"Before Michaela Watkins's first shift behind the bar at Satyricon, the manager gave her the tour. "He said to me: 'Okay, here's the taps, here's the keg, here's the bat.' And I was, like, the bat? And he's like: 'Yeah, the bat.' I was like, am I gonna use a bat? He nodded: 'You might need to use a bat.'""
"Something definitely true, though, was that Satyricon quickly became a mandatory stop for touring bands. Through some magical alignment of timing (grunge was taking off) and geography (Portland is helpfully located between Seattle and San Francisco) Satyricon became an important place for bands to play. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, the Replacements, and Mudhoney all made stops. Oasis played there on their way up to stadium-packing superstardom."
"It was founded in 1984 by George Touhouliotis, a former cab driver with no real experience in running a club, but with a fondness for music. "The story was that his brother had a grocery where Satyricon was and George had a bar on East Burnside and for some reason the Violent Femmes played there, in this tiny little place, and like 100 people came in, and George was like I'm in the wrong business," recalls Mike King, a musician and the club's poster artist."
Satyricon opened in 1984 in Portland's Old Town on NW 6th and was named after Fellini's 1969 film. Founder George Touhouliotis, a former cab driver, ran the club despite no prior experience, driven by a fondness for music. The club cultivated a rough, mythic atmosphere with staff warnings about a bat and countless legends about romances, hauntings, and riots. Its location between Seattle and San Francisco and the rise of grunge made it a key stop for touring bands. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, the Replacements, Mudhoney, Oasis and the Foo Fighters played important early shows there. Satyricon closed permanently just over 14 years ago.
Read at Portland Mercury
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