BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – On any given weekend night, you can expect to hear the thump of bass or clattering of a drum kit booming out of the minimal black facade of The Shakedown. There is usually a gaggle of people, dressed in black, embroiled in conversation on a brief cigarette break in between sets.

Hollie Huthman owns the local rock music venue The Shakedown and neighboring pinball bar The Racket. The two late-night spots are joined by a door in the middle and a punk-rock atmosphere. The Shakedown is expansive and formidable, with brick walls and limited lighting. The Racket is more intimate, with an impressive back bar and an assortment of pinball machines tucked away upstairs.

The venue regularly hosts a variety of alternative music acts, from metal to doom-gaze to folk punk.

Huthman started dreaming up Shakedown about 20 years ago, while she was working at a credit union and decided to be done with the desk job lifestyle. She was a live music photographer and a musician and loved going to shows.

“The advice was always do work that you love, and live music was what I loved,” Huthman said. “And I thought that doing some kind of work related to helping other people experience that is what I wanted to do.”

Armed with a financial background, good organizational skills and a knowledge of nightlife, she and Watson put their savings together and started up the venue on a shoestring budget.

“Really our intention was to fill a gap in the live music scene at that time for a medium sized rock venue,” Huthman said.

The pair will celebrate 15 years of Shakedown in March. They opened the day before St. Patrick’s Day in 2011.

“We made it, barely,” Huthman said. “There was literally a pile of garbage still on the floor the day before we opened, from construction.”

Despite their challenges, Huthman said Shakedown had a great reception.

“In our first couple days, we had some really amazing lineups of bands. I think because I had connections in the music community that were years in the making, I was able to convince some really cool bands to come play,” she added.

Huthman credits Hunter Motto, now talent buyer and general partner at The Crocodile in Seattle, for helping book bands at Shakedown in the early days. Motto started out booking bands at Western Washington University and has also booked Bellingham Exit and Northwest Tune-Up.

According to Huthman, The Racket used to be a knife and smoke shop. Her and her business partner, Marty Watson, bought the shop from its previous owner to help pay the bills for Shakedown.

“At some point, a couple years into running the venue, we learned that there was no way we were ever going to be able to give ourselves a paycheck if we didn’t have some other way to make income,” Huthman said.

It’s a common strategy for venues, especially in Seattle, to have a side bar with no cover and expanded hours to diversify income, she explained.

In addition to pulling in extra cash, she wanted to provide a space where people could conveniently come take a break from the show or interact with a similar crowd without having to go to a show.

At the time, Watson’s wife Heather was getting into fixing up pinball machines and started acquiring a bunch of them. The second floor of the Racket, which didn’t initially have a use outside of storage, became a pinball haven.

Huthman helped fill the niche of a middle-sized rock venue, but she says there’s still a need for more venues in town.

“One of the biggest needs, I think, is smaller spaces, like Ramble Tamble-size, because that’s where bands start, and bands have to have a place to start if they’re gonna move onto bigger venues,” she said.

The key to a thriving scene? Variety, Huthman says. Every venue can’t fill every need.

She shouted out Jonny McIntyre, owner of Odd Fellows, for his specialized music space. Odd Fellows, she said, fills a need for a smaller space that’s great for acoustic and jazz sets, generally quieter music.

“That’s really important to have a space that’s good for that,” she said. “Like, The Shakedown is horrible for singer-songwriters. Because it’s a cold cave. But it’s amazing for really loud rock bands.”

Huthman plays bass in stoner-metal band Dryland. The Shakedown is a consistent feature in what she calls their “new-ish” music video “Weekend at Swampy’s,” which was released in November of last year.

Huthman also serves on the Bellingham City Council, blending her experience in the local music scene with civic activity.

“You know, being a part of the music scene isn’t just about being a musician or being a fan. There are roles to play in journalism or photography or graphic design, sound engineering, running a venue, being the person behind the bar,” Huthman said.

From joining a board or commission to contacting a local representative, there are ways for community members to make a difference.

“Even a councilmember that is really active and talking to a lot of community members, experiencing a lot within the city, they can never see everything or hear about everything. So we really rely on hearing from people in the community about what they’re experiencing,” she said.

The Shakedown has shows booked through mid-November with acts varying between hard rock and funk. For more information, head to shakedownbellingham.com.

We are Whatcom is a weekly column featuring Whatcom County residents making a positive impact on the community. To submit a Whatcom County resident to be featured, click here.