Satyricon, Alternative music venue in Old Town district, Portland, United States.
Satyricon was a music club located in Portland's Old Town district, housed in a converted former horse stable. Graffiti-covered walls, sticker-adorned surfaces, and a central stage filled the interior, while a food window called Eat or Die served hungry visitors during performances.
Satyricon opened in 1984 and became the longest-running punk venue on the West Coast, rivaling New York's CBGB in cultural impact. Over 26 years, it shaped Portland's music scene before closing in 2010.
The club took its name from Federico Fellini's 1969 film Satyricon. Its booking agent made no stylistic distinction among acts, so local punk bands the Wipers and Poison Idea became regulars alongside touring groups. Poet Walt Curtis frequented the venue, and Courtney Love met Kat Bjelland there in 1984 through Gerry Mohr of The Miracle Workers.
The building at 125 N.W. Sixth Avenue was demolished in July 2011, so there is no club to visit; the site is in the Old Town Chinatown area. The entrance was on N.W. Sixth Avenue, and the interior held a long black bar, a stage area and a corner round table with a pentagram etched into it. The stage sat close to the bar, with little division between the two.
Courtney Love gave shifting accounts of meeting Kurt Cobain at Satyricon: in 2010 she said it happened at a Dharma Bums show in 1988 while she read spoken-word poetry, while others place it in 1989 or 1990 during a Nirvana set, with the two wrestling by the jukebox. Mark Arm of Mudhoney called the story apocryphal, saying they met in Europe in 1991 while Mudhoney toured with Hole. In 2015 Love insisted it was at the Satyricon and that the jukebox song was "Dear Friend" by Flying Color, not Living Colour.
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