Ah, O’Leaver’s. The whole world could be changing around you, spinning off in all directions, but Omaha’s favorite hole-in-the-wall neighborhood-bar music venue never changes (and never will). It’s become somewhat renowned as a destination location for small-scale punk or indie rock shows. But not so much for acoustic-driven music like Champaign, Illinois’ Casados. A boy-girl, guitar-harmonium duo, their specialty is heartfelt indie-folk ballads that highlight their pretty harmonies. A perfect fit for Mick’s or an urban coffee house, but not Saturday night at O’Leaver’s. Especially after a drunk-bus pulls up and dumps off a dozen suburban meatheads who aren’t in the mood to feel Casados’ pain. After about 15 minutes of yelling to hear some Segar, the booze hounds stepped back on the bus and left. So did Casados.

The evening’s headliners, Norman, Oklahoma’s Traindodge, cancelled, I’m told because they were offered a higher-paying gig in Kansas City. That left only Thunder Power!!! Last time I saw these guys, they were a full-out indie rock band that included Lazy-i intern Brendan Greene-Walsh. Well, Brendan’s no longer in the ensemble, and Thunder Power!!! no longer is a full-out indie rock band. Their sound is low-key, low-fi, indie acoustic music (guitars, keyboards, drums, clarinet) in the manner of, say, early Sebadoh. As I said last week, making a clarinet work within the confines of a rock band is next to impossible, and Saturday night’s set proved my point. Whereas the clarinetists were talented, their toot-toot-tooting was out of place and too out front in the arrangements, just the opposite of Midwest Dilemma’s use of clarinet, which was subtle and merely supporting. A member of the band told me they only had a handful of practices before this gig, and are still searching for their sound. More to come.

Tonight at The Waiting Room, Detroit rockers Electric Six with Test Your Reflex and Night Kills the Day. Electric Six first made its mark with its critically heralded debut, Fire, on XL/Beggars in 2003. $13, 9 p.m.

Just an early heads-up that this is a particularly strong week for shows. I’ll be highlighting the best of them on the mornings of the gigs, but a quick rundown includes: Tuesday — Starlight Mints at Sokol Underground; Wednesday — Junior Boys at The Waiting Room (and Fromanhole at O’Leaver’s); Thursday — Mark Mallman at The Waiting Room. And it continues right on through the weekend. Expect to lose some sleep.

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I got down to The Holland Center last night just as Bright Eyes went on stage at around 10. The house didn’t look sold out, but it looked pretty close, at least from my perspective in the front of the first balcony. Standing center stage was Conor Oberst, dressed in a white suit with white shoes, his long black hair draped over his shoulders, parted in the middle Michael Jackson style (the long-haired Michael from the past few years of utter craziness). The rest of the band also wore white, except for Andy Lemaster, who wore a Dalmatian-spotted white hoodie.

It sounded as good as you’d expect in the Holland, with the band backed by a 6-piece woodwinds/strings ensemble and two drummers – Janet Weiss and Rachel Blumberg. Off to stage left, behind a couple keyboards wearing a white suit, was Bright Eyes full-timer Nate Walcott. I spent the first 20 minutes trying to find the third full-timer, Mike Mogis. That guy with the beard, that couldn’t be him, could it? Of course not, he has too much hair. Oberst announced from the stage that Mogis couldn’t make the show last night because he was at a prenuptial dinner for his brother AJ, who’s getting married today. Filling in were two guys from Oakley Hall.

So those were the players. The only other notable stage presence was the projected visual effects, which consisted of Lincoln artist Joey Lynch (according to The OWH) using an overhead projector to cast images – dots, flowers, Cassadaga artwork, toy wooden blocks, Etch-a-sketch scratchings, marker scribblings – but mostly drops of watercolor paint, which spilled and flowed in psychedelic color collages. The images were projected across the entire back of the stage wall and onto the band, substituting for typical stage lighting. Was it effective? Well, sometimes.

They played most of the songs off Cassadaga, but also worked in a few numbers from Wide Awake. I don’t have a playlist and wasn’t keeping track, but I know that it differed from what he played in Minneapolis the night before.

A few observations:

— Oberst said he liked the Holland, but that it looked too damn new. It lacked that lived-in feel. He then invited the crowd to get rowdy. “This is a rock and roll concert after all” he said, and then suggested they go write some graffiti on the walls. Knowing better, he quickly added, “No, no. Don’t do that, I’m only joking.”

— It took about 40 minutes before people got out of their seats and made their way to the front of the stage, which quickly became packed with people standing and waving the arms. Most of the front section was on their feet for the last third of the show.

— The woodwinds/strings section was an inspired idea, but sounded like an afterthought on most of the songs, adding only subtle accouterment to the overall arrangements. It would have been interesting to hear the set backed by the entire Omaha Symphony.

— They didn’t play my favorite song from the new album, “I Must Belong Somewhere.” Other Cassadaga songs left out of last night’s set: “If the Brakeman Turns My Way” and “Coat Check Dream Song.”

— The highlight was a rendition of “Cleanse Song” (which, btw, he didn’t play the night before in Minneapolis). He dedicated it to “Nancy” – his mother.

— He finished the set with a moody version of “Lime Tree,” then dropped his guitar and quickly said, “thanks” and shuffled off the stage. It was abrupt and kind of strange. They came back a few minutes later in classic encore style and played three songs, including an especially noisy version of “Road to Joy,” which I guess is going to become his signature encore number, probably because he and the band have fun playing it — kind of like hearing a Junior High concert band goofing off playing their instruments as loud as they can while the band director is out of the room.

All-in-all, it was a straight-forward 90-minute concert, well-played and well-sung. Oberst was in fine voice, sober (he drank a beer between songs) and not a bit nervous. Like he said in his interview, if you go to his concerts in hopes of seeing a train wreck, you’re going to be disappointed. For better or worse, those days are behind him.

Let’s get to the weekend…

Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s Cap Gun Coup, Bear Country, Eustace and The Answer Team. Here’s an interesting tid-bit about Cap Gun Coup: When I interviewed Oberst in February, we talked about up-and-coming bands. The only local act that he mentioned that he liked (that wasn’t already on Saddle Creek or Team Love) was Cap Gun Coup. The show, which is sponsored by the Douglas County Democratic Party, starts at 8 p.m. and is free.

Meanwhile, down at O’Leaver’s, it’s Brimstone Howl with Box Elders (featuring local legend Dave Goldberg on drums and keyboards), Buffalo Killers and Blind Shake. 9:30, $5.

Saturday night at The Waiting Room it’s punk trio The Dollyrots with The Coffin Killers (their second and final performance before drummer Jeff Heater heads to San D.), Roman Numerals and Flurry. 7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at O’Leaver’s it’s Thunder Power!!! with Casados, Tea Ceremony and Train Dodge, $5, 9:30 p.m., and over at PS Collective it’s Outlaw Con Bandana and Miracles of God. $5, 9 p.m.

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Just placed online, a profile/interview with Junior Boys (read it here). Jeremy Greenspan, one-half of the duo that also includes Matt Didemus, chatted from Seattle via cell about his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, and how it resembles Omaha and inspires his music, about shunning NYC and the DJ lifestyle, and the making of their most recent album, So This Is Goodbye.

What didn’t make it into the article was our discussion about their just-released Dead Horses EP, a 5-song collection that includes remixes by such well-known artists as Hot Chip, Kode 9 and Carl Craig. Greenspan said the EP was their record label’s (Domino) idea. “The record label knew we were going to tour some more,” he said, adding that So This Is Goodbye‘s sales are a slow-burn process, “not a massive explosion. From the label’s perspective, we need to be visible as long as possible, and that means touring a lot. So it’s a good idea to get new things out there.”

Since Greenspan and Didemus are a product of the DJ culture, they had no problem coming up with their list of remixers on their own. “Kode 9 and Hot Chip are both personal friends of ours,” Greenspan said. “Carl Craig is a legend in the world of dance music, so that was a no-brainer. The others are up-and-comers who we don’t know personally, but heard and were excited about the music they were doing. It was a way to showcase new talent.”

There is one drawback of having your music remixed, however. “It’s somewhat unpleasant when what they’ve done is better than the original song,” Greenspan said. “We’ve had that happen countless times.” Tickets to Junior Boys show next Wednesday are still available from the One Percent Productions website.

So are tickets to tonight’s Bright Eyes concert at The Holland Performing Arts Center. The $30 price tag may have scared a few people away from this show, which is a shame because fans will never see the band locally on a better stage. It’s certainly worth a few more bucks to hear Oberst and his crew in a venue that is renowned for its acoustics. The line-up tonight is Bright Eyes full-time members Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, along with Andy Lemaster (Now It’s Overhead), Janet Weiss (ex-Sleater-Kinney), drummer Rachel Blumberg (M. Ward), violinist Anton Patzner and a small strings and woodwinds ensemble. The show starts at 8 p.m. with McCarthy Trenching and Oakley Hall.

It’s not the only landmark show this evening. Tonight at The Waiting Room there’s a reunion of Omaha hardcore music heroes Clayface. From the insert to their 4-song single, “Regular,” released on Corn Pie Records and recorded in March 1994: “In March, we went to our friend’s house, Jim (Bogensberger), and recorded this record on an eight-track he has set up in his basement.” Listed as “Clayface Regular” were Jeff, Kelley, Kirk, Robert, Ross and William. I believe Jeff was Jeff Heater, Will was William Thornton and Robert was Bob Thornton. I’m not sure of the rest of the lineup on this single, but I’m sure someone can fill in the blanks (here). They’ll probably all be there tonight, along with a large contingent of characters from Omaha’s mid-’90s golden age. Also on the bill are Race for Titles and Bombardment Society. $7, 9 p.m. Bring your earplugs!

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Sorry for the delay in updates. The last couple days have been dominated by hospitals and family. Look for an interview with Junior Boys online tomorrow, along with any necessary catch-up work. Until then, here’s a fun story about yours truly in this week’s issue of UNO’s Gateway student newspaper. That’s right, for some reason they decided to do their alumni focus on me and this website. Writer Charley Reed did a cracker-jack job (my only quibble — Charley, I’m 41, not 44, but then again, I guess I look like I’m 54 so it all works out). Check it out.

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I’ll be blunt. I wasn’t looking forward to Midwest Dilemma’s set last night at The Saddle Creek Bar. The last time I saw Justin Lamoureux perform was a couple years ago at either The 49’r or O’Leaver’s. It was just him, his guitar, and a set of slow, mournful folk ballads that put me to sleep. So when I showed up at SCB at 9:15 — the only one there other than the bands and the bar staff — and found out Justin was first up I thought “Jeeze, I just hope it doesn’t drag on forever.” To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. Lamoureux has retooled his sound since that sleepy night at the Niner, with an up-tempo style and a solid supporting cast featuring Elizabeth Web on clarinet and vocals and David Downing on cello. I’ve seen clarinets used in folk/rock bands before, always with embarrassing, toot-toot-tooting bar-mitzvah-flavored results. Web is the first to really pull it off, aware that she’s supporting Lamoureux and not the center of attention. Downing’s cello work is subtle and engaging and fits seamlessly within the constructs of Lamoureux’s earthy, up-tempo folk ballads. Together, the cello and clarinet are in perfect balance, and Web’s vocal harmonies are gorgeous. Lamoureux’s vocals have become more straightforward, almost aggressive, with a slight Oberst overtone at times that I hope he isn’t doing on purpose (what causes that quiver?). He’s got a good voice that’s well-showcased on new material that bounces between rural 4/4 folkies and laid-back waltz-time ballads. Lamoureux says he’s in the studio working on a new record.

I thought Paper Owls was a duo — April Twist on vocals, keyboards and guitar and Cricket Kirk on drums. Nope. The band now includes a six-string bass player, which, because of the poor mix, was all I could hear last night. Twist’s slight voice, which kind of resembles Natalie Merchant’s, was lost in the throbbing din, as was her guitar on the first few songs. She switched to a Korg halfway through the set. I think their songs — indie rock bordering on FM alternative — are probably pretty good, if I could only hear them. At the very least, they need to ratchet down their rhythm section (Kirk plays on a massive Gretsch kit) and find the right balance with Twist’s vocals and guitar.

Headliners The Winter Blanket is a Minneapolis 4-piece who records for Chairkickers, a label owned and operated by the fine folks in Low. Stephanie Davila’s vocals were in line with Hope Sandoval’s on a couple moody numbers that resembled Mazzy Star songs. It was guitarist Doug Miller, however, who handled most of the leads on the heavier indie rock songs, which also featured Dave Campbell on bass and keyboards/effects (that were ear-shattering at times). I liked them best on the more restrained material vs. their over-the-top rockers.

Finally, at around 12:30, there was Hot Sick a.k.a. Sarah Xiong along with a friend of hers on a second guitar. If Davila’s voice resembled Sandoval’s, Xiong’s is a dead-on match, especially on her moody, simple acoustic numbers that dripped with a broken-hearted loneliness. Xiong has a sweet, indie-acoustic style that’s a throwback to women I loved back in the day (Joni, Suzanne Vega) and would be interesting to hear backed by a full band. Could she pull it off with that delicate voice of hers? She’s probably better off with just her talented sideman.

The weekend is upon us.

Tonight at The 49’r, the debut of The Coffin Killers featuring Lee Meyerpeter and the soon-to-be-gone Jeff Heater on drums — along with School of Arms and The Danger. It’s a preview of the band’s farewell gig next Saturday at The Waiting Room. Tonight it’s $5, 9:30 p.m.

And speaking of The Waiting Room, tonight its stage hosts Simon Joyner, Bill and Renee Hoover and Tim Perkins. $7, 9 p.m.

Saturday night it’s Elf Power with Tomato a Day at The Waiting Room. $8, 9 p.m., while over at The Niner it’s old-school punk re-engineered for the ’00s with Speed! Nebraska bands The Monroes and Domestica (ex-Mercy Rule). $5, 9:30 p.m.

Speaking of Lee Meyerpeter, one of his other bands, The Filter Kings, is playing at Mick’s Saturday night with The Mercury’s. $5, 9 p.m.

If you’re out and about Saturday afternoon, swing over to Elmwood Park for the annual Earth Day concert, this year (like last year) featuring Anonymous America (2 p.m.) and Sarah Benck (3:50 p.m.) and the Robbers. Jazzwholes close it out at 5.

Then, Sunday, two huge shows: Brooklyn-based afrobeat band Antibalas is at The Waiting Room with Krudas Cubensi, $15, 9 p.m., while down at Sokol Underground it’s Aqueduct with What Made Milwaukee Famous and Canasta. $7, 9 p.m.

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Hits Daily Double, an industry website, is reporting that Cassadaga sold 53,271 units last week to finish No. 5 in the sales charts just beneath Timbaland, Akon, Tim McGraw and Now 24, which topped the chart with 86,572. Says HDD, “One bright spot is the rise of Conor Oberst’s nom de band, Bright Eyes, whose critically kudo’ed Cassadaga debuts at #5 for Omaha indie Saddle Creek, by far the best chart performance in the history of the young troubadour most often compared to Bob Dylan and Neil Young.”

When I’m Wide Awake came out a couple years ago, HDD reported that the album sold 40,784 in its first week. Later that day Saddle Creek reported sales of 56,167. So I suspect that the number will be higher than HDD currently is reporting. Saddle Creek and Press Here Publicity (Bright Eyes’ publicist) will likely release the official numbers later today. If I get them before lunch, I’ll update the blog.

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