In 2014, Matthew Korfhage of Willamette Week called the venue "a ramshackle, graffitied, dirt-cheap drinking hole that has become Portland's most reliable home of punk and hard rock".

[1] In 2016, Willamette Week's Matthew Singer described The Know as the city's "premier bastion of noise" and "Alberta's lone holdout of dirty Old Portland", with sticky floors from spilled beer and bathrooms that "would give veterans of CBGB's heyday flashbacks".

He hoped to continue operating on Albert Street but expressed concern over rising rent costs and said the venue might need to relocate.

In 2016, the venue announced plans to close by the end of the year due to rising rent costs.

So many awesome shows and regulars, but the damn money moved in and they'd rather have a boutique salt shop where we are now than a very real, down-to-earth bar and venue that has meant so much to countless people and bands over the last 12 years...