Horsegirl w/ Cindy
This is a 18 and over event with standing room only. Horsegirl is a noisy rock trio from Chicago composed of Penelope Lowenstein (she/her), Nora Cheng (she/her), and Gigi Reece (they/them). Horsegirl draws inspiration from shoegaze and post-punk, in the realm of ‘90’s American and UK indie underground.
Horsegirl w/ Cindy and The War Between
18+ Event standing room only Horsegirl is a noisy rock trio from Chicago composed of Penelope Lowenstein (she/her), Nora Cheng (she/her), and Gigi Reece (they/them). Horsegirl draws inspiration from shoegaze and post-punk, in the realm of ‘90’s American and UK indie underground.
Southern Culture on the Skids
This is a 18 and over event with standing room only Southern Culture On The Skids has been consistently recording and touring around the world since 1983. The band (Rick Miller – guitar and vocals, Mary Huff – bass and vocals, Dave Hartman – drums) has been playing together for over 30 years. Their musical journey has taken them from all-night North Carolina house parties to late night TV talk shows (Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show), from performing at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan to rockin’ out for the inmates at North Carolina correctional facilities. They’ve shared a stage with many musical luminaries including Link Wray, Loretta Lynn, Hasil Adkins and Patti Smith. Their music has been featured in movies and TV, parodied by Weird Al, and used to sell everything from diamonds to pork sausage. In 2014 the band was honored by the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with an exhibition featuring their music and cultural contributions. Their legendary live shows are a testament to the therapeutic powers of foot-stomping, butt-shaking rock and roll and what Rolling Stone dubbed “a hell raising rock and roll party.”At Home with Southern Culture on the Skids is the latest full length album from the band and was released in March of 2021. It was recorded during the stay at home period of the pandemic when the band was at home and not touring. The album consists of 11 tracks recorded and mixed in Rick Miller’s living room with some additional tracks recorded at his studio, The Kudzu Ranch.The first radio single off the album is “Run Baby Run”—a rocking number with deep garage roots. SCOTS bassist Mary Huff provides an urgent vocal while the band pulls back the throttle on a full race fuzz fest—cause she’s gotta to go fast! Run Baby Run!The other songs on the album are a combination of the band’s unique mix of musical genres: rock and roll, surf, folk and country—all a bit off-center, what Rick proudly calls “our wobbly Americana”. Rick goes on, “We put a few more acoustic guitars on this one, as you would expect if you recorded in your living room, but it still rocks like SCOTS. So put your headphones on, get in your favorite chair/sofa/recliner, put on “At Home With” and let’s hang out for a while.”
Mungion w/ Pajamas
This is a 18+ event with standing room only Mungion is Justin Reckamp (Guitar/Vocals), Joe Re (Keys/Vocals), Grant Martin (Bass/Vocals) and Jonny Gifford (Drums). Drawing inspiration from a wide array of musical styles, they create a raucous, yet jubilant sound all of their own. Since their inception in Spring of 2015, Mungion is quickly becoming known for their undeniably explosive and charismatic live shows. The Chicago-based four-piece is rooted in their ambitious compositions and improvisational ability.Known for their whimsical songs and goofy stage antics, Mungion’s joyous presence is a natural extension of its members, making for live performances that are infectiously lighthearted and deeply sincere. Mungion is guaranteed to have you smiling ear to ear and leaving wanting more.
HairMania wsg VANGOGO
This is a 18+ event with standing room only Up from the ashes and into the light is the best way to describe HairMania. With shredding guitars, thundering drums, huge hooks, and wildly popular sing-along songs, HairMania’s brand of GLAM is just what the doctor ordered. ~ and along the way, start a serious party! Culminating in a high energy, and highly entertaining stage show, HairMania is here to prove that the 80’s hard rock lives on. With true talent and raw power, HairMania delivers the 80’s hard rock classics the way they should be heard, loud, proud, and very, very, HAIRY! The Glam Slam 80’s Jam rocks you……like a hurricane! WE ARE……HAIRMANIA!VAN GO GO is Nathan Mackinder (vocals/guitar), Jason Schaller (lead guitar/vocals) Paxton Olney (bass/vocals) and Jonah Brockman (drums/vocals). Their name is as unique as these veteran rockers and it actually wasn’t difficult to decide on a moniker for the band. Near the end of a night on the town, they stumbled on a Van Gogh print at the top of a stairway. Schaller looked at the group and suggested, “How about Van Go Go?”
Knee Deep Shag w/ Domestic Problems
This is a 18 and over event.Standing Room Only Though their live shows have been further between for the past decade, Knee Deep Shag still remains an influential force in the Michigan music scene. The boys have been busy working on an array of other independent and nationally recognized musical endeavors, but every so often the itch to return to the stage as a group, and reconnect with the fans and the music just can’t be ignored. Their evolving and original live set ranges from high-energy rock and soulful ballads, to deep dance grooves and a “super rock cover” or two – sure to satisfy your mind and your behind. Heavyweight players and songwriters at every position: Phil Barry on guitar, Matt Gross on vocals, Rob Cookman on keyboards, Jeff Moehle on drums and Mike Fuerst on bass. See you at the show!
Album Release: Celestial w/ Basic Comfort, Blood at Ease
18+ Event Standing room only Celestial is a Kalamazoo-based alternative ambient rock combo. It consists of founder Brian Ritzer on bass guitar and lead vocals, Colin McKernan on drums, David Balanda on guitar, and Amanda Savitski on keyboards. They are releasing their first full-length album, with the title track “Velvet Moon”, on January 26th, 2024. Velvet Moon was tracked and mixed by Chris Frankhausen of Raygun Studios in Kalamazoo, MI. Mastering was done by Garrett Gagnon in Long Beach, California. The album features Gabrielle Balanda on backup vocals and co-founder Jeremy Cronk on guitar. Jeremy will be joining Celestial for their release show at Bells Eccentric Café. The show will also feature backing vocals by Gabrielle Balanda, Melissa Gast, Melissa Zavala, and Emily Oppenhuizen. Chris will also be joining for a couple of tunes to commemorate the completion of the album.
Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band
This is a 18+ event with standing room only NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The latest album from Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band was written by candlelight and then recorded using the best technology available . . . in the 1950s. But listeners won’t find another album as relevant, electrifying and timely as Dance Songs for Hard Times. Dance Songs for Hard Times conveys the hopes and fears of pandemic living. Rev. Peyton, the Big Damn Band’s vocalist and world-class fingerstyle guitarist, details bleak financial challenges on the songs “Ways and Means” and “Dirty Hustlin’.” He pines for in-person reunions with loved ones on “No Tellin’ When,” and he pleads for celestial relief on the album-closing “Come Down Angels.” Far from a depressing listen, Dance Songs lives up to its name by delivering action-packed riffs and rhythms across 11 songs. The country blues trio that won over crowds on more than one Warped Tour knows how to make an audience move. “I like songs that sound happy but are actually very sad,” Peyton says. “I don’t know why it is, but I just do.”
Carbon Leaf
This is a 18+ event with standing room only Though Carbon Leaf had traditionally embraced a wall of sound approach in the studio, this time around they went back to the basics, focusing on raw, acoustic arrangements that placed the storytelling front and center. With guitarist Terry Clark handling engineering duties, the band—Privett, Clark, stringed instrument wizard Carter Gravatt, bassist Jon Markel, and drummer Jesse Humphrey—captured performances on and off over the course of roughly six months, experimenting with a wide variety of instruments and mic placements to generate a series of immersive, transportive sonic landscapes. “Space was a big thing for us when we were making these recordings,” says Clark. “Moving the microphones further away so we could really capture the room and the air helped add lot of the character and dimension these songs needed.” While some of the tracks here began life as instrumental demos from Gravatt, others first took shape as a capella lyrical or melodic ideas from Privett. Regardless of where each tune began, though, the finished product would inevitably wind up bearing the unmistakable fingerprints of all five bandmates, whose infectious chemistry consistently yields more than the sum of its parts. “We like to take a world-building approach in the studio,” says Privett. “We’ll stack things up and layer them on top of each other until we’ve got something that sounds way beyond just five guys in a room together.” That alchemy is obvious from the outset on The Hunting Ground, which opens with the churning “Everything’s Alright Mama.” Mixing gritty Appalachian folk with lilting Celtic influences, the track begins with both feet on the ground and builds into a soaring work of bittersweet beauty, balancing the mundane and the magical in equal measure as it reaches out into the void for connection. Like much of the album, it’s a bright, uptempo tune, but dig beneath the surface and you’ll find an underlying sense of sadness that permeates the often-impressionistic lyrics. The driving “Her Father’s Pride,” for instance, grapples with division on both a personal and a communal scale, while the rollicking “Smokey Joe Of The Poconos” explores what happens to those left behind in the name of progress, and the mesmerizing “Pale Blue Dot” zooms out to contemplate our place and our purpose in the greater scheme of the universe. It’s perhaps the muscular title track, though, that best encapsulates the sense of questioning and longing that defines the collection, with Privett singing, “Is this all we have, the natural world? Is anyone around?” “The idea of the hunting ground is that it’s this place where you’re searching for something out in the great wild unknown,” says Privett. ”How do you process grief? How do you fix your soul in the face of losing someone you care about? How do you carry on when life doesn’t go the way you’d planned?” In the end, of course, there are no easy answers to these questions, and that’s precisely the point. The hunt is an endless one, but it doesn’t need to be lonely. We’re all in the search together, and after more than a year of distance and isolation, it’s hard to think of anything we need more than a good old fashioned gathering.
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
