Local live music fans can get their dance on when the longtime purveyors of ska, the Warsaw Poland Bros., hit town July 15. The Bend date kicks off a six-show Oregon run, the band’s first Oregon tour in more than a decade.
This tour is a milestone for founder and frontman Chris Poland, the band’s last remaining original member. In 2022, Poland survived a stage 4 cancer diagnosis that cost him a kidney and nearly his life, according to a press release from the band.
Over its 35-year run, Warsaw Poland Bros. has played more than 7,000 shows and shared stages with ska and reggae legends The Skatalites, The Specials, The English Beat, No Doubt and The Offspring. The band is known for playing marathon sets with no breaks. The band was founded by brothers Chris and Aaron Poland in 1991 while in college in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Trombonist Andy Wood wrote to The Source ahead of the band’s upcoming show at Silver Moon Brewing July 15. “I trained as a classical trombonist as a kid, put it down for almost 30 years, and picked it back up two years ago to join this band,” says Wood, who also plays with the Joshua Tree Philharmonic.
Besides Poland on vocals, guitar, sax and the occasional bagpipe, the current lineup includes Kevin Patterson on drums, Brent Simpson on keyboards, Greg Quinn on bass, Lo Natseway on saxophone, with Wood on trombone and occasional washboard. Wood also co-founded the Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland and ran it for a decade before moving to California.
“I’m old enough to know this is a young man’s thing to do,” Wood says. “I’m also old enough to know you don’t turn down a chance you won’t get again. Chris lost a kidney and came back with something to prove. I just stand near him and try to keep up. He’s doing great! The cancer is in remission and he’s playing three-plus-hour shows, sometimes without a break.”
Wood continues, “The part that still gets me is that I picked up the trombone again after 30 years, never imagining it would lead here, and now I’m in a band that strangers regularly tell us is the best live act they’ve ever seen. That’s an amazing thing to have happen at this stage of life.”
Everyone in the band lives in Yucca Valley/Joshua Tree, California, except saxophonist Natseway, who lives in Flagstaff and also joined the band somewhat recently. Wood relates, “Warsaw was her favorite band and at some point after a show she said to Chris, ‘You know, if you ever need a sax player . . . ‘ and here we are!”
Wood adds, “The live show is really the thing, though. Thirty-five years in, this is a band people tend to stumble across, wander into a bar not knowing who’s playing, and walk out converts. There’s a whole genre of ‘who WAS that band?’ posts from people who caught a set by accident. That word-of-mouth, you-had-to-be-there reputation is what a Bend crowd can expect on July 15.”
Warsaw Poland Bros.
Wed, July 15 7pm
Silver Moon Brewing
24 NW Greenwood Ave, Bend
bendticket.com/events/warsaw-poland-bros-7-16-2026
$15.02
This article appears in the Source July 9, 2026.
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