Skip to main contentThe Portland D.I.Y. scene suffers yet another loss: Laughing Horse Book and Film Collective (12 NE 10th Ave) closes its doors for good this Friday.
Ownership could not be reached for comment, but they did release an official statement regarding the lefty bookstore and all ages show-space's closure via Facebook on Monday afternoon.
Laughing Horse began hosting live music around 2010 and became known regionally as a community-supported alternative to traditional punk bars Slabtown and the Know. Jon Scheid, guitarist and vocalist of Portland post-hardcore unit and Laughing Horse mainstay Duck Little Brother Duck, who will reunite for the space's final show this Friday, attributes the closure to the challenges D.I.Y. spaces face when anarchist ethics are quashed by escalating financial burdens. He remains optimistic that another space will pop up in its wake:
"They've always had money problems, I think, because they wanted to keep this DIY ethos where it wasn't about money, it was about being able to give people this information via videos and zines. As people move here with the intention to start careers and families and do the 'normal life' thing, it becomes less viable. There's still so many punk kids that move here and are looking for a place like [Laughing Horse], but as more people move here to get a career and have that mindset, it's a different world for Laughing Horse. I don't think it'll go away—in fact it might even be a much stronger backlash to it which gives a possibility to more places like Laughing Horse. That type of mentality has been around since the 1920s and it will not die. As for what will happen until then, I don't really know."
The final Laughing Horse show, featuring Your Rival, Our First Brains, Sloths, Love and Caring, Robot Boy, Duck. Little Brother, Duck!, Said Goner and Mr. Bones, is Friday, September 26 at 7 pm. Donations suggested.
WWeek 2015