Live-music venues worth the trip in Portland, Oregon

A 1928 downtown movie palace of ~2,700 seats, the ornate Portland’5 flagship that hosts touring concerts alongside the Oregon Symphony.

McMenamins’ 1914 dance hall with a legendary floating, spring-loaded floor, a ~1,500-cap room booking touring acts across every genre downtown.

A seated ~600-cap former vaudeville and movie house on SE Milwaukie, strong on songwriters, folk, and roots bookings.

A SE Portland club with a separate upstairs bar, a workhorse stop for touring rock, metal, and punk bills.

An ~850-seat auditorium in a converted high school on the east side, with a rooftop bar and an eclectic touring calendar.

A ~1,400-cap former church turned marquee downtown rock room, a dependable Portland stop for national touring headliners.

An east-side Portland club open since 2022, booking touring and local acts across an eclectic calendar from electronic to bluegrass.

A 1914 ballroom on NE Russell with a ~780-cap main floor, a solid mid-size room for touring indie and rock.

A restored ~300-seat NE Portland movie house, an intimate listening room for folk, jazz, and variety programming.

A ~300-cap former church on N Mississippi built around its sound, one of the city’s best small rooms for touring indie and local acts.

A small Old Town theater in a one-time burlesque house, a close-quarters stop for touring and local bills.