Oh what it must feel like to be a touring band that’s played sold out shows for months opening for other bands and to finally get your own headlining tour and then show up in Omaha and play to an empty room. Such was the case for Amazing Baby. There was only around 20 people in Slowdown Jr. last night (including members of the opening band and bar help). That’s got to be a let-down and feel a bit demoralizing, but is something that every new band has to go through. I blame last night’s Flogging Molly show, as well as the band for not allowing a local opener on the bill, and myself for not giving the details about opener The Entrance Band in my Amazing Baby write-up.

Fact is, I didn’t know anything about The Entrance Band before last night. I found out while talking to one of the few patrons before their set that the band consists of frontman Guy Blakeslee, who’s past bands include The Convocation Of…, and Paz Lachantin — who in addition to being super-model attractive in her 5-inch high heels is something of a legend who can count among her former bands A Perfect Circle, Zwan and The Chelsea — a band with Melissa Auf de Maur. Lachantin also played on albums by Queens of the Stone Age, Jenny Lewis, Jarboe (of Swans) and many more. It seemed like more people were at the show for The Entrance Band than Amazing Baby.

As it turned out, their set was just as riveting as AB’s. The trio played a blistering — but short — set of psychedelic burn-out music that screamed, thanks to Blakeslee’s unreal guitar histrionics and Lachantin strutting around like a Bryant Park amazon holding the entire set together with her bass work.

Amazing Baby followed shortly afterward at around 10:30 and played a half-hour, six-song set. I thought maybe they short-changed us because of the crowd, but they only played six songs at The Troubadour last week, too. Despite the embarrassingly empty ambiance, their performance was “spirited” (to say the least) with a blinding LED/laser light show and fog machine (see photo). Yeah, they deserved a better crowd, but what are you gonna do? It was a Sunday night after a hard-rocking weekend. Hopefully the empty room won’t discourage them from coming back…

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I skipped Os Mutantes Saturday at The Waiting Room and am sorry I did. I’m told by people who were there that it was an amazing show and a decent-sized crowd. Friday night I hung out at The Saddle Creek Bar and caught a set by The Foghorns, a Seattle-based anti-folk roots rock band complete with tuba whose influences — John Prine, The Velvet Underground and Violent Femmes — were apparent in their music — a great set played in front of a smattering (maybe 12) of people.

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Tonight at Sokol Auditorium, it’s the return of Social Distortion — a band that you gotta love because all you need is one of their albums (or songs?) and you’ve got the entire catalog. No openers are listed on the Sokol website. Show starts at 8 p.m., tickets are an unreal $30.

Also tonight, LA indie band Sea Wolf, riding high after one of their songs was used in a Chevy Malibu commercial (another was in a RadioShack ad), is playing at Slowdown Jr. with Port O’Brien & Sara Lov. $10, 9 p.m.

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