Big news for Portland venues. As we reported this past week in Blog Town, PDX (portlandmercury.com/blogtown), besides a couple upcoming Mike Thrasher Presents shows, Loveland is more or less closed down; in its place Rotture will be opening, and Food Hole will be taking a short break. Says booker Bennett Yankey, "We're opening a new bar at 315 SE 3rd. It's called Rotture (roh-TUR-ay, Italian for 'breaks,' the alternate name for Aleister Crowley's Book of Lies). There are two lounges—upstairs, a 250-capacity performance room with a full bar, and a more intimate, secluded downstairs lounge with a second bar and full Italian dinner menu seven days a week."

As far as aesthetic vision, the place couldn't be in better hands. Yankey says Mac and Valentine from Get Hustle "have formulated the overall vision for the place, and personally I couldn't be more impressed—it's going to look, feel, and sound absolutely great. The sound system is unmatched in town for a venue of this size, and that coupled with the expertise and overall hospitality of the staff is something I'm excited to offer to the artists we're attracting."

Now that Rotture is in Loveland's space, what happens to Loveland? Says Yankey, "Aside from a couple commitments to Mike Thrasher Presents in early September, Loveland is largely shut down—I'm sitting in here right now, and even amidst construction, it already looks and feels nothing like that space. The downstairs lounge occupies a sliver of what was the main room and café at Loveland, and the rest of that area will be subdivided into studio space."

Yankey says everything kicks off the weekend of September 16 with Old Time Relijun, Creeping Nobodies, Ghost to Falco, and Birds Burrow in Brick playing Saturday, and Bark, Hide and Horn, Sounds Like Fun, and Sean Hayashi with a Sunday show.

Bad news is Food Hole will be shutting down for a few weeks while everything is hot and heavy. According to Yankey, "It's time for a long overdue facelift over there, and we've got the money approved from the landlord. It's been totally impossible to retool that place while having five or six shows a week, and while there will be a few shows here and there during that period, we finally have the opportunity to get some real work done. Expect Food Hole to be back and better than ever in November!"

Talk: adam@portlandmercury.com