Portland · Brooklyn · Los Angeles · 1994 to 2000
A figure eight with no finish line. Skate it below.
Left: New York, 1997, by Constintina Trainwreck, CC BY 2.0. Right: Bumbershoot, Seattle, 2000, by Jeffrey Cook, CC BY 2.0. Full credits under each photograph below.
Figure 8 · the title
He said he liked the image of a skater on a loop with no real end, trying to make the figure as beautiful as possible. Here is his loop: Portland on the left, Los Angeles on the right, Brooklyn where they cross.
The blade waits at the crossing. Hold to skate.
13 places on the figure: five round Portland, one at each pass of the crossing, six round Los Angeles. Hold to skate and they open as the blade goes by, or tap a number.
Portland to Brooklyn, 3,928 km · Portland to Los Angeles, 1,324 km
The left loop · Portland
Either/Or was the last record he made for Kill Rock Stars, and the last set of Portland songs. Turn each card: either what the place was in his years, or what you will find there now.
1987
Smith graduates from Lincoln High School.
He came to Portland from Duncanville, Texas, at 14 to live with his father, and graduated from Lincoln High School with the class of 1987.
At Lincoln he found friends and bandmates among other musical students. Django Records, a shop he haunted, stocked tapes by his school band, Stranger Than Fiction.
1750 SW Salmon Street, Goose Hollow, Portland
A working school, now in a new building on the same campus. Look from SW Salmon Street; the grounds are not open to visitors.
1994
The first solo album, made at a kitchen table on a four-track.
Roman Candle, his first solo album, was recorded at a house near SE 29th and Taylor.
A friend said he made it with a pot of coffee and a four-track, sitting at his kitchen table. The Portland label Cavity Search put it out in 1994.
SE 29th Avenue and SE Taylor Street, Sunnyside, Portland: a private house
A private house. Named here by its street corner only, never mapped; the photograph shows a nearby Sunnyside street, not the house.
1995 and 1997
Release shows for Elliott Smith and Either/Or at La Luna.
For years the centre of Portland’s music scene, La Luna held the release shows for Elliott Smith and for Either/Or.
Smith and Sean Croghan’s Devo cover band, Spudboys, played here too. The building later became the restaurant Biwa.
SE 9th Avenue near SE Ash Street, Central Eastside, Portland
The club is gone. The building, which later held the restaurant Biwa, is on SE 9th in the Central Eastside.
Portland years
The street his name is said to come from.
A popular story says he took the spelling of his name from Elliott Avenue here. The biography Torment Saint credits a high-school girlfriend’s nickname for him instead.
His Portland songs name real streets: Alameda, and a corner near SE Sixth and Powell.
SE Elliott Avenue, Ladd’s Addition, south-east Portland
Public streets: walk the diagonal avenues from Ladd Circle. Elliott Avenue runs south-east from the circle.
Portland years
Afternoons at the Space Room with Sean Croghan.
A Hawthorne dive he used, with My Father’s Place and Club 21, when he lived on SE Division Street.
Sean Croghan remembered the two of them there, putting Johnny Cash on the jukebox.
4800 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland
Open as a bar, with breakfast served all day, a heated patio and an arcade.
SE Division, Portland
A guesthouse at 3517 SE Division Street, the street Smith lived on in his Portland years, near Ladd’s Addition and Hawthorne. Rooms with private bathrooms, continental breakfast, laundry and free street parking.
See roomsPortland
Live marketplace results for Portland walking and food tours. Check each itinerary for the south-east neighbourhoods round Hawthorne and Division.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursThe crossing · Brooklyn · 1997
Between the two loops, Brooklyn: a bar on Fifth Avenue and a rowhouse on Bergen Street. After signing to a major label he moved to New York first, then Los Angeles.
Bergen Street, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn: a private house
After a spell in Jersey City he settled in Brooklyn, living with an artist couple in a rowhouse on Bergen Street.
A private house on a street of old rowhouses. Named by its street only, never mapped; the photograph shows the street.
4334 Sunset Boulevard · Silver Lake
The mural of bending red and black lines at 4334 Sunset became the cover of Figure 8.
Autumn de Wilde’s cover photograph shows him in a hood in front of the swirling mural.
In 2016 new tenants planned to cut away a section for the windows of a bar named Bar Angeles; they said the piece would be kept inside.
It is still standing. He died in 2003; people still come here to remember him and leave messages on the wall.
A painted wall on the pavement of Sunset Boulevard, at Sunset Junction. Free to see at any hour; please leave it as you find it.
Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for music history tours of Hollywood and the east side. Check each itinerary for Sunset Boulevard and Silver Lake.
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Compare toursThe right loop · Los Angeles · 1998 to 2000
A white suit at the Oscars, two nights on Santa Monica Boulevard, a piano at Largo, a studio on Sunset and a bar in Atwater Village.
23 March 1998
665 West Jefferson Boulevard, University Park, Los Angeles
The 70th Academy Awards were held here on 23 March 1998. Miss Misery, from Good Will Hunting, was nominated for Original Song.
He came out in a white suit with an acoustic guitar, between Trisha Yearwood and Céline Dion. The Titanic song won.
The nominated Miss Misery had been recorded at Jackpot! Studios in Portland in 1997.
A working auditorium and expo hall. Open for its events; see its listings.
19–20 May 1998
9081 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood
Setlist listings put him here on 19 and 20 May 1998 and again on 6 March 1999.
A working club on Santa Monica Boulevard. See its own listings for shows.
1999
Largo at the Coronet, 366 North La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles
From the late 1990s Largo was a big part of his life: late nights at the piano with Jon Brion.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1999 he tried out the Figure 8 songs at Brion’s Friday-night shows at Largo and in Silver Lake bars.
LAist calls the Fairfax room Largo’s old location; the club is now at 366 North La Cienega.
Shows most nights; most tickets are $40, doors at 7pm, show at 8pm. In Smith’s day the club was on Fairfax Avenue; it now plays at the Coronet.
Los Angeles
Largo still runs shows most nights at the Coronet on La Cienega. Most tickets are $40; will call at 6pm, doors at 7pm, show at 8pm.
See showsFor Figure 8
6650 West Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood
Founded in 1960, the studio lists Elliott Smith among the artists of its Studio III.
Figure 8 was made at Sunset Sound, Capitol, Sonora and Abbey Road, produced by Tom Rothrock, Rob Schnapf and Smith.
A working studio, not open to visitors. See the front from Sunset Boulevard.
2000
3100 Los Feliz Boulevard, Atwater Village, Los Angeles
A dive bar he used in the 1990s. He named it in a fade-out on Figure 8: In the Lost and Found (Honky Bach)/The Roost.
It is still open; a bartender who loved him owns it now.
Still a bar, owned now by a former bartender. The photograph shows Los Feliz Boulevard nearby.
Off the loop
San Francisco · 1–2 March 1999 · 5–6 June 2000
Setlist listings put him at the Fillmore on 3 November 1997, 1 and 2 March 1999, and 5 and 6 June 2000.
The hall made a poster for his 1999 shows, drawn by Frank Wiedemann, and another in 2000 by Michael Laurence and Patrick Nistler.
A working concert hall on Geary Boulevard. See its own listings; the poster for each show is a house tradition.
The original Fillmore poster for his 1999 shows, drawn by Frank Wiedemann. 13 × 19 in, rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterThe original Fillmore poster for his 2000 shows, by Michael Laurence and Patrick Nistler. 13 × 19 in, rolled, mint.
In stock
View poster
London · For Figure 8
Abbey Road is one of the four studios where Figure 8 was recorded.
Mix heard in it a cinematic sweep it put down partly to his film work, Good Will Hunting and American Beauty.
A working studio. See the front and the crossing from Abbey Road; the studio’s shop is online.
13 places you can visit in Portland, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London. The two houses, near SE 29th and Taylor and on Bergen Street, are private: named, never mapped.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working school, now in a new building on the same campus. Look from SW Salmon Street; the grounds are not open to visitors.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The club is gone. The building, which later held the restaurant Biwa, is on SE 9th in the Central Eastside.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Public streets: walk the diagonal avenues from Ladd Circle. Elliott Avenue runs south-east from the circle.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open as a bar, with breakfast served all day, a heated patio and an arcade.
1750 SW Salmon Street, Goose Hollow, Portland
He came to Portland from Duncanville, Texas, at 14 to live with his father, and graduated from Lincoln High School with the class of 1987.
A working school, now in a new building on the same campus. Look from SW Salmon Street; the grounds are not open to visitors.
SE 9th Avenue near SE Ash Street, Central Eastside, Portland
For years the centre of Portland’s music scene, La Luna held the release shows for Elliott Smith and for Either/Or.
The club is gone. The building, which later held the restaurant Biwa, is on SE 9th in the Central Eastside.
SE Elliott Avenue, Ladd’s Addition, south-east Portland
A popular story says he took the spelling of his name from Elliott Avenue here. The biography Torment Saint credits a high-school girlfriend’s nickname for him instead.
Public streets: walk the diagonal avenues from Ladd Circle. Elliott Avenue runs south-east from the circle.
4800 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland
A Hawthorne dive he used, with My Father’s Place and Club 21, when he lived on SE Division Street.
Open as a bar, with breakfast served all day, a heated patio and an arcade.
Stay
A guesthouse on the Portland street he lived on, a short walk from Ladd’s Addition.
SE Division, Portland
A guesthouse at 3517 SE Division Street, the street Smith lived on in his Portland years, near Ladd’s Addition and Hawthorne. Rooms with private bathrooms, continental breakfast, laundry and free street parking.
See roomsGo there
A show at Largo, which still runs most nights, and marketplace tours of Los Angeles and Portland.
Los Angeles
Largo still runs shows most nights at the Coronet on La Cienega. Most tickets are $40; will call at 6pm, doors at 7pm, show at 8pm.
See showsLos Angeles
Live marketplace results for music history tours of Hollywood and the east side. Check each itinerary for Sunset Boulevard and Silver Lake.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursPortland
Live marketplace results for Portland walking and food tours. Check each itinerary for the south-east neighbourhoods round Hawthorne and Division.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
No Elliott Smith tribute after today has been announced in Portland, Brooklyn or Los Angeles.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
Both original Fillmore posters from our own store, Autumn de Wilde’s book and the biography, and the four albums from Roman Candle to Figure 8.
The original Fillmore poster for his 1999 shows, drawn by Frank Wiedemann. 13 × 19 in, rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterThe original Fillmore poster for his 2000 shows, by Michael Laurence and Patrick Nistler. 13 × 19 in, rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterAutumn de Wilde
Photographs and interviews by the photographer who took the Figure 8 cover. Chronicle Books, 2007.
Find the bookWilliam Todd Schultz
The full biography, first published in 2013.
Find the bookElliott Smith · CD, Cavity Search CSR13, 1994
The kitchen-table album, on the Portland label.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyElliott Smith · LP, Kill Rock Stars KRS 269, 1997
His last album for Kill Rock Stars, launched at La Luna.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyElliott Smith · CD, DreamWorks DRMD-50048, 1998
Much of it written in a booth on Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyElliott Smith · CD, DreamWorks 0044-50225-2, 2000
Recorded at Sunset Sound, Capitol, Sonora and Abbey Road.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
15 of 15 places · 16 of 16 Moments
1750 SW Salmon Street, Goose Hollow, Portland
Smith graduates from Lincoln High School.
SE 29th Avenue and SE Taylor Street, Sunnyside, Portland: a private house
The first solo album, made at a kitchen table on a four-track.
SE 9th Avenue near SE Ash Street, Central Eastside, Portland
Release shows for Elliott Smith and Either/Or at La Luna.
SE Elliott Avenue, Ladd’s Addition, south-east Portland
The street his name is said to come from.
4800 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland
Afternoons at the Space Room with Sean Croghan.
39 Fifth Avenue at Dean Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
Most of XO is written in the second booth from the door.
Bergen Street, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn: a private house
A rowhouse room in Boerum Hill.
4334 West Sunset Boulevard, Silver Lake, Los Angeles
Autumn de Wilde photographs him in front of the mural for Figure 8.
6650 West Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood
Figure 8 sessions at Sunset Sound.
Largo at the Coronet, 366 North La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles
The Figure 8 songs tried out at Jon Brion’s Fridays.
9081 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood
Two nights at the Troubadour before XO.
3100 Los Feliz Boulevard, Atwater Village, Los Angeles
The Roost, named at the end of a Figure 8 track.
665 West Jefferson Boulevard, University Park, Los Angeles
Miss Misery at the 70th Academy Awards.
1805 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco
Two nights at the Fillmore, with a poster.
Two more nights, two months after Figure 8.
3 Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, London NW8
Figure 8 sessions at Abbey Road.
