Sadly, it's official. The Woods is no more.
Riding my bike by there today was bittersweet, just like the last song of Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside's set on Saturday night. Seeing a hodgepodge of chairs and couches sitting behind the locked, black iron gates made me fantasize that a resurrection was still possible.
But the facts are that the property is owned by Claybourne Commons, LLC, which was looking to raise the rent while the owners of The Woods, Ritchie Young, Vivien Lyon, and Yoni Shpak, would've liked a rent decrease. This effectively pushed the music venue out as Claybourne Commons currently hopes to redevelop the land, pushing the former funeral home, built in 1928, back half a block with plans to use the new real estate on SE Milwaukie for storefronts.
After two-and-half years of Bingo and Bourbon, Baby Ketten Karaoke, soul night with DJ Cooky Parker, and intimate concerts--one of my most memorable was an evening with The Robinsons and Y La Bamba--it was all destined to end on Saturday, January 7th.
But not without a free show. And a great, local line up to boot: Brothers Young, AgesandAges, and Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside.
A line stretched around the block all night long, and the place was packed well-past the supposed 300 person capacity. Familiar faces from the PDX music scene abounded with the likes of Lewi Longmire, Jim Brunberg of Mississippi Studios, the boys of Lone Madrone, music video director Alicia J. Rose, all of the brothers Young (how many are there anyways?), Dennise Kowalczyk of KZME, and the brothers from Rose City Live (who have a great gallery of photos up) all wandering around throughout the night.
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