I like to think of all the live music happening in Bellingham being like a massive, all-you-can-eat buffet. There’s no way you can possibly eat it all, so it would be foolish of me to try to claim these were the best shows of the year. It’s more like these were some of the best things I put on my plate in my trips to the buffet. This is in chronological order, not ranked.
Cat Valley acoustic duo at WinkWink: Sometimes you’ve seen a band a bunch of times and you think you know all the reasons why you love them. Then you see them play an acoustic duo show completely unamplified, and you discover that their vocal harmonies are even better than you’d ever thought.
Operation Ivy cover band at Make.Shift, Valentine’s covers show: Like most of their fans, I missed out on seeing Operation Ivy when they were around. They’re one of those bands whose legend has grown so much since they’ve been broken up. So getting to shout along to all their songs as those songs were played perfectly was an unexpected treat
Bottle of Smoke at Boundary Bay Brewery: A clearly skilled but just-ragged-enough Pogues tribute band, for the first St. Patrick’s day after Shane MacGowan’s passing, in the Boundary beer garden? The perfect marriage of band, songs and audience.
Cat Positive at the Shakedown: Local indie rockers Cat Positive celebrated their 10th anniversary in June with a show at the Shakedown that just had some of the best vibes of any live music experience I had this year. Everyone was just so happy to be there! Looking forward to their new album which is supposedly coming soon.
Energy Pyramid at Aslan Depot: I wasn’t enjoying the headliner during one night of the Northwest Tune-Up Festival, so I left early and wandered around downtown a bit. In a fantastic bit of serendipity, I ended up at Aslan Depot, being blown away by the music/art/dance phenomenon that is Energy Pyramid. It was a great reminder that sometimes you need to just walk around and see what happens. (Also, a note of congratulations here for Energy Pyramid on the vinyl release of their album “Levels“).
Lupe Fiasco at Northwest Tune-Up: I admit I wasn’t super familiar with Lupe Fiasco’s catalog before seeing him at the festival in July. I’d heard a couple songs and a couple features but I didn’t really know what he was going to be like over the course of a headlining set. Turns out I didn’t need to worry: He’s an incredibly charismatic performer with a deep repertoire of great songs, more than capable of keeping the audience engaged for an hour and a half.
Margo Cilker at the Wild Buffalo: I almost missed out on this one, and only ended up going thanks to a friend with an extra ticket. (Thanks, Adam!) Her gorgeously simple country songs, rich with Pacific Northwest imagery, were played with perfect restraint by her tight band, with her sister adding beautiful harmonies.
The Bellingham Exit Festival: This was kind of a blur, but my top five shows from it were, in no particular order: Bellflower at Ritual Records, Alice Longyu Gao at the Blue Room, Reggie Watts at Mount Baker Theatre, Bonny Light Horseman at the Wild Buffalo and Sego at the Blue Room.
Naomi Moon Siegel Ensemble at the FireHouse Arts and Events Center: Finally, I didn’t see as much jazz this year as I would have liked, but this show went a long way toward making up for it. It’s great to see a jazz group that isn’t a revolving door of members, but where they’ve played together for a long time and specifically composed the music for the unique instrumental voices of each individual band member.
News
Speaking of the Northwest Tune-Up Festival, they’ve announced their dates for next year: July 12–14, 2025. Early bird tickets are on sale now until Jan. 1, 2025, if you know you want to go. The lineups have been strong enough over the last few years that even non-biking music lovers can get their money’s worth from an early bird pass.
When organizer Cayley Schmid announced she was stepping down from organizing the Bellingham Folk Festival, there was a lot of uncertainty about how her talents and connections could be replaced. Well, plans are beginning to trickle out, and it would appear that the ad hoc crew of local folk lovers who have risen to the challenge are going to have quite the event on their hands. That’s happening Jan. 23–26 at venues all over downtown.
Adding to the abundance of riches, the Fire and Story festival will be back at the waterfront that weekend, and they’ve got some excellent music booked as well, including Three for Silver, The Librarians and the aforementioned Energy Pyramid.
Jesse Stanton's music column, The Beat Goes On, appears weekly. Reach him at jsbhammusic@gmail.com; @JSBhamMusic. Check with individual venues to make sure events are still taking place as scheduled. Live music events in Whatcom County: http://www.cascadiadaily.com/category/living/arts-and-entertainment/music/music-calendar
