Modest Mouse headlines Outlandia Saturday night.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The weather gods are shining on this year’s Outlandia Festival, which is this Friday and Saturday at Falconwood Park in Bellevue. Sure, it’ll be in the 90s on Friday, but Saturday is looking somewhat perfect and a ton better weather-wise than Maha Festival’s steam-table/thunderstorm/heatstroke weather.

Considering tickets cost the same for both days, your best value is Saturday, where you’ll get seven bands vs. Friday’s 5-band line-up. One assumes the Friday price is for headliner Lord Huron, and I must admit right up front I’ve never heard a song by this band, but am told people are coming from far and wide to hear them sing their mega-hit, “The Night We Met.” Their latest album is music from the motion picture The Starling Girl, a film I’ve also never heard of, released on Mercury Records. Lord Huron has a massive 14.6 million monthly Spotify listeners. 

The rest of Friday night’s line-up compliments Lord Huron’s mid-tempo acoustic balladry. Things kick off with Minne Lussa, an indie five-piece and local favorite fronted by the inimitable Matt Rutledge. The band plays shimmering rock songs reminiscent of acts like Luna and The Album Leaf. Really gorgeous stuff and a good reason to get there when the festival kicks off at 4 p.m. 

Next up is Des Moines indie band The Envy Corps, who have been around forever and always plays the 80/35 Festival. They’ve played Omaha clubs a number of times. 

Then comes (for me) Friday’s headliner – The Good Life. This legendary band emerged as a singer/songwriter side project by Cursive’s Tim Kasher in the early 2000s, releasing a string of classic albums on Saddle Creek Records. For years, Kasher would alternate between those two bands, releasing an album by Cursive which they would tour for year or so, and then releasing an album by The Good Life, which that band would tour, and so on. Eventually he also mixed in years where he focused on his solo album and subsequent tour. 

The Good Life hadn’t played in in years, but is currently on the road supporting a new double-LP rerelease of 2004’s Album of the Year, although this Outlandia performance will be more of a greatest hits set. I would love to see it. 

Finally, alt-folk singer/songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov plays a set before Lord Huron takes the stage. He played a sold out Admiral Theater earlier this year, and again, I have to admit to not having heard any of his music prior to that show, but the tracks I have heard since were great. 

Here’s the Friday schedule:

• Minne Lussa – 4 p.m. 
• The Envy Corps – 5 p.m. 
• The Good Life – 6:15 p.m. 
• Gregory Alan Isakov – 7:45 p.m. 
• Lord Huron – 9:30 p.m. 

Saturday’s line-up is more diverse and, in my opinion, rock solid.

It kicks off at 1 p.m. with Criteria. The Omaha-based indie rock band (often classified as emo, though they’re not really emo in my book), was among the cadre of acts that released music on Saddle Creek Records in the early 2000s. Fronted by the high-flying guitarist/vocalist Stephen Pedersen, Criteria hosts a holiday concert every year at The Waiting Room, which is always jam-packed with familiar faces. Let’s hope some of them show up for this early set. 

They’re followed by Chicago indie band Horsegirl, whose 2022 album, Versions of Modern Performance (Matador Records), was on my list of favorites that year. This band would have been a natural for the Maha Festival, but Outlandia gets them and is better for it. 

Then along comes Cat Power. I’ve seen her a number of times, and you’re either in for a performance that’ll do down as an Outlandia highlight, or you’re in for a train wreck. There is no in between. Cat Power a.k.a. Chan Marshall, was part of the high-water days of Matador Records when the label could do no wrong with acts like Pavement, GBV and Yo La Tengo releasing one classic album after another, with Cat Power right there in the mix.

Chan’s followed by a reunion of another classic Omaha band, The Faint, who by themselves is worth the prices of admission. This band of No Wave / Blank Wave / electronic-driven dance-punk rockers owned the early 2000s indie landscape next to labelmates Bright Eyes, and were one of the driving bands that briefly made Omaha indie-famous during Saddle Creek Records’ glory years. Do not miss.

Then comes the festival’s headliners…

Manchester Orchestra have been around forever and falls into the same dreary category as The National to some extent, though they’re not nearly as popular. They have a new EP out on Loma Vista Records.

Lots of people are excited about emo band Jimmy Eat World. Either you were a big Jimmy Eat World fan or, like me, you missed the boat with these guys. That said, there will be a ton of people on hand just for this set. Their latest release, the single “Place Your Debts,” was written by Desaparecidos’ Denver Dalley and The Faint’s Clark Baechle. Will Clark make a cameo appearance during the set?

Finally, it’s headliner Modest Mouse. They played Maha a few years back and have a huge fan base that counted me among them… back when they released their debut album, The Lonesome Crowded West. Unfortunately, they kind of moved on from that sound, and are more known for their single “Float On.” 

Here’s the Saturday schedule:

• Criteria – 1 p.m.
• Horsegirl – 2 p.m.
• Cat Power – 3:30 p.m
• The Faint – 5 p.m.
• Manchester Orchstra – 6:30 p.m.
• Jimmy Eat World – 8 p.m.
• Modest Mouse – 9:30 p.m.

I’m on the fence about going on Saturday afternoon, which should be pretty awesome, though I have some trepidation about the whole campsite situation, having never been to Falconwood and having no idea how to get there. I’ve talked to a couple folks who have attended, and they say it’s easy-peasy. 

Single-day festival tickets are $105 ($89+$16 in fees); two-day passes are $190 ($169+$21 in fees); single-day VIP tickets are $273 ($249+$24 in fees). This year all tickets include parking. More info at Outlandiafestival.com.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This morning, the folks at Outlandia announced the line-up for their August 11-12 festival at Falconwood Park in Bellevue.  Look, I knew The Faint would be playing somewhere in Omaha this year since they’re opening a couple Texas dates for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and here we are. The Good Life, Tim Kasher’s more mellow side project, also is on the Outlandia bill, as is Criteria. The only thing missing is a Conor/Bright Eyes/Desa performance to make it a Saddle Creek Records reunion festival (and hey, who knows who might show up…). 

The full Outlandia Festival 2023 line-up:

• Lord Huron – Their song “The Night We Met,” has 1.2 billion spins no Spotify and has been used for everything from Budweiser ads to season 1 of The Flash. Needless to say, I’m not familiar with them. 
• Modest Mouse – They headlined Maha a few years ago and continue to be staple at festivals. They’re known for the single “Float on,” but it’s The Lonesome Crowded West that puts them on my list of faves.
• Jimmy Eat World – Emo personified, though I like their latest release, “Place Your Debts,” which was written by Desaparecidos’ Denver Dalley and The Faint’s Clark Baechle. It’ll be like having an Emo night with real emo.  
• Gregory Alan Isakov – Nominated for a Grammy for best Folk album, he’s another act I’m not familiar with.
• Manchester Orchestra –  Seems like these guys have been around forever, kind of a natural for Outlandia considered they booked The National last year. From Atlanta with a new EP out on Loma Vista.
• The Faint – Two-time Maha headliners, they always put on a great show and without a doubt will again. Their set will be what people remember from this year’s Outlandia, much in the same way Turnstile will be the festival moment for 2023 Maha. 
• Cat Power – Legendary Matador Records singer/songwriter whose live shows are like walking on a balance beam – they’re either euphoric or a total meltdown — either way it’s entertaining. Can’t imagine her playing at a festival, especially if it’s just Chan and a guitar/piano. 
• Horsegirl – One of my favorites from last year, would actually have been a home run booking for Maha. My guess is no one there to see Lord Huron or Manchester Orchestra will have heard of this band.
• The Good Life – One assumes Tim Kasher didn’t want to do Cursive since they already have a May 16 gig at The Waiting Room to play Domestica in its entirety. This one was a pleasant surprise.
• The Envy Corps – Des Moines band that plays 80/35 every year and has come through Omaha a few times.
• Criteria – Another Saddle Creek Records entry, anyone who has seen their holiday shows at The Waiting Room know they’re really well suited to play festivals. 
• Minne Lussa – A favorite local indie band whose pastoral style will be dreamy in a park setting.

We knew it would be hard to beat last year’s line-up that featured The National and Wilco. I wouldn’t put any of these bands in those bands’ category, though Modest Mouse is a big deal. I simply don’t know anything about Lord Huron – it’s not a band that I’ve come across over the years, and not someone played on Sirius XMU, so some research is order on my part.

No word on tickets except they go on sale this Friday and will include tent and RV camping tickets. I gotta believe camping tickets will be the first to sell out – what better way to see a festival than to park your RV and walk to the concert site?

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The May issue of The Reader is on the racks and with it, my Over the Edge column which this time features an interview with Little Brazil. The band has a new record, Send the Wolves, that drops June 1 on new label Max Trax Records. Conor Oberst contributes to one of the tracks. The album release show also is June 1. I suggest pre-ordering some tasty blue vinyl from this here website. Look, it’s all covered in the article, which is on news stands now, online right here or, heck, just read it below.

Don’t Call It a Comeback
Little Brazil returns with a new album, line-up and record label.

Little Brazil is back with a new album that, in my humble opinion, is their best ever.

I write the above without any explanation assuming you and everyone else knows who Little Brazil was, is and will be. Because if you live in Omaha, listen to indie rock and know even a scintilla about the local music scene it’s virtually impossible to not know about the band and its history over the past 14 years.

With frontman Landon Hedges and bassist Danny Maxwell at its core, Little Brazil was always in the conversation as the “next big thing” during the mid-2000s when Saddle Creek Records bands were international commodities and Omaha was being heralded as the “New Seattle” by the likes of the New York Times, Rolling Stone and every publication that followed college music.

The band hit the ground running in 2004 with its debut LP, You and Me, released by former Omahan Mike Jaworski’s Mt. Fuji Records. It was followed by Tighten the Noose in ’07, also on Mt. Fuji, and Son in 2009 on Kansas City’s Anodyne Records. The line-up for those last two featured drummer Oliver Morgan and guitarist Greg Edds. In addition to becoming a staple on Omaha stages, Little Brazil toured the country both as an opening act and headliner.

What kept people coming back was Little Brazil’s sound — part indie, part emo, part punk and unmistakably Nebraskan. Or as I wrote in my first feature on the band way back in 2004: “What gives Little Brazil a leg up on the plethora of indie competition is Hedges’ love for basic melodies, great guitar lines and his strange, childish warble.” No one sings quite like Landon Hedges, his high croon/wail cuts through the deafening wall of guitar, bass and drums like a 10 million lumen beacon through the densest fog.

Little Brazil was always on the edge of breaking through to the next level, but after a year of touring Son, the band hit a wall in 2010 in the form of another band — Desaparecidos. Hedges held a central role in Conor Oberst’s punk-rock side project that re-emerged from a long hiatus with the Concert for Equality. But Desa wasn’t the only reason for Little Brazil’s slowdown.

“I moved to San Diego in 2010 to be with my wife,” Hedges said over slices of pizza and beer at Virtuoso Pizzeria in downtown Benson alongside Maxwell and new guitarist Shawn Cox. “I got married and DMax got married the same year. There was a member switch and, yeah, Desa got back together.”

At the time, Little Brazil was in the middle of writing its next record with new drummer Matt Bowen and new guitarist Mike Friedman, but when Conor calls, you pick up the phone. Desaparecidos recorded and toured off and on for the next five years. “Little Brazil went from doing five shows a year to two and then one,” Maxwell said.

Little Brazil, Send the Wolves (2018, Max Trax)

Then in 2015 after Oberst suffered a number of health-related issues, Desaparecidos came to an end. The following January Little Brazil entered ARC Studios with producer Ben Brodin and laid down the tracks for what became Send the Wolves, the new album that comes out June 1 on Max Trax Records (more on that in a minute).

The end of the last Desaparecidos tour is the subject of the first single off the album, “Making a Mess,” that features Oberst once again singing alongside Hedges. “We were sitting in the studio and I texted Conor, ‘You’re missing out on the dubious honor of singing on a Little Brazil song.’ He knew exactly what song I was talking about because Brodin had told him.”

Oberst walked over to the studio (He lives next door) and laid down his vocals. “It was the last song we wrote for the album, it was very special and it was nice that he sang on it,” Hedges said. The two-and-a-half-minute song carries the same energy as a Desparecidos song, with opening lines: “It feels like you’re making a mess / It seems that you’re walking away from something / That you don’t want to say or admit to.”

It’s not the only song on the album reminiscent of Desaparecidos’ style and energy, but instead of politics, Hedges writes about his life, from meeting his wife (“Wait for You”) to growing up in Benson (the infectious “Motorbike”) to his friendship with Maxwell. “This record is as honest as I’ve been on an album,” Hedges says, “and it makes me nervous to have the lyrics printed on the sleeve.”

The lyric sheet is a first for Little Brazil. Another first is releasing the album on vinyl. The label, Max Trax Records (maxtraxrecords.com) was the idea of Marty and Frank Maxwell, Danny Maxwell’s brothers. When Frank passed away unexpectedly in the summer of 2016, Marty and Danny launched the label as a tribute to their brother. Today, Max Trax is home to five bands including Little Brazil, with more on the way.

With the new record and new label also comes new personnel for Little Brazil. The aforementioned Shawn Cox has replaced Mike Friedman on lead guitar, while See Through Dresses’ drummer Nate Van Fleet has taken over behind the kit for Matt Bowen. The new line-up already is working on the followup to Send the Wolves, with plans to enter the studio soon.

Hedges and Maxwell will tell you they never had any allusions of making a living just playing music, and now in their mid-30s, they still don’t. “The motivation is just writing and creating new music with the guys,” Hedges said. “I’ll play music ’til the day I die.”

Little Brazil plays with Pro-Magnum and Eric in Outerspace June 1 at The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple St. Tickets are $8, showtime is 9 p.m. For more information, go to onepercentproductions.com

Over The Edge is a monthly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, music, the media and the arts. Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@gmail.com

First published May 2018 in The Reader. Copyright © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Lest we forget that tonight Modest Mouse plays at the Ralston Arena. The band’s last album was Strangers to Ourselves in 2015, which also happens to be the last time they came through Omaha, as headliners to that year’s Maha Music Festival. NYC band Mass Gothic opens. The band’s self-titled debut album came out on Sub Pop in 2016. Tickets are $39.50 to $55. 8 p.m. start time.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

First, read this. It’s the “where do they go next” interview with Lauren Schomburg, who sits on the Maha Music Festival board of directors. It’s a tough question because it’s going to be hard to top this year’s festival, which was held Saturday at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village.

Maha has become a model of how a festival should be run. Actually, it’s been a model of efficiency since its first year in 2009. Even way back then, whether you liked the bands or not, you had to admit the organizers and their army of volunteers had their shit together. Now in the present day, when there’s a band for practically every taste, Maha remains a streamlined, seamless experience, from the overall facility layout to the food offerings to the 501(c)(3) booths to the children’s play area. Even the parking and (in my case) bike lock-up availability was first class. And if you’re a VIP ticket-holder, they even had your restroom needs covered.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but what about the bands?

First off, this isn’t a comprehensive review of the day. I missed some bands in the middle when (like last year) I needed a break from the blazing sun, heat and humidity and escaped for a few hours of AC and a power-nap (What can I say? Getting old sucks). That, after getting to the festival late, which meant missing opening local acts Both (who I just saw a few weeks ago) and Freakabout (who I can see some other time). I’ve heard a smidgen of grumbling about the lack of a “local” stage at this year’s Maha, but only the smidge-iest of smidgens. While a festival gives local bands exposures to a new audience, it takes away slots for national bands that we’ll likely never get a chance to see in Omaha again.

Bands like Ex-Hex and Alvvays.  Ex-Hex, the post-punk trio headed by ex-Helium frontwoman Mary Timony, rifled through a set of fast, heavy rock songs in lean-rather-than-gritty fashion that was almost matter-of-fact in its presentation. They powered through one song after the next off Rips (Merge, 2014) playing the closest thing to psych-garage rock I heard Saturday, though their music sounded downright tidy compared to the garage bands I’m used to. Maha needs to book at least one dirty, sloppy, snarling, don’t-give-a-shit rock band per festival to get festival-goers a chance to say, “Can you believe they booked those guys/gals?”

Ex-Hex played on the “Weitz Stage” — the big/main stage — while Alvvays played on the smaller Javlin Stage right next to it, and though it didn’t look as impressive, the sound from the smaller stage was just as fierce (though not as loud). While Modest Mouse was the festival’s main draw, Alvvays was the band I was most excited to see. I chased them around SXSW this year, never able to get into the venues because they were already at capacity. Now here they were on an Omaha stage. Their candy-colored summer shimmer-rock was everything I hoped it would be, playful and fun in the mid-day heat. Alvvays played the best tunes off their 2014 debut along with a few new ones that have me looking forward to their next album.

So did the ploy of placing these two high-quality bands so shortly after noon get people to come out to Maha earlier? Only the Maha folks can say for sure, though the crowd of at least a thousand was definitely larger at 2 p.m. than in year’s past. Certainly Ex-Hex/Alvvays are more known quantities than, say, Army Navy and Appleseed Cast, bands that had the early slots back in the day and failed to draw even a few hundred people. I like the ploy, though when you book as many quality bands as Maha did this year, it’s hardly a ploy at all, it’s a necessity. If the festival is only one day long with one band performing at a time, you have to place them somewhere in the schedule or not book them at all.

Which brings us to The Jayhawks, a band that is almost legendary locally for putting on shows that bombed over the past two decades. I talked to more people Saturday who were excited to see Jayhawks than any other band. This year they filled the role of the “indie legacy” act that appeals to dudes in their 40s and 50s, many of whom were pushed against the fence of the VIP section during their set.

Somewhere in my basement is my copy of 1992’s Hollywood Town Hall (American Recordings) that contains at least a few of the songs the band played on stage Saturday, sounding exactly like they did when the band played them at Sokol years ago. Ignore the shaggy gray hair and little has changed. There had been a rumor that Matthew Sweet was going to join the band on stage, but it never happened (though photos of Sweet backstage appeared on Facebook Sunday morning).

It was during the Jayhawks’ set that I made my getaway for a few hours, missing All Young Girls Are Machine Guns, the Omaha Girls Rock band and Wavves, returning just in time for Speedy Ortiz on the small stage. What to say about the set? It was a solid walk-through of the band’s songs off their last couple albums, heavy on Foil Deer (Carpark, 2015) material. Frontwoman Sadie Dupuis has a voice that leans toward Liz Phair on songs that have Phair’s same face-kick confessional quality. Dupuis sings about her life with a knee-groin intensity that recalls ’90s post-grunge post-punk. I love it.

By 7 p.m. the crowd had ballooned to several thousand for Minneapolis indie hip-hop act Atmosphere. The duo of Slug and Ant have been coming through Omaha semi-regularly for nearly 20 years performing a straight-forward, beat-heavy style of hip-hop that takes the lead from ’80s acts and makes it wholly their own. Slug’s rhymes are clear, distinct, personal and in-your-face, which is why the crowd was yelling along with them as they held up their “scissors” (Slug’s word for a peace sign).  No other act got the crowd going at Maha like Atmosphere, a brilliant booking that cut across genres and age lines and added a bounce that the festival sorely needed.

Atmosphere was the perfect launching pad for the evening home stretch, led off by local heroes The Good Life. Tim Kasher and Co. lit up the small stage with a collection heavy on songs from their intense new album Everybody’s Coming Down (Saddle Creek, 2015) as well as the best Good Life material from throughout the band’s 15-year history. I’ve seen TGL play at least a dozen times over the years, but never to a larger crowd.

It was dark by the time Purity Ring took the stage. It became keenly obvious why they were placed so late in the day. The electronic duo of frontwoman Megan James and technology performer Corin Roddick played behind a cascade of multi-colored lights that were draped from the rafters of the big stage and shimmered in iridescent tones in time with their ethereal electronic rock. Their style is dense and gorgeous, ambient and stylish and wholly unique, casting a spell over the massive Maha audience. Again, another smart, unexpected booking that added a level of sophistication to the festival, though the duo’s set went on too long. A little bit of Purity Ring goes a long way since their music is anything but varied. No amount of pretty lights could make it any more interesting.

The crowd was at its apex for Modest Mouse. I strolled out of the VIP area and discovered the grounds had become a darkened chaos of people, but despite the sell-out size of somewhere in the 9,000 range (or so I was told, I still haven’t heard the official number) there was plenty of room to move either through the crowd or around it along the sidewalks that surround the park. Any more, however, and things could have gotten ugly.

Modest Mouse came on late (maybe because they had to tear down all of Purity Ring’s Christmas lights?), and I was told were going to play late as well. For me, they were one of the least interesting bands on the bill, having seen them do a stand-around set years earlier at Sokol. Not much has changed in their performance style, though their music certainly has changed. Somewhere in the past decade, Modest Mouse lost its weirdness, swaying north of the caustic noise that made The Lonesome Crowded West (1997, Up) a masterpiece. When they discovered thicker, more straight-forward beats and melodies, they lost their edge and (of course) become much more popular. So who can blame them? Had they kept on their initial trajectory they wouldn’t be headlining festivals.

Still, the crowd was definitely into them (at least the folks near the stage) as the band played through their catalog of recent releases. I didn’t stick around until the end, opting to get a head start to O’Leaver’s where Speedy Ortiz had announced they’d be playing an unofficial after party.

Which brings us back to how we started this tome and the question that was on everyone’s minds as they walked back to their cars (or bikes) after a long, hot day in the park: What can Maha do to top this? Just having another sell-out ain’t gonna cut it. In fact, a sell-out is the least they can do to match this year’s success.

As the article pointed out, Stinson’s already booked for 2016. The most common suggestion is expanding Maha to two days, effectively doubling your volunteer needs but gaining some cost efficiency associated with staging, etc. Could Omaha support a two-day indie music festival or would Maha have to expand the stylistic breadth of bands to include non-indie stuff? Maybe instead of two days, Maha should stay at one day and book a next-tier indie band like Arcade Fire, Beck or Wilco and either raise ticket prices or find bigger sponsors to cover the increased booking costs.

My vote would be for Maha to add a Friday night event to the all-day Saturday event (a suggestion which sounds strangely familiar).

The real question: What do the folks who run Maha want Maha to become? What’s their definition of success? What’s the ultimate end-game? How far can they push it before Maha bleeds too far away from its original vision? Lauren outlined where she wants Maha to go. What’s the vision for the rest of the Maha team?  And, by the way, there’s nothing wrong with keeping it just the way it is (no matter what Tim Kasher says).

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As I was saying, there were a couple Maha after parties. The official after party was at Reverb. The unofficial party was at O’Leaver’s where Speedy Ortiz finished off the night playing a ferocious set that was different from their Maha set list, crystallizing the difference between seeing a band at a festival and seeing a band in a club setting.

Playing to a crowd of 60 or 70 that included members of Maha bands Alvvays and The Good Life, Dupuis and her band gave a performance that was as dynamic and intimate as you would expect, wearing a flower in her hair given to her by a fan who stood right in front of her.  It was a stark reminder that no matter how much fun festivals may be, they’ll never be a replacement for seeing a band at a small music venue — one of the major advantages of loving indie music.

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A couple shows tonight…

Midwest Dilemma opens for Nashville’s Great Peacock tonight at Slowdown Jr. $8, 8 p.m.

And indie/emo band Super Ghost headlines New Music Monday at The Waiting Room tonight. Also on the bill are Bill Riccetti and Like Noise But Louder. The free show starts at 8 p.m.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.