Portland venue The Off Beat creates space for music fans, performers of all ages

Many concert venues rely on alcohol sales for revenue, meaning people under age 21 are often left out of shows. Not so at The Off Beat.

The all-ages venue in North Portland gives young performers and concertgoers a dedicated place to create and access live music.

Nonprofit Friends of Noise opened the venue after noticing a dearth of all-ages venues in the city.

“There was an amazing space called Backspace that closed down in 2015 and at that point, there were no all-age music venues in Portland, despite having a great history of them,” said André Middleton, executive director of Friends of Noise.

The Off Beat opened last fall and held a grand-opening show headlined by Team Dresch last month.

Clara Kornelis is a musician, sound engineer and booker for The Off Beat. Her band, They Shoot Horses, was first to perform at the venue’s inaugural show in November.

She said that DIY shows in basements and under bridges are still an important part of the all-ages music scene, but having a more professional space to perform is valuable.

“We always have The Off Beat as our comfortable space that’s always going to still be there,” Kornelis said. “It’s great now that I don’t have to rely on people to put it together in some parking lot. Now I can do both.”

The Off Beat also provides professional development by employing young sound engineers and bookers trained through Friends of Noise workshops.

“It’s an amazing thing at the end of the night… where the show’s over, the lights are on, and you see five to 10 young people look at each other and say, ‘We did this. We made this happen,’” Middleton said.

Kornelis said her experience with The Off Beat encouraged her to study music business when she attends college next year.

“I feel really lucky to be a part of it, and I’ve met some really great people through it,” she said. “It’s not just musicians or one specific sort of thing, but it brings a bunch of people with different skills together.”

Note: OPB engineer Nalin Silva is the booking, venue and production manager at The Off Beat.

André Middleton and Clara Kornelis spoke with “Think Out Loud” host Dave Miller. Listen to the full conversation here:

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Portland has a new all-ages venue, a place where young bands and their young fans can gather for music. It’s called The Off Beat. The nonprofit Friends of Noise opened the venue in the Kenton neighborhood last fall and held a grand opening show headlined by Team Dresch last month.

André Middleton is the executive director of Friends of Noise. Clara Kornelis is a musician, sound engineer and a booker for The Off Beat. She’s also a senior in high school. They join us now to talk about what it means to have an all-ages space for young performers and fans of live music. It’s great to have both of you on the show.

André Middleton: Thanks for having us.

Clara Kornelis: Thank you.

Miller: I should say before we start that OPB’s engineer Nalin Silva is the booking venue and production manager at The Off Beat. We are thrilled to have him at OPB for the rest of the time.

André, can you remind us what Friends of Noise does?

Middleton: Friends of Noise is an all-ages music nonprofit that seeks to see, support and amplify the voices of young people through the performing arts. So we have workshops on professional development, on sound engineering, stage fright versus stage presence. Then we actually book concerts in collaboration with folks like Clara where young people are running sound, they’re designing the flyers, they’re running lights. Then we have a professional development facet where we teach workshops like sound engineering, where those young people join our Sound Squad Supreme, and they actually do events all over town. In fact, we’re going to be later today at the Oregon Historical Society, where we have a young woman from Vancouver named Reese Cook and a young man from Roosevelt High School. They’re going to be doing an event for the Oregon Arts Commission at the Oregon Historical Society.

Miller: How long has an all-ages venue been part of your vision?

Middleton: Since day one. I used to work at the Regional Arts and Culture Council and there was an amazing space called Backspace that closed down in 2015. And at that point there were no all-ages music venues in Portland, despite having a great history of them.

Miller: In the ‘90s, it was famous, right?

Middleton: Exactly. So we just have been putting together our pennies, dimes and nickels, and thinking about how we could actually eventually have a space. Our first purchase was an actual small portable PA. So we’ve been doing shows in church basements, backyards and art galleries, even under bridges.

Miller: So making spaces in a kind of guerrilla fashion or established but super DIY, as opposed to a brick and mortar place that you could call your own.

Middleton: Correct.

Miller: Clara, how did you first get involved with Friends of Noise?

Kornelis: I took the Sound Squad Supreme class, just a few years ago now. But then that filtered into working with Friends of Noise consistently. I started by doing sound engineering. Then I found an interest in booking, so I’ve been doing that more, and then also learning how to do production management at the venue. Having a space gives me a lot more opportunities to work on other skills outside of just sound.

Miller: So you’re a musician yourself. Can you tell us about your band?

Kornelis: Yeah, we’re called They Shoot Horses. The first show we played was under bridge with Friends of Noise gear that some friends and I put together.

Miller: How was that show?

Kornelis: It was good, it was great. It was just about a year ago now. We just hauled all this gear out there and a generator, and just a bunch of teenagers putting it together, with the help.

Miller: Have you and your bandmates tried to get gigs in more official spaces around town?

Kornelis: We haven’t really because we have Friends of Noise on our side.

Miller: So you didn’t need to, you could go under the bridge. But how much have you wanted to perform in spaces that I guess didn’t exist?

Kornelis: I feel very satisfied. Now, I feel like there is an all-ages scene brewing, and making our own spaces. Even before The Off Beat, people will make spaces under bridges and make spaces in their basements or skate parks. So I feel like the drive of young people has created spaces for us to play for each other.

Miller: André, when did you first hear about the space that’s now The Off Beat, when did you find out that it was available?

Middleton: We found out that the formerly Dancin’ Bare was available, I want to say it might have been August of 2024? At the time we were renting space at Oregon Contemporary Gallery for storage and office space. One day I just got in the van, was leaving to head home, and I saw on the marquee “for lease.” Called the phone number, got in touch with the building owner. We negotiated, I signed the lease in November or December of 2024. And then it took us all this time to navigate getting the designs from TVA architects, working with Liminal Shift – our general contractor – getting the city to give us all the permits we needed to start work. And it’s been a labor of love for almost a year-and-a-half, getting the site ready for public consumption.

Miller: A site that used to be a strip club. How much had to change inside to turn it into a modern venue and an all-ages venue?

Middleton: It was gutted.

Miller: So just all the way down to the studs?

Middleton: Yes, pretty much. The windows had been smashed and covered in plywood. There was a bit of mold and dampness, considering this is Oregon and if you have a place that’s completely shuttered down for close to two or three years, you’re in trouble. So it was literally smudging, disinfecting, cleaning, ripping things to the studs. And like I said, I want to give a big shout out to TVA Architects, because they designed an incredible space that has great flow. We’ve got an ADA viewing platform for people in wheelchairs to see the stage. We’ve got a t-shirt manufacturing area. We’ve got five bathrooms and a box office. It’s really an amazing space.

Miller: Clara, can you tell us about the first show that your band played there?

Kornelis: Yeah, we played in November and I believe it was the first show at The Off Beat, the first official one.

Miller: So the big grand opening last month, but there were other shows earlier, and you played the very first night?

Kornelis: Yeah, and we opened, so we’re the very first band. It was super exciting, it was great. And it’s changed a little, the green room is in a different spot now. But it’s cool to see how it’s changed from the opening and then all the shows in the future.

Middleton: We’ve had a couple of bands that have played multiple shows there already, and they come in and say, “wow, it’s changed so much since I was here two weeks ago or three weeks ago.” So every week it’s getting new paint, or we’re getting curtains, or we’re getting new lights. It’s been a growth process for sure.

Miller: Clara, to me, I can see why it’d be more comfortable in some ways to actually play in a space that has a green room with a full sound board. But do you miss anything about the DIY, sort of more punk world of just setting up a show under a bridge?

Kornelis: It’s great because now we can have both. So we always have The Off Beat as our sort of comfortable space that’s always gonna be still there. But then there’s just so much gear that we still have access to as someone who works with Friends of Noise. So even if I want to put on another show under the bridge, then I can just ask for gear, give a date and get it together still. It’s great now that I don’t have to rely on people that put it together in some parking lot. But now I can do both.

Miller: André, when we’ve talked to folks who run venues in the past, one thing we’ve heard is that, first of all, it’s just hard to make it work financially. But another thing is that one of the big ways it can work is that people who go to concerts also buy alcohol, buy drinks, and that can actually sustain a venue. It’s not just tickets, it’s also drinks. That’s not happening at your venue. So how do you think about the economics of an all-ages venue?

Middleton: The people in the audience can’t see me shaking my head vociferously. Our model is multifold. We’ve always had multiple streams of revenue. So whether it is hiring out our sound engineers to do sound at a festival, a block party or a gallery opening. We have an innovative program that we’ve just launched called the Season Pass, which is basically a subscription model. So we’ve had at least close to 50 adults buy subscriptions on behalf of young people they don’t even know, where young people get access to three free concerts every month for a year. So that is bringing us guaranteed revenue, whether those kids happen to use it for those concerts or not.

Miller: Subscription, but it’s really more like they’re donating their money so that young people can go to concerts, in the same way that when we do an OPB fund drive sometimes we’ll say, “contribute money to OPB so that people who can’t contribute today, they have a robust service.”

Middleton: Right. And being a nonprofit allows us to do that in innovative ways. We always split the door with the bands. It might be 50/50, it might be 60/40, might even be 35/65, we’ve got to figure that out. But having a sustainable economic model has been an important part of this process from day one.

Miller: Clara, how do you think about just what it means to have this space where young artists and young fans can gather to make music, to experience music, to be together?

Kornelis: I feel really lucky and lucky to be a part of it. And I’ve met some really great people through it, different musicians or people who focus on sound. I feel like that’s what’s so great about it is it’s not just musicians or just one specific sort of thing, but it brings a bunch of people with different skills together. And through the Sound Squad class, I met Em, who I book with now. We do it as a duo together. It’s great for meeting other like minded people and people who want to actually do the same things that you want to do and make things happen.

Miller: What other spaces like this are there?

Kornelis: I feel like there’s nothing where young people are actually doing it themselves. Like there’s other all-ages venues that young people can go to, but there’s nothing where it’s so organized and so easy to become a part of it, and actually make things happen and have a hand in that.

Miller: André, what have you learned about stepping back so that young people can do things themselves, even if it sometimes means that they’re going to not be doing things exactly the way you’d want?

Middleton: What I’ve learned is being able to see and bear witness to their joy and happiness. It’s an amazing thing at the end of the night, and Clara can attest to this, where the show’s over, the lights are on, and you see five to 10 young people look at each other and say, “We did this, we made this happen. The people came here to see the music that we booked or they listened to the mix that we mixed.” That’s been such an amazing experience for me. And it actually makes it easier to step back, because I’m seeing them learn the lessons as they do it. It’s a building process they’re fully immersed in.

Miller: Clara, what are your musical hopes for yourself?

Kornelis: My band, we recorded an album last year, but it’s sort of been close to our hearts and has not been released. So hopefully we’ll get that out at some point.

Middleton: Like a record release show at The Off Beat, perhaps?

Kornelis: Maybe, that’s in the works. And we want to record again very soon.

Miller: Clara Kornelis and André Middleton, congratulations and thanks so much for coming in.

Middleton: Thanks for having us.

Kornelis: Thank you so much.

Miller: Clara Kornelis is a musician, booker and a sound engineer for Friends of Noise. André Middleton is the executive director of Friends of Noise. They joined us to talk about their new space that they and others have opened up, an all-ages venue called The Off Beat.