Western Union w/ Zootown Swing
Sunday, November 1 // Door at 6:30 PM // Show at 7 PM // $12 // $15 GA + Dance Lesson // $15-$20 Artist Supporter Dance lessons with Lindy Hop begin at 6:30 Louie and Kimberlee are founding members of Montana’s hottest Texas swing band Western Union, with bandmates David Horgan and Beth Lo from one of Montana’s most renowned jazz and R&B bands-the Big Sky Mudflaps. They have the distinction of being the only Montana band to play at the Montana Folk Festival (July 2016) in addition to opening for Marty Stewart (Sept 2015) and Colorado’s renowned Hot Rize (July 2015). Where jazz meets country, Western Union is Montana’s favorite “countrypolitan” western swing band, specializing in classic Texas Swing & Honky Tonk music. With electric and acoustic guitars, standup bass, pedal steel guitar, and drums – plus sharp-as-a-tack lead vocals and vocal harmonies — Western Union delivers the true-blue sound of grassroots America. All tickets are general admission. Artist Supporter Tickets are a way for patrons to provide more financial support to performers. For further information, accessibility, and inquiries please visit https://www.zootownarts.org/meet-the-zacc/about/.
The Arcadian Wild
Tuesday, May 11 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $20 ADV // $25 DOS The Arcadian Wild is an indie folk/pop group from Nashville, TN, led bysongwriters Isaac Horn, Lincoln Mick and Bailey Warren, The Arcadian Wildconfidently inhabits and explores an intersection of genre, blending thetraditional with the contemporary. Combining elements of confessional pop,folk, progressive bluegrass, and formal vocal music, The Arcadian Wild offerup songs of invitation; calls to come and see, to find refuge and rest, tojourney and wonder, to laugh and cry, to share joy and community and singalong.
Sean Atkins w/ Grover, McLeod, & cul de sac
Monday, November 2 // Doors at 7:00 // Show at 7:30 // $10 ADV // $15 DOS Sean Atkins is folk rock from Boise, Idaho and Bellingham, WA. Bandcamp Grover Spotify cul de sac is a slowcore band from Missoula, Montana Bandcamp
Kateena & Dave’s Wedding Anniversary Show: Halloween Rock Extravaganza
Saturday, October 31 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 // $10 // $15-$20 Big Supporter Mom says to start the day with a healthy breakfast. If you’re lacking the federally mandated allowance of rock ‘n’ roll vitamins such as soaring vocals, noodling guitars and choruses extolling the virtues of rocking, then a serving of Bacon & Egg awaits, piping hot. Bacon & Egg hail from Missoula, MT and are prepared to blow you away. Fresh off their world tour, Stiff Jeans needs no introduction. Their covers of your favorite 90s alternative songs will take you to heaven tonight, tomorrow, and always. Isle of Huldra is a heavy, melodic post-rock band out of Missoula Montana, channeling the raw dirty power of desert rock into towering walls of sound. Driven by crushing riffs, atmospheric textures, and the haunting interplay of two female voices, the band blends beauty and weight into one immersive sonic experience — equal parts raw, calibrated and hypnotic. Skadget is a psychedelic dive into the subconscious waters of this hallucination called life. Born in the monster mindscape of Dead Ed, Skadget sat in a stew of bubbling muck for years, unable to find life. But when that seed of a thought finally made contact with Dead’s friends D.L. Johnson and Carson Smith (and Juxtabunny in the psyrealms) it was jolted to life as the hydra you see before you!
Diles Que No Me Maten w/ ARDO & Neutrino
Wednesday, October 28 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $15 For Diles que no me maten, every note is a small step into the unknown. The five-piece Mexico City band have always operated on a first-thought, best-thought basis, drawing on a jam-based, krautrock philosophy to craft intricate constructions of wiry art rock spiked with bluesy balladry and poetic mysticism. While their fourth album Escrito en Agua (Writ in Water) is their most consciously crafted and accessible to date, their founding principle of slow, wide-eyed exploration is alive and well. Founded by brothers Raúl (drums) and Gerardo (guitar) Ponce in 2017 in a CDMX scene set to bubble over, Diles bonded over a shared improvisational language that grew more complex and fluid with each revelatory rehearsal and electric live performance. The fiery mix of raw elements that fueled their 2020 debut EP Cayó de su Gloria el Diablo and LP Edificio coalesced into solid-built but shapeshifting entities on their breakout album La Vida de Alguien Más and its free-flowing follow-up Obrigaggi. Together with the Ponces, Andrés Lupone (bass), Jerónimo Elizondo-García (guitar, clarinet), and Jonás Derbez (vocals, saxophone) have crafted a sound that’s as unpredictable as it is distinct. In a makeshift studio space in their hometown’s Santa María La Ribera neighborhood, Diles created Escrito en Agua through a process of intense experimentation and refinement, guided gently by their longtime collaborator turned producer Sebastián Rojas. This setting gave these recordings a scrappy mutability; unencumbered by the hi-fi confines of an official studio, they were free to tinker with their unruly creations, breaking them down and reassembling their best parts in a way they’d never done before. It’s evident from the opening notes of Escrito en Agua that Diles have entered a new chapter. Instrumental intro “Las Noches Que Dormimos en Sillas” (“The Nights We Sleep on Chairs”) was first conceived as a “Goth Duke Ellington arrangement” by Andrés before some technical malfunctions and a guest performance from legendary saxophonist Alain Derbez (Jonás’s father) led the band to realize the song would sound better an octave higher. Thus, its lugubrious tones became less moody and more spiritual. They leaned in, injecting elements of funerary music from Oaxaca’s Sierra Mixe that elevate the song far beyond its playful original premise. The track sets the tone for an album that, while possessing no airs of religiosity, is as transcendent as gospel. This aura is put into words on lead single “Hiriku,” which finds Jonás interpreting José Vincente Anaya’s epic poetic vision quest Híkuri (Peyote) over frenetic krautrock instrumentation. “La mitad que soy no existe, y la mitad que existe no soy,” he repeats with mantra-esque calm in the song’s second half (“The half I am doesn’t exist, and I am not the half that exists”). This egocidal phrase, ripped directly from the poem, is a gauntlet of sorts; leave your previous self behind as you enter this record. “Cierro los ojos para ver un lugar donde no estoy,” he sings elsewhere (“I close my eyes to see a place where I am not”).
Big Mosquito w/ Ten Day Bender & Mild Mannered Janitor
Wednesday, November 11 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 // $10 // $15-$20 Big Supporter Big Mosquito is a local Missoula ska outfit bringing a mix of authentic ska and high energy, with renditions and covers of such classics as The Skatalites, The Specials, laurel Aitkens, Phyllis Dillon/Freddy McKay, ect. Plus originals and more lively tunes like Murphy’s law’s 1%. Big Mosquito’s goal is to bring authentic ska and love for roots music to the forefront of our rising youth movement in Missoula and beyond. Big Mosquito is made up of Zane Lambert, Cameron Doucette, Evan Wright, Spencer Nelson, Nick Mogensen, Jacob Tirado, Rhett Matthew, and Danny Boatwright.
The Foilies w/ Seditious Activity, TV Letdowns, & No Policy
Friday, October 30 // Doors at 7:30 PM // Show at 8:00 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Big Supporter The Foilies are a Montana-based Speed Rock/Punk/Rock N Roll band bringing tight riffs, sick leads and an always driving bass line with a full on assault to your eardrums from a relentless machine of a drummer. They balance this by exchanging lead vocals between three people and having back gang vocals to match. The sonic attack will make you feel like you’re about to go off the rails on every song right before arriving at your abrupt destination. https://thefoilies.bandcamp.com/album/the-foilies-ep Seditious Activity is a punk band from Missoula, Montana. Never trust authority. Costumes strongly encouraged!
Kate Stephenson & Hayden Everett w/ Sophie Bell
Friday, October 16 // Doors at 7 PM // Show at 7:30 // $15 ADV // $20 DOS It’s kind of unbelievable. A gentle voice, a dagger for a pen. Kate Stephenson has found a way to offer this balance at once. Songs that hurt to relate to, but offer a lifeline if you do. Breaking free of genre’s limitations, Stephenson shares these blistering stories with stunning arrangements that dare to take on different shapes every time. Her unforgettable writing is the through line, finding the right sounds to express it all is her magic. From intimate, acoustic, profound songs like ‘Shoving’ to the full-band-get-up-and-dance ‘Summerfoot’, she can do it all. Living in Nashville, she’s finding her ever-changing sound, moving closer and closer every day. Oh, and she’ll wipe the floor with you at the bowling alley. Hayden Everett is a Seattle-based Americana artist blending folk storytelling with jazz-trained musicianship and expansive, atmospheric production. Hayden writes many of his lyrics on solo backpacking trips, guided by a belief that presence gives art its weight. His debut EP, produced with Jeremy McDonald (Kevin Garrett, Vulfpeck, Beyoncé), earned placements on Grey’s Anatomy and praise from Earmilk, Atwood Magazine, and KCRW. Follow-up releases via Platoon and Nettwerk Music Group featured collaborators like JT Bates (Bonny Light Horseman, Big Red Machine, Taylor Swift, The National), James McAlister (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens), and Jack Van Cleaf (Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan). With over 60 million streams, Hayden has toured with Hazlett, The Paper Kites, Trousdale, and Vacation Manor. His debut full length record, So The Sun Can Pour, was independently released in April of 2026. Hayden recorded the album live with close friends at the cabin in Tahoe, CA that his great grandfather built. It was mixed by Tucker Martine, known for his work with Gregory Alan Isakov, My Morning Jacket, Madison Cunningham, Caamp, Mt. Joy, and more.
Robert Kimbrough, Sr. w/ HoverGround
Friday, November 13 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $25 ADV // $30 DOS Robert Kimbrough Sr continues the Cotton Patch Soul Blues style created by his father, the legendary Junior Kimbrough. From an early age, Robert was steeped in the sounds and life of North Mississippi and its distinctive style of blues. Growing up, Robert listened, first-hand to Mississippi blues royalty that played with his father at home, at Junior’s Juke Joint Club, and the ever frequent weekend house party and porch jam session. The blues was simply part of everyday life as a Kimbrough. Robert continues his father’s musical tradition, along with some of his siblings. You can often find many of them sharing the stage on any given night in Mississippi. The Kimbrough name, along with the Burnside name, is part of a blues dynasty that remains strong today, bringing people from all over the world to see and hear them play. The Cotton Patch Soul Blues style that Robert plays is a straight link to the music that his father originated in North Mississippi. It is a deep soul sound that can be linked back to his ancestors coming from the cotton fields, singing and ‘hollering‘ as they worked in the tall rows of Mississippi cotton. This distinct and somewhat underground style of blues is rooted in hypnotic, rhythms and dance-able grooves. The Black Keys released an entire album in 2006 of Junior Kimbrough cover songs called Chulahoma: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough. Up until the mid 80s, the only way to hear this music was to visit a church-turned-blues-den founded by Junior Kimbrough in Chulahoma, MS that unfortunately burned down in 2000. Robert released his fourth self-produced CD, I Been Fixed which won the coveted 2019 AMG award for Album of the Year. Robert continues the Cotton Patch Soul Blues sound on this release sometimes playing all instruments. https://robertkimbroughsr.com/ HoverGround is an indie/folk/blues/pop five-member project from Missoula, Montana. Starting with a chance encounter at the Zootown Arts and Community Center’s fabled Adult Rock Camps, the band began practicing in lead guitarist Robbie G’s basement, learning lead vocalist Ann S-P’s strange, heartfelt, political, and sometimes insight-producing songs. Drummer Graham C leads the rhythm with wild yet concentrated abandon; Lindsay M’s bass riffs add structure; and keyboardist Beverly D’s ivory tinkling and vocal harmonies round out the sound with molecular grace. We have at least one song everyone will like, and we are just beginning…
Threshold Live!
Tuesday, October 27 // Doors at 6:30 PM // Show at 7:00 PM // $15 Threshold Live is a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. The live show, an immersive blend of music, story, and sound, takes audiences across the planet—the Australian outback, an Arctic lake, the Kenyan savannah—and asks pressing questions about what happens when we tune into the life all around us. Based on the eponymous Peabody Award-winning podcast, Threshold Live is the product of on-the-ground reporting by host and executive producer Amy Martin, who set out to explore the wondrous chorus of life on Earth and learn from the scientists at the heart of a listening renaissance. Grammy-winning composer and musician Todd Sickafoose live-scores the journey alongside multi-instrumentalist Jonny Rodgers and audio engineer Sam Moore. The result is a collective acoustic journey: a chance to share the experience of listening to what other beings are saying, and to consider what it might mean. This performance of Threshold Live is sponsored by the Montana Natural History Center and Montana Public Radio. Learn more at www.thresholdpodcast.org.