Pajamas w/ Bunkerman
This is a 18 and over event with standing room only Pajamas is the Ann Arbor, Michigan based quartet that creates a unique blend of improvisational rock and funk music. The exploratory sound is born from a close and cohesive musical relationship. The band performs a diverse mix of original music, satisfying listeners of any genre bias.
moe. with Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country Best.Summer.Ever
2024 Bell’s Beer Garden Summer Concert SeriesThis is a 18 and over event. Al Schnier (guitars, vocals) * Chuck Garvey (guitars, vocals) * Rob Derhak (bass, vocals) * Jim Loughlin (percussion, vibes) * Vinnie Amico (drums) Hailed by American Songwriter for their “mind-bending musicality,” moe. is treasured for their mesmerizing musical synergy, unfettered showmanship, and smart, resonant songcraft. For three decades, the band has corralled myriad musical forms on a truly original journey rich with crafty, clever songwriting and astonishing resourcefulness. Fueled by an impassioned fan base, moe. has spent much of those thirty years on the road, encompassing countless live performances marked by eclectic wit, deep friendship, and exploratory invention. Having built an enduring legacy with hard work and a confirmed commitment to creativity and community, moe. seem as surprised as anyone to find themselves at such a significant landmark. Al Schnier (guitars, vocals), Chuck Garvey (guitars, vocals), and Derhak first came together at the University of Buffalo in 1990, musician-friends uniting to play for the sheer fun of it. The band followed a handful of cassette-only releases with 1992’s FATBOY, recorded in an apartment studio above Buffalo’s Top Shelf Guitars with a bird’s eye view of Mighty Taco. Finding themselves with an increasingly avid local following, moe. ventured forth, now with master rhythmatist Jim Loughlin among their ranks. The more the band traveled, the more they grew creatively, evincing a remarkable willingness to progress as they went along. moe. quickly became part of a burgeoning scene centered around NYC’s Wetlands, a grassroots revolution that embraced freewheeling genre fusion — spanning funk and free jazz, country and classic rock, prog, new wave, calypso, pop and everything else under the sun — fan interaction, and unrestrained improvisation. 2020’s THIS IS NOT, WE ARE — the band’s 12th studio album and first since 2014’s NO GUTS, NO GLORY — includes eight new songs, most of which were road tested over the past two years of touring. In addition, the LP features one song making its first appearance anywhere, the Garveypenned “Undertone.” Self-produced by the band, THIS IS NOT, WE ARE sees moe. once again pushing their music forward while simultaneously rifling through their back pages on songs like Derhak’s nostalgic “Skitchin’ Buffalo” and the Al Schnier composition, “Crushing.” That preternatural interplay was of course honed through night after night, week after week, of on-stage togetherness. moe. is truly a live band, rightly adored by a fervent following for their epic concert performances, each one imaginatively improvisational, rhythmically audacious, and utterly unique. Indeed, the band has spent much of its 30-year career on the road, including innumerable headline tours, international festival sets. Impossible to pigeonhole as anything other than simply moe., this one-of-a-kind band has never been easily categorized, their sonic adventurousness and tongue-in-cheek humor distinctly and undeniably their own. Despite current circumstances, moe. is celebrating their milestone anniversary with characteristic self-deprecation and wistful optimism. Here’s to the next thirty.$1 of each ticket will got to Backline, a non-profit that connects music industry professionals and their families with mental health and wellness resources.More info at backline.care
Trifocal Presents The Music of Tony Hawk Pro Skater w/ Benna
21+ Event Standing room only “Come ring in the New Year with great live music based right here in Kalamazoo, MI! Trifocal is a Michigan based psychedelic funk rock trio that fuses elements of multiple genres to create a musical experience full of twists and turns. Throughout the many changes of feel and energy, their music maintains a sense of groove that is impossible to ignore. Trifocal has put out 3 new singles in 2023 that can be streamed on all platforms. Benna is a neo-rock-soul band from Kalamazoo, MI. This project formed with members of the Kalamazoo psychedelic rock band Buddhahandband. Follow them on instagram @benna.music and check out their latest single “Losing” streaming everywhere. For this special event, Trifocal has been putting together a setlist of covers featured on various versions of Tony Hawk Pro Skater, including but not limited to bands like Primus, CKY, and Goldfinger. It is gonna get wild!!!”
Stormy Chromer w/ Trifocal
This is a 21 and over event.Standing Room Only Stormy Chromer has been a mainstay of the Midwest live music scene since its inception in 2014. Hailing from Ann Arbor, Michigan, the band has been steadily touring and amassing fans for nearly a decade. With a focus on musical exploration and creative programming, the band works to bring an engaging, raucous, and mesmerizing live show. Dedicated to the concept of group improvisation, one can expect Stormy Chromer songs to reach far beyond the confines of their composed structures at concerts. The band has performed alongside heavy hitters such as Aqueous, Mungion, The Werks, The Main Squeeze, Laith Al-Saadi, and Consider the Source. In addition to Stormy Chromer’s headlining tours they have been featured on major festivals and events, including Summer Camp Music Festival, The Werk Out, Cowpie Music Festival, and official Umphrey’s Mcgee afterparties. Stormy Chromer’s studio debut “Peace of Pizza EP” (2015) was followed by their full-length album, “A Tale of Two Mouths” (2016) and the “Solid Sessions EP” (2018). The band went on to work with acclaimed producer Chris Steinmetz, releasing the fan-favorite “Alucinaré” as a single in 2019. Combined with an explosive live show, Stormy Chromer delivers a one-two punch of riveting performance and powerful songwriting that captivates audiences and keeps them chasing more.
Dopapod + TAUK
This is a 21 and over event.Standing Room Only The quartet Dopapod—Eli Winderman [keys, vocals], Rob Compa [guitar, vocals], Chuck Jones [bass], and Neal “Fro” Evans [drums]—present albums as experiences meant to be shared out of your speakers and on stage. Traversing time travel, palindromic labyrinths, and binary pairs in a greater cohesive mystery, Dopapod’s latest self-titled album ties the conceptual ends of the group’s discography, while charting a path forward. The group’s hypnotic hybrid of funk, rock, jazz, bluegrass, and electronica has packed shows coast-to-coast, and earned acclaim from Rolling Stone, Guitar World, Glide Magazine, and more, while reeling in millions of streams online. Their immersive, expansive vision as a group continues to conjure alchemy nearly fifteen years into their journey as they tour and record through 2023.—— 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 ensembleof talent.”
BareFuzz presents: Grateful Floyd Brothers (Grateful Dead + Pink Floyd + Allman Brothers Tribute)
This is a 21 and over event.BareFuzz presents: Grateful Floyd Brothers (Grateful Dead + Pink Floyd + Allman Brothers Tribute) Based out of the burgeoning live music scene of Columbus, OH, BareFuzz cuts through the seemingly never-ending milieu of improvisationally-based rock bands. The quintet – comprised of guitarists/vocalists, Ryan Jones and Andrew Maughan, bassist Adam Tackett, drummer Derek Petrucci, and percussionist Jason Weihl – continues to innovate and excite by taking it’s unique blend of jam, blues, psychedelia, and funk to new levels. The band is fresh off an explosive year that saw them performing across the Midwest at festivals like Summer Camp Music Festival, Secret Dreams Music Festival, Mountain Music Festival and The Werk Out Music & Arts Festival. Relentless touring has seen the band support groups such as Goose, Papadosio, Dark Star Orchestra, The Werks, ekoostik hookah, Andy Frasco & The U.N., and more. Formed in 2016 in Columbus by Jones, Tackett, and Petrucci as a powerful three-piece, the BareFuzz that audiences across the Midwest have become intimately familiar with truly came together two years later with the addition of Maughan and Weihl. Bolstered by the added instrumentation, the band worked its way through the Ohio circuit and across the greater Midwest, taking on a familiar feel with scores of fans identifying BareFuzz as their band. BareFuzz’s sound has since reverberated to larger and larger rooms as the band experiences hard-earned growth both on and offstage, transforming into a nationally touring powerhouse.
An Evening With Mike Gordon
2023 Bell’s Beer Garden Summer Concert SeriesThis is a 21 and over event. Mike Gordon is bassist and co-founder of the seminal improvisational American rock band Phish. He returns in 2023 with the first outing with his solo band in three years. His sixth solo LP, Flying Games, is out in May on Megaplum/ATO Records. It’s an album filled with constant and wildly hypnotic movement, each moment animated by unexpected sounds that morph and expand and spin off into their own strange orbits, revealing entirely new dimensions of the kaleidoscopic musicianship he’s displayed as a bassist for the last four decades.
