Bumpin Uglies book Bell's Eccentric Cafe for Feb 10

The Annapolis reggae-punk band brings a midwinter Wednesday show to Bell's 375-capacity Back Room, with Jakobs Castle opening.

February in Kalamazoo is a long month. A reggae-punk band from the Chesapeake on a Wednesday night in the Back Room at Bell's is a pretty good remedy for it. Bumpin Uglies play Bell's Eccentric Cafe on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2027, with Jakobs Castle opening.

The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets run $27.50 to $33.72 through eTix via the show's ticket link. The date was announced Oct. 27, and with 375 spots in the room, it's worth grabbing before the holidays eat your attention.

Bumpin Uglies come from Annapolis, Md., where guitarist and singer Brandon Hardesty and percussionist Zach Pfefferkorn started the band in 2008, according to Wikipedia. Hardesty has been the frontman and main songwriter from the start, and in an interview with The Prelude Press he called it his first band. The sound sits where reggae, punk and ska meet, and the band built its following the slow way, with a DIY reputation and heavy touring.

A band that built its audience the slow way, one room at a time.

The catalog tracks that grind. The first full-length, *Free Candy*, came out in 2011. *Keep It Together* followed in 2016, toured hard behind it, per Todd Star Photography's announcement. Later came *Mid-Atlantic Dub*, which got its own spring tour, and the most recent full-length, *Lyrics Over Everything*, released in June 2024 on Controlled Substance Sounds. Hardesty also cut *Underdog: The Acoustic Sessions* on his own. That's a lot of records and a lot of miles for a band that has never needed a big room to make a night work.

Which is why the Back Room fits. Bell's Eccentric Cafe, at 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave. downtown, keeps its live music in a back room that's believed to date to the 1880s and is the oldest part of the cafe, per Second Wave Media, which covered a $2.5 million project to expand the performance space. Discover Kalamazoo describes it as an intimate room with weekly music, comedy, open mics and special events. A band like this, in a room like that, with Bell's on tap: the math is simple.

A few practical notes. It's a Wednesday in February, so plan for weather and give yourself time to get downtown. The 8 p.m. start makes it a reasonable school-night show. And get there for Jakobs Castle; a Back Room crowd that shows up early makes the whole night better.

Three months out, it's easy to forget a show like this. Buy the ticket, put it in the calendar, and let February have something to look forward to.

Sources: Wikipedia: Bumpin Uglies (en.wikipedia.org); The Prelude Press: Q&A with Brandon Hardesty of Bumpin Uglies (thepreludepress.com); Festival Squad: Brandon Hardesty talks Bumpin Uglies (festivalsquad.com); Todd Star Photography: Bumpin Uglies new LP 'Keep It Together' available for pre-order (toddstarphotography.com); The Pier: Bumpin Uglies announce Mid-Atlantic Dub spring tour (thepier.org); Second Wave Media: Bell's Eccentric Cafe grows in Kalamazoo to fit in more music fans (secondwavemedia.com); Discover Kalamazoo: Casinos & nightlife (discoverkalamazoo.com); JamBase: Bumpin Uglies at Bell's Eccentric Cafe (jambase.com)