Alberta Street Public House

Pedaltone’s review is outdated. Remodeled room….great sound, great PA, great sound guy. House takes $75 for sound. Worth the money not having to haul in your own PA and do your own sound. Christopher Anderson who books the place is great. You set your own cover charge. Working hard to try to get back in there. I am thinking it he is getting lots of booking inquiries. Be patient and persistent. If your genre fits the room and you have a quality band, he will give you a shot.

This is a venue that has a reputation for being more of an open mic type place that has recently renovated into much more of a “real” venue. They’ve improved the sound system and the general aesthetic of the place to make it much more comfortable for both the audience and the performers. The booking is still lacking somewhat but if you’re the type of person/band that wants to set-up your own show and have it be your night then this is the place. You can have a friend take the cover at the door to the venue which is separate from the bar and the door is all yours. You get a comped meal that is pretty good bar food in the Portland style of quality and the bar has a better selection of beer taps than any other venue in town. This venue has great potential and is growing in all the right ways.

Nice remodel on a comfy old space. Great PA and sound in the room, but _you_ pay the sound guy; $75 last time we played there. Communication with booking guy not the greatest either. Keep 100% of the door, but supply your own door person. Bring your own crowd because there does not seem to be a built-in crowd for the show room.

Played here twice. Great location. Nice down-home kind of vibe. Venue staff were pretty nice. They provided a sound engineer, but they may have been employed by the headlining band; we opened. PA system was pretty limited and a little run-down. The engineer, though nice, could barely understand my stage plot, which is pretty standard. I couldn’t tell if it was because they were inexperienced, because our sound needs were so beyond what the PA could offer (I think we specified two mixes) or a combo. The bar is a separate half of the building and the wrap-around patio is quite large. The music room probably has about a 60 capacity; it’s not that big at all. Although the venue is in a trendy neighborhood, there appears to be little to no built-in traffic, so be prepared to be responsible for bringing all of the customers. Several of the postering services (e.g. posterchild) have telephone pole routes in this neighborhood that are pretty reasonable.

It’s got a great sounding PA, good sound person, and is nice aesthetically, but they charge the band for the sound guy, so unless you can pull about 50 people in, you’re going to end up with almost nothing. I think it’s pretty lame that they don’t offer any cut of the door to the band, and that they can’t even pay their own sound guy. We brought about 35-40 people in and ended up with about 80 bucks to split between two bands after paying the sound guy. Bar staff are pretty nice, and the guy who does the booking is good to work with. They just need to get their shit together with pay if they are trying to be a real venue.

Great place to go if you are in the audience. But they jack their bands royally. Nice space, good bar, good crowd..again, if you are a patron. This place USED to pay their bands pretty well, to the tune of around $250-300, and there used to be no cover so the place would always be packed when bands played. But they have recently cheaped out, bigtime. They pay their bands zilch, only give us a small food/drink comp, force us to charge a cover, then TAKE $75 of that cover to pay THEIR employee, the sound guy. (I would think that if a band pulls in 25-30 people who wouldn’t go there otherwise, people who eat and drink while there….the place can afford to pay their own sound guy, no ?) On a good night, this means the band MAY end up with $60-80 (the WHOLE band, not per person). No % of bar, no flat fee…nuthin. Another sad example of what Portland venues think they can get away with. This place used to respect its bands…..no longer.