Malcolm Contreras & Soup D’Jour w/ Orange Vanilla & Golem Pink
Thursday, August 6 // Doors at 7:30 PM // Show at 8:00 PM // $10 ADV // $15 DOS Malcolm and his band are a 4 piece consisting of Lane Ulberg, Delaney Wirtala, and Evan Right. These folks put on a spectacular spectacle, only seen about once every two months that ranges from indie rock to shoegaze to ambient music, folk, and bedroom pop. Have you ever seen that video of Bob Dylan asking a bunch of kids on the street if they listen to Ratt? This is kind of like that, except Orange Vanilla (members of Cheap City, Bochek, Mutter, Shaylee, Golem Pink, etc) are mostly trans and don’t look or sound like Bob Dylan OR Ratt. Cute music for ugly times and vice versa. Piano led kinda cabaret punk stuff for people whose gender expression is at least a little wrapped up in their feelings about the teacher from Matilda. Here’s where you can listen to them: https://orangevanilla.bandcamp.com/track/everybodys-talkin-bout-the-weather-demo GOLEM PINK makes collage music. Furious music for gentle people.Wholehearted music for the easily overwhelmed.GOLEM PINK is the soft part of hard things.We’re so glad you’re here.Website/ EPK: https://golempink.com/
Bull Market w/ Flesh Hunks & Dirty Brother
Friday, July 10 // Doors at 7:30 PM // Show at 8 PM // $15 Bull Market is an investment firm based out of Billings, MT.
The Lowest Pair
Thursday, October 8 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $15 ADV // $18 DOS The Lowest Pair has questions. The duo, made up of Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee, know that we tend to see duality as a problem. We want life to be linear, working through the dark to finally get to the light. Grief to joy, despair to hope, confusion to clarity––not a jangly cycle we can’t escape. But through their incandescent folk songs, the Lowest Pair often ask: What if we sit with the mess? What if that’s not just more peaceful, but more magical, too? On their 8th album Always As Young As We’ll Ever Be, the Lowest Pair prove that over the last dozen years together, they’ve become some of modern roots music’s most mesmerizing, thoughtful purveyors. Produced by Tucker Martine (The Decemberists), the 10-track album puts the duo’s stark lyricism, string-driven arrangements, and raw compatibility on brilliant display and as a result, Always As Young As We’ll Ever Be pulses with life. The Lowest Pair’s musicianship is another beautiful testament not just to playing that breathes, but playing that listens. Winter, who grew up in Arkansas but has lived in Washington State for the last two decades, and Lee, a Minnesota native, first gained attention as poetic singer-songwriters on banjos. While their family of strings has expanded, their fundamental approach hasn’t: Respond to sounds and stories the other is making.
Skadget’s Album Release Show w/ FLASK & Panic Boner
Friday, July 24 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $10 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter 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! FLASK is a new project by Andrew Hunt, Mathew Bainton, Oscar Hunt and Cannon Pearson. Absolutely guaranteed to be a show that has guitars, amps, drums and people singing words and things. Oh and bass too. And keyboards. Panic Boner is an experimental music trio based out of Missoula, Montana. As they don’t rely on categorization or genre for their band, they have been described by audiences as heavy jazz psychedelic or now wave resembling bands like Wolf Eyes, Black Dice, and a more freeform Hella. P.B. has recently released an album on the chocolate monk label based out the U.K.
Western Union
Sunday, July 12 // Door at 6:30 PM // Show at 7 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter 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/.
Nick Shoulders w/ Riddy Arman
Friday, July 31 // Doors 7:00 PM // Show 8:00 PM // $20 ADV // $25 DOS Refugia Blues, the fifth album from songwriter Nick Shoulders, is a record of big ideas and small, intimate moments. Rooted in the acoustic stylings of Southern traditional music, it findsthe Arkansas native turning off his amp and stepping up to a ribbon microphone as a solo performer, singing in a voice that’s equal parts country croon, Appalachian yodel, and high-lonesome field holler. Shoulders’ interpretation of American roots music has always been more progressive and punky than the trucks-and-beers conservatism that passes for modern-day country, and Refugia Blues offers songs about climate collapse, radical anthropology, and generative disruption. It balances the macro with the micro, too, making room for love songs and personal topics, packaging humor alongside heavy insights. At once academic and accessible, Refugia Blues isn’t just a deep dive into southernness, but also into Shoulders himself. This is a raw, resolute version of American country music, stacked high with songs that go down easy but linger in the minds of those willing to invest the time. Riddy Arman is a Montana-based singer-songwriter whose music is shaped by stark storytelling, solitude, and the emotional weight of life lived on the move. Carried by a voice that feels both weathered and deeply intimate, her songs balance grit with vulnerability, blending stripped down country and folk traditions with unflinching emotional honesty. After gaining widespread attention through her viral Western AF performance, Arman released her debut album through La Honda Records and quickly established herself as one of the most compelling emerging voices in independent country music. Currently touring new material and bringing her deeply intimate live show across the country, Riddy Arman delivers the kind of performance that leaves a room silent in all the right ways
Salt and Shadow w/ Wes Urbaniak and the Mountain Folk
Saturday, July 11 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter Fronted by two female vocalists whose voices weave and harmonize throughout each song, Salt & Shadow is anchored by atmospheric guitars, cinematic textures, and a cello that doesn’t sit in the background…it sings alongside them. The result is hypnotic, heavy, and deeply spiritual, echoing the moody expanse of Pink Floyd, the harmonic richness of Fleetwood Mac, and the emotional unease of Radiohead. Wes Urbaniak is an amalgamation of songwriting, storytelling and unique craftsmanship. His music is real, honest, bold and a little odd in the best way possible. The experiences of his life have created stories through his songs. He pushes the limits within the human mind while opening up the possibilities for the human spirit to explore what’s dwelling within. There are so many special things about this band and its music, its artistic – through reclamation – endeavors, and its call to persist through the hard things is exceptional. For instance, even the instruments represent the story of the music. Each instrument contains original reclaimed Red Rocks Amphitheater bench redwood – *Wes is the Luthier behind the magical matter. You should watch the band try to explain it in its most simplest way. By listening to the music and thumbing through the story you’ll discover one of the most beautiful efforts whispered into song in these times while finding what’s good and holding care for the world we live in. It has been a bit of a destiny for Wes Urbaniak to bring his music through these instruments out into the world.
Pine Hill Haints w/ Invisible Teardrops & Whip Appeal
Monday, July 13 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter
Shark Buffalo w/ The Absent Wilson Conspiracy
Tuesday, July 14 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter Fast Get Away: an evening journey through contemporary jazz compositions and improvisation with Shark Buffalo and the Absent Wilson Conspiracy. (Painting by Paula Wittner) https://paulawittner.com/ Two bands, a handful of original compositions, and boundless possibilities. The Absent Wilson Conspiracy explores acoustic and electric jazz through spacious original compositions and contemporary standards. Drawn by a deep love of the collective improvisation at the heart of jazz, the ‘conspirators share a belief that the essence of a song is the shape of the story- its journey through emotion and sound. While each tune is written in the notes on the page, each journey is entirely its own, moving through the spaces between the notes and beyond. Who the hell is Shark Buffalo, that mysterious übergroup from a long-forgotten Missoula music scene of yore? More importantly, what the hell IS a shark buffalo? Do you picture a buffalo’s body with a shark’s head, like some kind of aquatic centaur? Or do you prefer to envision an elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton fused with the head and torso of a bearded bovinae? I digress. Shark Buffalo is comprised of a holy musical trinity: Keys, Drums, and Trumpet, with Cove Jasmin, Emmet Ore, and Nathan Crawford.
Deadharrie w/ Sophie Bell
Wednesday, July 8 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter Like a train glued to the tracks by its sheer weight and inertia, Deadharrie chugs on relentlessly. In the age of quick fixes and short attention spans, Harrie counters with lyric heavy, chronicles of love and longing, addiction, and the reconciliation of death in its many forms. Wrapping up his ninth studio LP in 2026, solo singer songwriter William Harries has no plans of slowing down, or hastening his pace for that matter. He simply wishes to sink further into his rhythm, honing his craft the old fashioned way. Songwriting in its truest form, impervious to the pressures of the modern world and self promoting nature of the music industry.
