Submitted photoFestival-goers hang out on the water at the 2014 Crawfest at Powell Butte. The festival returns today and Saturday.

The agreement was no Larry and His Flask for one year.

The five members of Central Oregon’s folk-bluegrass-punk hybrid made the decision at the beginning of 2014. At the time, the band had already booked a full slate of shows for that year, and decided to take this year off from the band to “recalibrate, refocus, work on some solo projects — kind of do what we want,” said bassist Jeshua Marshall.

The timing seemed right for a breather. Marshall’s brother, drummer Jamin Marshall, relocated to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands at the end of the band’s touring slate in 2014, and guitarist and vocalist Dallin Bulkley moved to Wichita, Kansas, in March. Though Jeshua said everyone in the band is happy with the situation now, at first, they didn’t all agree time off was needed.

“For sure, there was some frustration in the sense of not wanting to lose momentum, you know,” Jeshua Marshall said by phone from his home in the Bend area (he, guitarist and lead vocalist Ian Cook and banjoist and tromobonist Andrew Carew still live in Central Oregon). “And some of the members didn’t feel as strongly about taking time off, so that created a little bit of frustration there. But I think we’re all happy about it now; it’s going good for us, I think.”

Of course, it helps to take a break from the break. The group, a fixture on the local music scene since 2003, will make its return this weekend for two performances: headlining slots on the Main Stage at the Bank of the Cascades Bend Summer Festival tonight, and at the eighth annual Crawfest at Powell Butte on Saturday.

Crawfest organizer and founder Jake Crawford, 35, said Larry and His Flask played the third Crawfest, in 2010. He’s asked the band to return to the Crawfest stage, located at his 40-acre farm, every year since.

“Just constant pestering, I guess,” Crawford said. “I was working with them — Jesse (Jeshua) from Larry and His Flask — and I’ve just been talking with him getting other bands, and I just kept saying, ‘I really love you guys.’ … And he finally said, ‘We’re in.’”

Since Crawford, a local veterinarian, started the festival in 2008 with just two bands, it has grown every year.

“A buddy’s band from the valley (Lowfront, from Oregon City) — I asked (one of the band members) what he needed to come out here and play, and he said, ‘A stage,’” Crawford said. “So me and my dad built a stage, and every year we added on and made it bigger. Now we have two stages.”

The second year featured four bands; 14 groups played the stage the next year; and for the last three years, about 30 musicians and groups have performed. This year, 30 bands of all genres — from metal to country to Christian music — will perform today through Saturday. The lineup features local and regional favorites such as Matt Borden and The MFB, Harley Bourbon and Woebegone; as well as touring acts from Canada and North Carolina. Camping also is included in the $20 ticket, and food vendors will be on site — although there will be no alcohol.

“(The festival) has been more underground,” Crawford said. “It’s just something people really look forward to.”

While Crawfest is the final gig on the books for Larry and His Flask this year, the band is looking at a possible comeback next year. It will be part of California Celtic punkers Flogging Molly’s Salty Dog Cruise 2016, from March 18-21. The band is also looking to record a follow-up to its 2013 full-length, “By the Lamplight.”

“After the year, we’ll record and start doing more, getting back at it,” Jeshua said. “Maybe not as much as before, maybe more, who knows? … We’re kind of gonna feel it all out, see where we’re at.”

Jeshua said he’s not too concerned about making the band work long-distance. For one thing, Jamin’s move may just be temporary. For another, the band’s five members have a strong bond tracing back to when Jeshua and Jamin teamed up with Cook to form the first lineup as teenagers.

“Most of us were pretty good friends before we were even in a band together,” Jeshua said.

As brothers, Jeshua and Jamin grew up in a musical environment, and learned how to play together. While LAHF started as a straight punk rock band and eventually began incorporating acoustic instruments into its sound, the band’s members come from strong acoustic music backgrounds.

“My brother and I have quite a few family members who are country and bluegrass players and singers, so we got a lot of influence from that; and Ian’s dad was a folk singer throughout the ’70s and ’80s,” Jeshua said. “When we were young, early on as teenagers, we got into punk rock; it gave us a voice to say what we wanted and the energy to get the crowd moving and stuff.”

The acoustic instruments came about as a way to busk on street corners and play house parties without any power necessary, according to Jeshua. The switch helped put the band at the forefront of the modern folk-rock movement — though the transition wasn’t easy at first.

“When we were first touring on (acoustic instruments), we got booked kind of on this bluegrass night, Amnesia in San Francisco, and we got booked under the assumption we were a bluegrass band,” Jeshua said. “When we set up the drums onstage, I heard someone in the audience yell, ‘Bluegrass doesn’t have drums!’ That was definitely one example that sticks out in my mind — ‘Maybe we’re not ready for this’ — but we played anyway.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7814, bmcelhiney@bendbulletin.com