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Local musicians David Shur and Johnny Keener are planning to open the Fremont Theater next month. The new Northeast Portland performance venue will have a full bar and small menu. Though it will primarily be a live music venue for dinner-seated, emcee-hosted shows, as well as mid-day kids music shows, the Fremont will also be the new home of Portland Story Theater. They also plan on hosting various other performance events, like the 1940s radio tribute Tesla City Stories.
Related: Portland Story Theater's Shackleton's Antarctic Nightmare review
Both of the Fremont's founders are active members of the Portland music scene: Among other projects, David Shur is the lead guitarist and vocalist for Future Historians, and Johnny Keener is the frontman of Johnny Keener & The Bells. They got together with Portland Story Theater through mutual friends and partly because the theater group's founders live walking distance from the new venue.
The company spent its last two seasons at the Alberta Abbey, and before that held its seasons at Hipbone studios. They'll kick off their 12th season on the venue's opening night on Friday, October 7 with their First Fridays storytelling sessions. It's already sold out, but you can check out the venue's Facebook or website for more upcoming events. The Fremont will begin to host regularly ticketed events towards the end of their first month, but until then, most of their shows will be free.
Check out the venue's plans for their retro, swanky looking interior via their Facebook below:
Willamette Week