by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s a quiet weekend as far as touring bands go, but there are still a few things going on.

At The Sydney tonight it’s the debut of Chromafrost, a new band that includes members of Techlepathy. Opening is Dim Light and Ron Wax (Ron Albertson of Mercy Rule). $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s, it’s the Cheap Trick Challenge! As the promo goes: “The Third Men (Omaha), The Dead Girls (Lawrence) and North of Grand (Des Moines) will pay tribute to one of the greatest bands in the history of rock-n-roll: Cheap Trick. Each band will play a few CT songs in their set. North of Grand will open, followed by The Dead Girls, then The Third Men.” $5, 9:30 p.m.

There are a couple benefit shows happening this weekend, too. Tomorrow night (Saturday) at Slowdown it’s the Omaha Roller Girls Black and Blue Ball, with DJMBowen at the turntable. Also on the bill is Hot Tail Honeys — I have no idea what that is. Cost is $8 and all money goes to the Hefflinger Dog Park.

Sunday night is the Songwriters at Espana Benefit featuring Matt Cox, All Young Girls Are Machine Guns (Rebecca Lowery), Alex Dimiig, Underwater Dream Machine (Brett Vovk), and Daniel Burns (Vago) and other doing acoustic sets. Donations will go toward area youth charities. Show starts at 6 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 © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.