Josh Hughes
On Friday, February 3, the Karate Church is hosting one of the more stuffed house shows of the quarter, featuring The Naims, Franky Vampire, ShiverTwins and The Forgotten 45’s. Starting at 8 p.m. and going strong until midnight, the event is free, with a suggested donation is $5.
Stretching well above the pastel houses that line High and Garden Streets, the “Academy of Elf Defense” Karate Church is the most easily recognizable house show venue in Bellingham. The organizers host everything from basement punk shows to larger events like the one this Friday. Located at 519 E Maple Street, the converted church (which recently underwent some restorations) now hosts concerts and functions as a space for art, complete with a small alternative library.
The first artist of the evening is The Naims, a three-piece lo-fi rock band from Bellingham. Set to perform at 8 p.m., The Naims, which consists of Sam Chue and brothers Caleb and Eli Savage, play grunge-indebted guitar rock that resembles a lovechild between Dinosaur Jr. and fairly mellow Nirvana. Their only release thus far is the excellent EP Quick Demos, which came out in early 2016 and features three songs that provide a good understanding of the band’s overall sound.
Chue’s vocals range from a Cobain-esque snarl to an alt-country whisper, and his guitar playing fuels the overall instrumentation. Songs like “Ohio Cop,” which sprawls for six minutes, start out as quiet, almost folksy songs, but build up into slow burning, bluesy jams that feed off of the tight rhythm section of bass and drums.
The next band listed for the night is SHIVERTWINS, a quartet originally from Juneau, Alaska and now based in Seattle that writes summery guitar rock. Consisting of Eric Mountcastle, James Rosales, Zac Watt and Lance Fohrenkam, SHIVERTWINS don’t let the bleak, snowy winters of Alaska seep into their music very much. Instead, they take cues from jangly pop artists like Real Estate and Wavves, but add some meat to their instrumentation along the way. While their 2016 EP 19 Again sounds like peppy garage rock, the direction of their recent music takes away much of the feedback and replaces it with reverb.
“Rearrange,” the single that sparked that directional shift, features clean, low vocals over a tom-heavy backbeat and melodic guitars that resemble something that you could call “beach goth” (nods to The Growlers, who, somehow have sparked an entirely new level of sub-genre). There’s a pervading danceability to their music, both new and old, that lends itself well to energetic live shows, so they make a good choice to follow up The Naims.
ABOVE: The Karate Church is one of Bellingham’s quirkiest house show venues. Photo by Janna Bodnar // AS Review
Third on the roster is The Forgotten 45’s, who continue the evening-long trend of summery, bright guitar rock. Hailing from Enumclaw, WA, the four piece band consists of Nolan McSheridan, Michael Rossi, David Gies and Cosmo Mailhot. Taking influences from a seemingly endless bucket of fairly popular rock bands of the last 30 years, The Forgotten 45’s pose themselves as a band unequivocally interested in pure music over aesthetic or stylistic trends (their covers album contains both “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and “Ice Ice Baby”, so that speaks for itself).
Having released an album back in 2015, alongside their full covers album, The Forgotten 45’s self describe themselves as “Providers of fine rock, since the womb.” They are a band “on a mission to connect with their audience,” according to their Facebook page. “Connection that is deep rooted, meaning that when one listens to their songs it resonates within and stays with them for the long haul.”
Lively songs like “Pink Azaleas” strut along like a Shins song if James Mercer went through a big Weezer phase. The band continually uses harmonies and backing vocals in their songs, and it adds another touch of animation to their already energized sound.
Last of the evening is Frankie Vampire, a fourth and final guitar rock band from Bellingham that actually has the least amount of content online. Instead of releasing music, they
spend much of their time playing around in Bellingham at various house venues and getting already sweaty people even sweatier.
A four piece band consisting of Reidar Johnson, Colin White, Calvin Gurtler and Makyah Howling Wolf, Frankie Vampire (who recently changed their name from Freddie Empire for copyright reasons) play psychedelic, grungy rock that recalls Cage The Elephant’s Melophobia days. With some muted, jazzy chords giving a skeletal blueprint, songs like “16 Weeks” and “Sand Sand Sand” groove into oblivion with phased out guitars and strutting bass interlacing and taking turns in the spotlight. There’s an overall sense of swagger in their vocals, pushing into Modest Mouse territory, but sounding entirely original in its own right. As a live band, they get people moving quickly at a rate that sometimes ends up in a slew of people consensually hitting each other (one might call this a moshpit if so inclined).
8 p.m. to 12 a.m. this coming Friday is undoubtedly the best time this week to hear an array of rock bands hitting different instruments in harmonious unison, so don’t miss out on the Karate Church show!
Featured Photo: The Karate Church can be seen from quite a distance thanks to its unique architecture. Photo by Janna Bodnar // AS Review