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There’s a new boss at Bossanova Ballroom.
Now called Nova PDX, the East Burnside Street club is back in the hands of Rob McCorkle, who owned it from 2012 to 2019 before selling it to luthier and promoter David C. Jones.
“About six months ago, he came to me and asked me if I was interested in taking it back over, because if not, he was gonna walk away and basically let it close,” says McCorkle, a Las Vegas transplant who also co-founded the defunct cannabis tech company Emerald Metrics. “I couldn’t let that happen.”
As Portland’s longest continuously running music venue, Bossanova Ballroom has existed in one form or another since 1907 and was known as the Viscount Ballroom until 2004, hosting rock shows and ballroom dance events. Under McCorkle’s leadership, the venue hosted several queer club nights, notably Blow Pony, BOYeurism and Inferno.
“I bought Bossanova back when it was pretty much just a hole in the wall,” says McCorkle. “I built it into a kind of community space. When I bought it, we were doing two events a month. When I sold it, we were doing 15 or 17.”
In 2019 McCorkle left Portland to travel for his weed gig and sold Bossanova to Jones, who’d previously organized events there. Under Jones’ ownership, Bossanova maintained a strong presence in the Portland club scene, albeit with more of a focus on hardcore punk and heavy metal than before.
However, once promoters and clubgoers stumbled upon Jones’ social media presence, controversy began to flare in the club scene. Jones’ public Facebook posts included conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine, chemtrails and the election of Donald Trump. Furthermore, despite the ballroom playing host to numerous LGBTQ+ events, Jones occasionally reposted jokes at the expense of the trans community.
“[Jones] is allowed to be all those things; he can do all those things,” says Airick Redwolf, whose queer dance party Blow Pony previously took up residence at Bossanova before moving to White Owl Social Club. “But our group doesn’t need to line his pockets, so we left.”
Jones characterizes his political views as libertarian. “I don’t really share that too much other than my personal page,” he says. “But Portland’s an interesting town. Everybody gets their feelings hurt quick and easy.”
Nonetheless, Bossanova Ballroom’s Facebook page posted a clarification in 2022. “Bossanova Management & Staff is committed to providing and hosting events for the LGBTQ+ community long term, as we are representative of the diverse spectrum of the city we serve,” the post stated.
Though Jones occasionally booked controversial acts like Ariel Pink, the avant-pop auteur who spent much of the 2000s as a critical darling before his appearance at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, tanked his career, there’s little evidence that his views affected the ballroom’s programming. Bossanova even hosted events where proof of vaccination was required, despite Jones’ own anti-vax views.
Jones believes that the exodus of clubbers and promoters from the venue had little to do with his postings, attributing it to waning enthusiasm after the pandemic. “The turnout’s not as good as it used to be, and I don’t think people have money anymore,” he says. “It’s just harder to get people out and about. I saw that over the last year.”
McCorkle and his co-conspirators Phill Schwartz, Lisa Fruichantie and Elizabeth Griffin are working on bringing back some of the events that previously took up residence at the ballroom. In the meantime, DJ Aspen from the Thorns has moved in with her queer party Let Her Cook, which returns in August. Veteran rap group The Pharcyde is slated to perform on July 12, and the gay dance party Bearracuda is still going strong.
“Most importantly for this,” says McCorkle, “is that people know that we are what we used to be.”
GO: Nova PDX, 722 E Burnside St., novapdxevents.com. 6–11:30 pm Friday–Wednesday, 6:30–11:30 pm Thursday.
