The Cat Empire: Bird in Paradise Album Tour
2025 Bell’s Beer Garden Summer Concert SeriesThis is a 18 and over event. 17 and under admitted with a parent or guardian The Cat Empire have returned with vibrant, self-affirming new single-‘Doing Fine’ is out today via BMG Australia. Lead singer Felix comments, “Doing Fine is one of the edgiest and most dynamic tracks on the Bird In Paradise album. Lyrically it’s raw-grief, rage, reckless joy-brought together in the furnace of The Cat Empire’s very live performance.” LISTEN TO ‘DOING FINE’ HERE The third single off their forthcoming tenth studio album Bird In ParadiseoutMarch7, 2025viaBMGAustraliaalmost didn’t make the cut. The band’s musical director Ross Irwin explains, “Doing Fine went on quite a journey as a song. It was one that we weren’t sure was even going to make it onto the album, and as we headed into the studio it was 50/50 as to whether we would even pursue it. But once we started recording it and developing it during the tracking sessions, it transformed into a really exciting musical journey that has become a favourite track amongst the musicians and engineers who worked on the record. It has fire, it has drama, and it has a healthy dose of heart and lyrical honesty.” To accompany the new track, the band have offered up their latest video, an explosion of flamenco dance interspersed with Felix’s heavy-hitting boxing moves. Felix states, “The boxing / flamenco dance collision brought to life in the video clip seem to provide the right intent. It hits hard and it calls for something beautiful in the chaos. On the new album, Felix Riebl comments “Musically speaking, Bird in Paradise is an Australian-Flamenco, Afro-Cuban project. We’ve drawn from the themes of contemporary flamenco and Cuban music, and combined it with the grit, and toughness of Aussie rock history. Add Ollie’s Jazz influence and you have a sound only The Cat Empire can create. These influences are shaped by undercurrents of urban and outback Australia, adding an undeniably Aussie edge to international sounds.
OVERLY POLITE TORNADOES with Fiona Dickinson and Three Grebes
18+ Standing Room Only Show 17 and under admitted with a parent or guardian Overly Polite Tornadoes are a husband & wife duo from Kalamazoo, MI (featuring Mark Andrew Morris & Holly Klutts-Morris from Tambourina). They play a mix of Introspective Bedroom Pop and Shoegaze. They are celebrating the release of their 3rd full length album, available on Vinyl and CD! Fiona Dickinson is a Grand Rapids-based, Saudi-born and British-bred singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who’s 2011 debut album, Duende, was born out of the fertile ground of the Kalamazoo scene that sprung up around long-shuttered venue The Strutt. Joined in 2018 by Grand Rapids indie rock vets Shane Tripp (bass), Dan Fisher (guitar, keys), and Ben Weissenborn (drums), Fiona’s sound is a shoegaze-inspired, 90’s alt-inflected blend of dreamy indie rock, showcased on her 2021 album, PONY. Fiona’s emotive, dynamic voice and vulnerable songwriting are backed by a limber and loud band of experienced players, crafting a live sound that’s sure to melt both hearts and minds. Three Grebes is a project born out of a mutual love of improvisational music, exploring new ways to create delicate music, and making sure they eat at the best empanada place in every town. Beth McDonald (tuba and electronics) plays in the Ken Vandermark-led Edition Redux, and is well-entrenched in Chicago’s improv scene; her solo work stands as a testament to sonic exploration. Franki Hand (guitar, violin, accordion, vocals) has been a cog in Kalamazoo’s new music scene for a decade (she’s a member of Petrillo, Kalamazoo Drone Society, Wowza, and handturner). Ike Turner can be seen riding his bike throughout town, probably with Sleep’s Dopesmoker playing in his ears; he’s in a million bands, too (Wowza, Out, Kalamazoo Drone Society, New Standards Men). They have a new album out that they’re happy to share with you at this show! This performance will feature their dear pal Kenni Dankert providing visual elements throughout the show.
The Weather Station: Humanhood Tour
This is a 18+ event with standing room only 17 and under admitted with a parent or guardian It takes only 10 seconds for Tamara Lindeman to pull us to the floor on Humanhood, the seventh and most arresting album she has ever made as The Weather Station. “I’ve gotten used to feeling like I’m crazy—or just lazy,” she sings at the start of “Neon Signs,” her voice at once a soft whisper to a confidant and a full-throated confession to a crowd. “Why can’t I get off this floor? Think straight anymore?” If you don’t know this feeling, consider yourself blessed, because it seems these days like our true modern malaise, that unbound sense of not knowing how or what it is we’re supposed to contribute to this fractious world, or if we even have the energy or will to try. That disoriented sense is the emotional throughline of Humanhood, written during one of the most difficult periods of Lindeman’s life and rendered with a rock band with improvisational chops just as she began to recover by reckoning with a complicated truth: Sometimes, life simply tries to dismantle us, and we must accept that in order to survive. From the outside, 2022 likely appeared a banner year for Lindeman. Her 2021 album Ignorance—a deeply personal but widely resonant reflection on climate change, or how we’ve learned to live alongside our own existential undoing—was one of that year’s most celebrated records. 2022, then, was a time of touring, travel, and activism alongside the release of Ignorance’s more austere companion, the beautiful How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars. But at an ostensible new professional peak, she was also going through a mental health crisis she mostly kept hidden. As Lindeman has done for at least 15 years, she turned to songwriting, combining pain, confusion, and flickers of distant hope with ideas about advertising, capitalism, and how we’re meant to feel very specific ways into pages and pages of lyrics. In the past, Lindeman mostly wrote about her past, turning backwards to gain perspective. But for Humanhood, she worked with the present as she tried to endure it. Humanhood, then, radiates with new urgency—and emerges as a sort of tether, offered up here for any of us else feeling disconnected from the vertiginous reality of right now. In the fall of 2023, Lindeman gathered six musicians at Canterbury Music Company, where she had recorded Ignorance and How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars, alongside co-producer Marcus Paquin. Several of these players—drummer Kieran Adams, keyboardist Ben Boye, percussionist Philippe Melanson, reed-and-wind specialist Karen Ng, and bassist Ben Whiteley—had worked together but never in this specific arrangement or context. Lindeman, after all, wanted to hear the sudden sparks made by these new encounters, to witness everyone react in real-time to the songs and sketches she supplied.
Satsang
This is a 18+ event with standing room only 17 and under admitted with a parent or guardian Satsang was founded by Montana-based musician Drew McManus in 2014. Known for their heartfelt, genre-blending sound, Satsang merges elements of folk, hip-hop, reggae, and rock, infusing each song with introspective lyrics and a strong message of positivity, spirituality, and social awareness. The name “Satsang” reflects the band’s mission, derived from the Sanskrit words for “truth” (sat) and “company” (sang), symbolizing gatherings aimed at seeking and sharing deeper truths. The band’s music often draws from McManus’s own journey of self-discovery, healing, and connection to nature, as well as his experiences with addiction and recovery. With soulful vocals, acoustic melodies, and rhythmic versatility, Satsang creates a powerful atmosphere in both their recordings and live performances. They have built a dedicated following through their relatable messages about love, unity, and resilience, as well as their active support for social and environmental causes. Over the years, Satsang has released several albums, each resonating with themes of hope, introspection, and community. Their live shows are particularly celebrated for creating a space that feels like a “satsang”—a gathering for connection and upliftment— where fans can come together to share in a collective experience of music, inspiration, and truth-seeking. Satsang Pre-Show VIP Experience • One general admission ticket • Early venue entry • Intimate soundcheck performance by Satsang (Solo) • Q&A session with Satsang • Collectible tour poster, signed by Satsang • Commemorative pre-show tour laminate • Limited availability
TAUK w/ Chalk Dinosaur- Winter 2025 Tour
This is a 18 and over event with standing room only 17 and under admitted with a parent or guardian TAUK has been painting with sound for nearly a decade now, pushing boundaries and reinventing themselves every chance they get. Founded by Dolan, Jalbert, and Carter, who began playing together as middle schoolers on Long Island, the band landed on its present incarnation in 2012, when college pal Teel joined full time. Since then, the quartet has gone on to tour with the likes of Umphrey’s McGee, Widespread Panic, and Lettuce, landed festival slots everywhere from Bonnaroo to Electric Forest, racked up millions of streams across platforms, and garnered extensive critical praise with a series of widely lauded studio and live albums. The Washington Post hailed the band’s music as “a hard-charging, often melodic fusion that—thanks to a penchant for improv—offers limitless possibilities,” while Keyboard Magazine declared that their sound “doesn’t adhere to a single genre but, instead, creates its own,” and Relix dubbed them “an incredibly impressive ensemble of talent.”
Kalamazoo Academy Of Rock
This is an all ages event. Kalamazoo Academy of Rock is back at Bell’s! These youth bands have been wow-ing audiences for years – come on down for a show like no other! For more information about KAR visit www.kzoorock.com
Kalamazoo Academy Of Rock
This is an all ages event. Kalamazoo Academy of Rock is back at Bell’s! These youth bands have been wow-ing audiences for years – come on down for a show like no other! For more information about KAR visit www.kzoorock.com
May Erlewine & The Motivations Winter Dance Party
This is a 18 and over event with standing room only. 17 and under admitted with a parent or guardian On a few special dates each year, singer-songwriter May Erlewine breaks from her Americana and folk roots to front The Motivations: a seven-piece dance-party funk band that dishes up boogie jams and classic soul cuts. The project was born in the winter of 2016, when Erlewine set out to make music and create a positive space for the weary and grieving. That idea eventually took shape in the form of retro-groove dance parties meant to get people moving, make them feel connected, and help them celebrate the moment — and each other. The result? Shows that deliver feel-good fun and small revolutions to shake things up, just enough. The Motivations feature Phil Barry on guitar and vocals, Joe Hettinga on synth, keys and vocals, Eric Kuhn on guitar and vocals, Max Lockwood on bass and vocals, Mike Lynch on organ and keys, Terrence Massey on trumpet and vocals, Brandon Proch on saxophone and Michael Shimmin on drums, percussion and vocals.
The Arcadian Wild
This is a 18 and over event with standing room only. 17 and under admitted with a parent or guardian The Arcadian Wild is a four-piece indie folk/pop group from Nashville, TN. Led by songwriters Isaac Horn and Lincoln Mick and Bailey Warren on fiddle, The Arcadian Wild confidently inhabits and explores an intersection of genre, blending the traditional with the contemporary. Combining elements of progressive bluegrass, folk, and formal vocal music, The Arcadian Wild offer up songs of invitation; calls to come and see, to find refuge and rest, to journey and wonder, to laugh and cry, to share joy and community and singalong. The band’s 2023 album Welcome marks the start of a captivating new chapter for the genre-bending trio, who returned to the studio with renewed purpose and insight after devoting the last few years to a series of critically acclaimed singles and EPs. Like much of the band’s catalog, the album blurs the lines between chamber folk and progressive bluegrass, drawing on everything from country and classical to pop and choral music with lush harmonies and dazzling fretwork, but this time around there’s a rawness to the writing, an embrace of candor and simplicity that cuts straight to the heart of things like never before. The result is perhaps the most arresting collection yet from a band known for its ability to stop listeners dead in their tracks, an exquisitely beautiful celebration of community, connection, and the power of belonging that feels tailor-made for these challenging times.
Sean Rowe w/ Social Animals (solo)
This is a 18 and over event with standing room only. 17 and under admitted with a parent or guardian Though he grew up in the generally frozen landscape of Troy, New York, Sean Rowe spent many of his formative summers in DeLand, Florida where his father was a residential caretaker at a home for troubled youths. It was there, in a mercifully air-conditioned, mostly unused building filled with donated musical instruments, where he taught himself to play drums and then bass. Sean credits those early experiences for what has evolved into his distinctly low and percussive approach to guitar playing During those same years, when he wasn’t listening to heavy metal or building his early musical chops, Sean was in the woods exploring, foraging, and obsessively learning all that he could about the natural world around him. Since then, his fascination with the subject has only grown and through his web-series, Can I Eat This?, he’s found a means of indulging two of his great passions: music and nature. In each of the forthcoming episodes, Sean will guide a fellow musician on a foraging mission for all manner of wild foods. The two will use their harvest to prepare some tasty creations and end their adventure by performing a cover song together. Over the course of his career, Sean Rowe has recorded five full-length albums and several EPs. His music has been used widely throughout film and television, with notable examples including NBC’s hit dramas The Blacklist and Parenthood. Rowe’s song “To Leave Something Behind” was one of two non-score tracks to be featured in Ben Affleck’s hit 2016 feature film, The Accountant. The song accompanied the film’s final scene and has since received nearly 14 million streams on Spotify alone. For more information, including updates on the album, Can I Eat This?, and tour dates, please visit www.seanrowe.net. To learn how you can receive exclusive access to demos, videos, and a spot on the guest list when Sean comes to your town, please visit www.patreon.com/seanrowe.
