Live at Madrid’s opens Friday in Portland, adding a new 800-capacity venue on Fore Street

A mid-sized room enters Portland’s live-music landscape

A new music venue, Live at Madrid’s, is scheduled to open on Friday on Fore Street near Portland’s eastern waterfront. The venue is designed to accommodate about 800 people overall, positioning it between the city’s smaller club circuit and its largest ticketed halls. Organizers describe the concept as a mid-sized space intended to host local and regional acts while also providing an “intimate” option for established touring artists seeking a smaller room than an arena or theater.

Capacity, layout and programming plans

Live at Madrid’s is structured around two primary areas: a main hall and a lounge. The main performance hall is designed for about 600 people, largely standing-room, with a 16-by-32-foot stage elevated about three feet from the floor. Entry flows through a roughly 200-capacity lounge that includes a bar, ticketing and a coat-check area. Plans also include adding video screens to relay performances into the lounge.

Beyond concerts, the space is expected to be used for a range of event formats, including professional wrestling, weddings and other functions. The building at 144 Fore St. previously housed a marine supply business and a photographer’s workspace.

Opening night and an early calendar through fall

The first show on Friday is scheduled to feature local band Gina and the Red Eye Flight Crew, known for blending soul, R&B and pop. The venue’s initial listings include multiple album-release shows by Portland acts, with dates in April. Roughly 20 shows are scheduled into October, with additional announcements expected.

• Main hall capacity: about 600; lounge capacity: about 200; total venue capacity: about 800.
• First performance: Friday, featuring Gina and the Red Eye Flight Crew.
• Early listings include Portland album-release dates in April and additional booked dates into October.

How the venue fits into Portland’s broader debate over scale

Portland’s indoor music ecosystem includes numerous small rooms around 200 capacity or less, and larger venues that approach or exceed 2,000 seats. Recent years have highlighted a gap in the middle range. Port City Music Hall, long a mid-sized option, closed in 2020.

At the same time, the city has been navigating proposals for significantly larger new development. A proposed 3,300-seat concert venue has generated significant community opposition, and Portland’s City Council has adopted a moratorium affecting new venues above a 2,000-seat threshold, later extended. Live at Madrid’s opens at a scale that is below that capacity line, placing it in a different regulatory and market category than larger proposed halls.

Live at Madrid’s enters the market as a mid-sized venue with a calendar anchored by local and regional acts and a layout aimed at balancing standing-room energy with an adjacent lounge experience.

Management and booking

Live at Madrid’s is co-owned by Josh Schlesinger and Rob Barrett. Schlesinger has worked in Portland’s hospitality sector for more than two decades and has described the project as his first direct venture into the music business. The venue’s booking is being led by Meg Shorette, who previously booked acts for Port City Music Hall and helped launch the All Roads Music Festival. Marketing and social media are being handled by local musician Cam Jones.

The venue’s name, “Madrid’s,” is tied to a pop-culture reference and is being pronounced like the Spanish capital, while acknowledging that Mainers may also associate “Madrid” with a small Maine community that is pronounced differently.