Mac Goodwin turned her dream into a reality six years ago. She opened her own music venue, Oak Street Speakeasy, and it matured into one of Eugene’s preeminent platforms for alternative musicians — specifically metal bands.
Now both Goodwin’s venue and her dream are in peril.
On Saturday, March 22 the Oak Street Speakeasy will open and close its doors one last time — at least at its current location on corner of Oak Street and Broadway.
This past January the building housing the venue changed ownership and the relationship quickly soured.
“They’re not nice,” said Goodwin.
Not nice to an extent that Goodwin had to get a lawyer and ultimately decide against renewing her lease.
The Speakeasy is searching for a new home — a process Goodwin hopes won’t take longer than a month or two — but the situation is more complicated and disturbing.
“Music venues are a dying breed in Eugene,” Goodwin said. “Places are dropping like flies.”
Other small venues like Diablo’s, John Henry’s, Muse and Joe Fed’s have all closed their doors — highlighting what Goodwin sees as a disturbing local trend.
“People don’t want to pay cover charges to see live music,” Goodwin said.
Also contributing to the demise are house shows — which are usually illegally hosted at residences without a music license — as well as the recent recession, all of which combined have made Eugene a difficult atmosphere for music venues to survive, let alone thrive.
This makes Goodwin ponder the futility of starting anew and the implications the total loss of her venue.
The Oak Street Speakeasy is known for featuring metal bands, hosting both local and national acts, but also for its inclusivity to all genres — from bluegrass to death metal.
The music community has recognized this. Many of her employees are not only music fans but also touring musicians.
“It’s sad to see another venue in town of this size go down,” said Zack Sawyer, an employee and bass violinist in the Sawyer Family. “It’s a real gem.”
“It has the best sound system in town,” said Adam Aton-Bouris, a Speakeasy employee and guitar player in the metal-ambient band Ninth Moon Black. “Most of my epic shows have been here.”
The last show at the Speakeasy figures to add to that list of epic shows, hosting the Libation Foundation Celebration for the Pet Population’s annual fundraiser and featuring live music from bands Black Magdelene, Battlesnake, Coldfire and local DJs.
The proceeds from the event — collected through a silent auction and donations — will benefit the charity Isabelle’s Dog Wish.
At the end of that night, after the bands have packed up and the green and red lights extinguished, the future is uncertain for Goodwin and her dream.
She wants to press on but after working every shift and not taking a vacation for six years she says that it’s not guaranteed.
“It’s heartbreaking and bittersweet,” Goodwin said. “It’s a labor of love, but people need to show me a reason to open up again.”