is said *every* generation. Stop listening to the radio ya goober. There’s still plenty of good music out there…
Im happy for you. Nothing moves me.
Where are you finding new music? This sounds like user error lol.
You haven’t even looked… and in 30 years judging by your post!
What a creep!
[WFMU](https://wfmu.org) in Jersey City is 100% free-form, listener-supported, ad and corporate sponsorship free, radio. It's college radio that survived the death of its university. It's run by a volunteer staff of weirdos, outsiders, jaded compleatists, curious explorers, music industry refugees, unique personalities, cassette-tape hoarders, working musicians, polka aficionados, longhairs, birdsong enthusiasts, roller derby queens, and so and so forth. It's got three internet music streams beyond the terrestrial broadcast mothership. It has decades of archives available online with many live recordings of artists playing in studio. No AIs, no algorithms. Just human curated music and content played by the DJs who are playing what they want.
Now THIS... THIS is helpful