Grandma’s House, a DIY music venue near campus, will be closing indefinitely this month due to landlord renovations after 10 years of shows.
The venue, which is run by tenants rather than a business, plans to host a large event this week as their final show on Oct. 10, starting at 1 p.m., featuring many bands and festivities.
”It's cool to see they're able to do this in a house that's super old,” said Anh Hai Le, who has been attending shows at the venue for four years. “It’s the only place in Bellingham that has the most DIY grunge scene. It's definitely kind of out of pocket in terms of music taste.”
Over the years, tenants have moved in and out, but successive residents have kept the house’s calendar full, offering a grassroots space for Bellingham’s music community.
“They championed a lot of alternative music, smaller, really underground, experimental music,” said Hayden Hunsaker, lead singer of the band Paperclip. “I think it's also special because it's one of the last true house venues left on the west side of Washington.”
Norah Simpson, Western student and lead singer of local band Birdhouse, said she had heard of the house before moving to Bellingham and was eager to both attend and play there.
“There (were) tons of people there, and socially, it was really fun,” she said, adding that the house offered a good balance of music and communal atmosphere in between performances.
Grandma's House tenant Robert Bohler said he hopes more house venues will form after the venue closure.
“It exercises the autonomy and the agency of the community, who are able to do stuff without requiring some sort of parent organization, or co-signer,” Bohler said.
The venue has averaged three shows a month hosting touring musicians, drag performers and many bands, including Western students’ bands, for the past decade. Because residents rent the space, the venue has long been vulnerable to landlord decisions, Bohler said.
“Something like this has a limited lifespan. You know, that's an inherent risk, or truth, when it comes to this thing,” Bohler said.
Bohler has been involved with the house for four years and has lived there for two. He said the house will remain occupied for several months after the final event, but the residents do not plan to host any more shows before they move out.
“I definitely think that it'll be a pretty big loss. Hopefully more house venues pop up, but I do think it is pretty hard to maintain a venue,” Simpson said.
Other local spaces like Make.Shift, the Blue Room and smaller venues such as Karate Church are likely to take on more shows that may have been held at Grandma’s House.
“The Make.Shift is a really cool place. Our buddy Kelly Sorbel runs that joint,” Bohler said. "He's like the DIY Godfather around here. He's been involved in a bunch of scene stuff for just ages, and he really knows what he's doing.”
Bohler also cites the Blue Room as another venue option.
“The Blue Room is good because it's good to have an all-ages joint, and they do a lot of cool stuff,” he said.
The venue’s 10th anniversary send-off event has a variety of festivities planned, including over 20 bands, food and more.
“Going out with a bang, that is the plan,” Bohler said. “That's why it's on the tenth of October because it's the tenth anniversary, on the tenth day of the tenth month.”
Grandma’s House is located at 800 N Garden St. Tickets for the event are $20. For more information, visit their Instagram account, @houseofgrandmas.
Willow Jacobson (she/her) is a campus life reporter for The Front this quarter. She is a second-year marketing major and public relations minor. When she's not working on a story she likes to read or watch movies. You can reach her at willow.thefront@gmail.com.
