I live in a smaller, but still relatively big, city in the Northwest. Similar vibe to Portland but smaller.
I searched and counted a total of 6 venues that use Live Nation.
(To be fair, it had more listed, but a couple have been closed since before COVID so Live Nation isn’t exactly updating this list regularly. At least one of these venues has changed hands of ownership a few times in that time, so are they still contracted with Live Nation? Who the fuck knows, I’d have to ask in person to know for sure.)
Other than a Performing Arts Center, basically all of them have much weaker attendance for their shows than pretty much any other venue that isn’t associated with Live Nation.
Literally, I can count, off the top of my head, more venues that don’t have agreements with Live Nation. All these venues get tons of locals showing up, partially because of how cheap the shows are. We also still have a handful of weird houses that do punk shows.
Also, some of these Live Nation places are literally just fucking Old People places, like the local Elk’s Lodge. Nobody is doing wild concerts at the fucking Elk’s Lodge.
Live Nation can have a presence in your area and the local music scene can still be thriving outside of it.
Portland isn’t the only city that still has a vibrant local music scene, with or without Live Nation.