by Sam Soule for pdxguide.com
August 2006

Huddling over on SE Milwaukie just off of Powell, the Bear Paw Inn exists on virtually no one's nightlife map. That stands to change.

For in the immediately surrounding neighborhood of Brooklyn, there live a bunch of kids making up about a half dozen rock 'n' roll bands — The Silver Kings, Super Destroyer and Reptilian Civilian, to name a few. And they have invaded the Bear Paw.

Now, thanks to B. J. Johnson, Portland has a new dive bar willing to book regular live music.

Johnson had been working the Bear Paw bar for the past year when the owners — who also run Katie O'Brien's over on Sandy Boulevard — thought they could jump start business by bringing in karaoke. Thankfully, Johnson thought otherwise. The neighborhood band kids had been in his ear and he suggested live music instead. The owners said, fine.

As far as they were concerned, Johnson could book whoever he liked, as long as they weren't around. Apparently, the owners are rarely around the Bear Paw Saturday nights.

A lot of prayers were answered when Johnson got the green light to bring live music into the Bear Paw. A bunch of start-up bands only had to walk across the street to play a live show. They could rock within stumbling distance.

I had some prayers answered, too, though I didn't know it until I arrived.

The Bear Paw feels haphazard, struggling and odd. Outside, it looks like a mountain community hick bar. Inside, the atmosphere is strictly blue collar deluxe, touched by a misplaced hint of Irish pubness. There's a knight in armor up around the ceiling, a wall-mounted internet juke box by the men's bathroom door and a back space dedicated to all your typical barroom games. The kind of place where the you might expect the regulars to object to a bunch of punk kids setting up shop to rock. Not so at the Bear Paw.

Though sometimes it's a battle for the pool players and audience members to navigate around each other when a band is playing, the regulars seem almost as enthusiastic about the entertainment as the slumming white kids.

And the set-up at the Bear Paw is particularly sweet. Patrons can drink in relative peace up front at the bar while the band tears up the back of the house, a true rarity.

Fans of local underground rock need to start checking into the Bear Paw. Johnson, an inexperienced booker, may be willing to give anyone with a promising draw a show by the pool tables; however, at the moment, the pool of talent he is drawing on is only slightly less limited than the relative amount of promotion he gives dates booked. End result? Portland's newest wave of crap rock garage bands is flying in under the radar. Southeast is now the new Northeast. All hail the Bear Paw.

For true music fans, it's an entertainment formula that rarely fails.

To wit: Walk through door to popularly ignored bar having only to show your ID; pay only a few dollars cover, if at all. Find scruffy band set up on the floor amongst pool tables and video pokers machines. Order shots and beers at the bar. Feel the band's unfiltered power (for better or worse). Make many trips back to bar. Hello authentic, live music experience.

Forget about paying through the nose to some over hyped band in a fashionably tricked out venue serving over-priced drinks. At a from-the-floor dive bar show, audience and performer are literally on the same playing field. Fans can reach out and touch the band.

By the end of a very good night, fans have reached out and touched the band.

And at the Bear Paw Tavern, fans have some very good nights.

The opinions expressed within are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of pdxguide.com or The Columbian Publishing Co.