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Conan's Pub
A puzzling beginning,
but the payoff might be
worth it
by Sam Soule, for pdxguide.com
You've
got to look for it, but
once the irksome maze
into Conan's Pub is solved,
you just might like what
you find.
For
the past few months this
cavernous bar hidden away
on upper SE Hawthorne
has been attempting to
re-invent itself as a
vital Portland music venue.
Jazz,
rock and various Dj's
now stud a more aggressive
entertainment calendar,
a promotional tact initiated
by relatively recent changes
in venue management. If
anything, Conan's is an
exceptionally overlooked
performance space.
Conan's
isn't just overlooked,
it's hard to find. Housed
inside a former Masonic
Temple, there are no signs
on the busy Hawthorne
Street side of this building
announcing the bar's entrance
around the corner, nothing
to distinguish it from
a jumble of ground floor
shops and restaurants.
And
once the entrance below
the "Conan's" sign
around the corner is discovered,
a minor grime-streaked
labyrinth of hallways
reveals no clear indication
where the bar can be found.
A map would be helpful.
 But
once this temple has been
penetrated, Conan's reveals
itself to be a high-ceilinged,
hardwood floored room
big enough to stuff a
basketball court. Indeed,
it does have all the feel
of a high school gymnasium,
albeit, one painted up
in a soothing mauve/brown
with a sturdy bar ambling
against the corner.
There
is a charming formality
to Conan's, a sort of
echoey nervousness in
the air. Pinball, pool
and a row of video poker
machines set up briefly
by the entrance and do
surprisingly little to
disrupt the room's relative
sense of grandness.
Grand,
too, is the room's dedicated
performance space. A wide,
deeply recessed stage
does the scale of the
room justice. "Theatrical" is
the word that springs
to mind when looking at
this stage. This being
that rare kind of club
stage that is truly a
stage, a stage where "production"s
and "performances" are
held; the kind of stage
that demands more of entertainers
and audiences alike, and
lends a bit to the presence
of both in the process.
 Case
in point, Power of County.
As Conan's strives to
book stronger entertainment
events in the evening,
POC's on-going happy hour
show Fridays from six
to eight should not be
missed.
Though
talented acoustic country
crooners in their own
right, Conan's stage gives
the Power of County's
spare and flinty sound
a touch of Grand Ol Opry
appreciation, a heightened
spiritual connection between
both performers and audience
to the music, a rapport
not encouraged in a typical
barroom performance space.
Hopefully,
Conan's will be able to
a dispel a years-long
reputation of lackluster
booking. They have some
work to do. A recent polling
of a barside visit to
Conan's garnered tepid
enthusiasm, at best, regarding
to Conan's entertainment
schedule.
"This
space is kinda cool," said
one bar patron, enjoying
a quick afternoon. "It's
too bad the don't have
better shows here." In
time, that deserves to
change.
The opinions expressed
within are those of the
author and do not necessarily
reflect those of pdxguide.com
or The Columbian Publishing
Co.
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