Summer
20
Midwest band Wingtips coming to Baker City
By Lisa Britton
Go! Magazine
BAKER CITY — When Wingtips arrives
in Eastern Oregon, the band’s stop will be
part of the second leg of a current tour
that includes much of the West Coast.
And it’ll be all new.
“I’d never heard of Baker City before,”
said Vincent Segretario, who formed
Wingtips with Hannah Avalon.
The Illinois-based post-punk synth-
pop band plays Saturday, Aug. 6, at Chur-
chill School, 3451 Broadway St. (enter
through the 16th Street parking lot).
Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10
in advance at www.churchillbaker.com, or
$15 at the door. Proof of COVID vaccina-
tion or a negative test is required. Fully
vaccinated children age 15 and younger
have free admission with a ticket-holding
adult.
In typical years, which now means
pre-pandemic, the band would tour two to
three months out of the year to play 30 to
40 shows.
“We’re out there a lot,” Segretario said.
“Touring is our livelihood.”
He and Avalon met in college, where
they were both studying theater.
“But I always knew I wanted to perform
professionally,” he said.
Perform music, that is.
“I was more interested in music,” he
said, “but I learned a lot about perfor-
mance and vocal techniques.”
Wingtips started in 2015.
“We were very much operating like a
punk band, very much for fun,” he said.
“We kept touring, and as we kept go-
ing, we were getting bigger and better
shows.”
They started navigating the music
scene as a business and acquired a
manager.
Segretario said 2018 was when Wing-
tips really got going.
“We started to really fi gure it out,” he
said.
Then came a record deal, streaming
7
SOUND CHECK
WHAT’S PLAYING AROUND
THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
AUG. 3�10, 2022
WINGTIPS
When: Saturday, Aug. 6, 6 p.m.
Where: Churchill School, 3451
Broadway St., Baker City
Tickets: $10 at www.churchillbaker.
com or $15 at the door
services and a booking agent.
“OK, we’re really a band now,” he re-
members thinking at that point.
They toured in 2018 and 2019. A Euro-
pean tour was planned for 2020.
“Everything shut down. For a year it
was a waiting game,” he said.
They used the pandemic downtime to
plan, and played 40 shows in 2021.
And their sound, he said, is always
evolving but does have a steady descrip-
tion.
“It’s all rock ’n’ roll, at the end of the
day,” he said.
As for the band name? That dates back
about 10 years ago, to another project,
when Segretario showed up wearing
wingtip shoes and got a compliment of
“nice wingtips.”
He thought that sounded like a fi ne
name for a band.
“I haven’t worn wingtips since that
day,” he said with a laugh.
Carols Azuara/Contributed Photo
Wingtips will play Saturday, Aug. 6, at Churchill School in Baker City.
Heritage Station Movie Night
August 9th 6pm
Summer 20
2006 4th St. La Grande, OR 97850
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