The Wild Buffalo is bringing back live music with a Bellingham band favorite
After being unable to operate the Wild Buffalo for 18 months, Craig Jewell will soon bring back live music with a longtime Bellingham favorite as a headliner.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, June 18, for the Wild Buffalo’s first live, in-person concert that takes place on Saturday, July 17. The concert will feature The Posies, a band that got its start in Bellingham, and The Black Tones, a Seattle group. Ticket sales will happen online at wildbuffalo.net.
Jewell said in a telephone interview the concert will be capped at 75% capacity and concertgoers will need to show proof they are fully vaccinated and are being encouraged to bring masks. On Friday, July 16, there’s also a limited (10 people) private concert, conversation and dinner with The Posies, with those tickets going for $175 and include admission to the Saturday event.
“Our decision to require attendees be fully vaccinated for this show is done with the intent to create the safest setting for an indoor live concert as possible,” said Jewell. “Additionally, we hope that this concert may encourage those who are hesitant to get a COVID vaccination so they can attend this show.”
The July 17 concert represents a big step not just for the Wild Buffalo, but for the live music scene and the Bellingham community as it continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Popular Bellingham venues including the Wild Buffalo and The Shakedown were the first businesses to shut down and they are among the last to reopen because they were perfect places for the virus to spread.
“Our business model is to have large crowds, dancing and screaming, which was the opposite of what we needed to do to curb this pandemic,” said Jewell, who has operated Wild Buffalo House of Music for nearly 13 years.
The Shakedown is also working to bring back live music this summer, according to a social media post.
Being one of the hardest-hit industries during this pandemic, Jewell said every single day he wondered whether he should just close the Wild Buffalo and get another job. Instead, while waiting to reopen, he chose another path, helping live music venues get financial help during the closures.
With so much happening early on in the pandemic, it became clear to Jewell that the live music industry was being overlooked.
Helping the music industry
“People didn’t realize until we told them what the industry was going through and realized that it needed help,” Jewell said.
Given all the other challenges happening early on in the pandemic, Jewell was reluctant to be aggressive about raising money. With the industry in such dire shape that closing permanently was a real possibility, he decided to become more involved.
The feedback from the community was swift and strong. An organization called Keep Music Live Washington was formed, and with the help of Whatcom Community Foundation and music venue owners such as Jewell, 77 shuttered music venues across the state were awarded grants.
That local advocacy in Washington was a contributing factor for the national support and the Save Our Stages Act, which has $16 billion in grants for shuttered venues.
While most restrictions are expected to be lifted by the end of June, live music venues will be taking it slower, “using a dimmer light instead of just flipping on the switch,” Jewell said. Part of it is for safety, but another factor is the daunting task of bringing back bands that have not been performing for over a year. After The Posies and The Black Tones concert, the Wild Buffalo will close for a few weeks as they focus on booking bands on a regular basis starting around September.
‘Ready to let his hair down’
Founded in 1987, The Posies are one of the biggest bands to come out of Bellingham along with Death Cab for Cutie and Odesza, Jewell said.
“They are one of Bellingham’s favorite bands, so it ended up being the perfect way to reopen,” Jewell said.
The Posies lead singer Ken Stringfellow said in an email that the idea just fell into their lap. The unpredictability of getting live shows going again created a window to do a few summer shows, leading to the opportunity to start in Bellingham. The band will also be playing at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo in July.
Stringfellow lived in Bellingham from fifth grade through the end of high school and still regularly visits the area. While at Sehome High School he met Jon Auer, who became a core member of the band. The pop-rock band is known for several songs that became radio hits, including “Flavor of the Month,” “Golden Blunders,” “Dream All Day,” and “Solar Sister.”
“Being from Bellingham definitely set us apart from the Seattle scene, we were not just a cookie-cutter copy of the ‘grunge’ style that was rising in Seattle as we emerged in 1988,” Stringfellow said. “Bellingham is where I go when I dream, it’s imprinted on my memory forever.”
Stringfellow said it’ll be hard to predict whether the concert will be a subdued affair as residents get used to going to live concerts again or if they will cut loose. He said he is ready to let his hair down.
“That should be, in my way of thinking, one of the rewards for all our sacrifices, and the willingness to get vaccinated and so on,” Stringfellow said. “I am certain that no one will take all these wonderful things that live music gives us for granted anytime soon. It will be extremely emotional to be back on stage, like no other show in my career thus far.”
Jewell agreed, adding that seeing people happy again, joining in song, is what he is most looking forward to.
“That is why I do this,” Jewell said.
This story was originally published June 18, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
