On a recent weekend, the small music venue at the corner of North Williams and Northeast Killingsworth felt like a celebration. The new owners of Turn! Turn! Turn! (TTT) had just taken over, and their first weekend featured four sold out shows in three days. The unofficial opening weekend wasn’t contrived, or even advertised as such; it happened for the same reasons that have made TTT a mainstay in the Portland music scene. It was an organic community effort.
“It kind of feels like we’re continuing on something that’s already been built up,” Annie Ostrowski, one of the venue’s two new owners, told the Mercury.
Ostrowski and Joel Christerson bought the venue after its previous owners announced last year that they would no longer continue. It was the third threat of TTT closing in recent years, after Scott Derr—who opened the venue in 2014—moved on in 2020. COVID-19 did a number on music venues, including TTT. Ownership changed hands twice more since then, as the building’s short leases left it in limbo year after year. Now, the lease provides for another two years, and the place appears on the up and up…