by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Push the Sky Away (Bad Seed Ltd.)

I was glancing at Chris Aponick’s activities at SXSW, and it looks like he was trying to hit all the shows I would have tried to hit last night: Iggy and The Stooges, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and most of all, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

I came to Cave’s new album, Push the Sky Away, a few months after its January release. I listened to it right after it came out, but just wasn’t feeling it.

Which reminds me of something wizened Domestica frontman Jon Taylor told me way back when his band was called Mercy Rule. As we were driving in his van on the way to a gig in Des Moines (I was along writing a feature for The Note) Jon talked about how music reviews were inherently skewed based on whatever mood the reviewer was in at the time s/he listened to the record.

“If the guy’s in a crappy mood, he’s going to give the record a crappy review.” I’m paraphrasing here. It’s been almost 20 years. Still, truth never ages, and Jon’s comments were spot on. If you’re in a shitty mood, you’re less likely to give some as-yet-unheard music a fair shot. The same thing’s true if you’re distracted or simply not paying attention.

That’s kind of what happened with this new Nick Cave album. I first listened to it on Spotify while doing something else — maybe I was running or writing — whatever it was, I wasn’t able to really absorb the album.

And then last week I listened to it again while making dinner — specifically a chicken florentine dish that takes about an hour of mindless focus — when suddenly the album came to life as the best thing I’ve heard so far this year. I turned around an listened to it three more times on repeat, mesmerized.

As with most of his recordings, Cave is almost perversely dramatic in his singing/speaking, as if telling dark lies at midnight, which btw, is  the best time to listen to this record. The centerpiece is a track called “Jubilee Street,” that starts out with a quiet repeated guitar line and Cave’s storytelling, slowing building to a massive crescendo over six and a half minutes. Its style and sound is exactly like something written by the Kadane Brothers, the sparks behind classic bands Bedhead the The New Year. But instead of Matt Kadane’s droll vocal delivery you get Cave at his most urgent and most triumphant. Huge.

The rest of Push the Sky Away is just as cool. From the dark rumble of “We Real Cool” (with the classic line “Wikipedia is heaven when you don’t want to know anymore,” to the nearly 8-minute-long rock eulogy “Higgs Boson Blues” that calls out both Hannah Montana and her real counterpart: “Miley Cyrus floats in a swimming pool in Toluca Lake and you’re the best girl I ever had…”

There are moments when I’m reminded of Robbie Robertson’s forays into spoken word drama — his “Somewhere Down the Crazy River” comes to mind — but Cave is never nearly as corny and never less than sincere.

Let me join Aponick’s chorus in saying that a certain music festival (or promoter) could do much worse than getting Cave or Iggy onto an Omaha stage.

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In this week’s column, a look at the futility of boycotts featuring Facebook, Hy-Vee, Rush Limbaugh, CVS and The 49’r. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here.

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

South by Southwest 2013

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Ah SXSW, how I miss you so. The food, the frolic, those amazing days and nights of music music music, stumbling from one club to the next, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of tomorrow’s stars or yesterday’s has-beens, the constant search for a urinal or just a place to sit down, the endless lines, the long trek from one end of 6th St. to the other, the long treks to and from the hotel on the other side of Red River, the odd celebrity sightings, the late night bacchanal when 6th Street turns into a noise-orgy of drunks, drugged and angry young townies weaving through the crowds on single-gear dirt bikes.

Not this year. No money. No time. Goddamn you, American Dream.

Instead, like most of you, I’m stuck at home reading reports by the handful of friends who made the long journey to Austin. The biggest contingency of reporters comes from our very own Hear Nebraska reporters team. You can follow along at hearnebraska.org, though as of noon, we’re still waiting for their first report.

Somewhere out there in the middle of 6th Street is The Reader‘s Music Editor Chris Aponick, who is updating thereader.com daily with his SXSW updates. Here’s his first report.

The Omaha World-Herald‘s Kevin Coffey began his coverage yesterday. You can follow his exploits at his Rock Candy blog.

Want a perspective from outside of Omaha? Sure you do. Your best bet is austin360.com, who posted the best list of critics’ picks I’ve seen online, right here. Hopefully they’ll do this again next year when I return.

Strangely, if you go to pitchfork.com, you’ll see nary a word about SXSW. I guess they figure it competes with their own Pitchfork fest? Who knows.

So will the austin360 team head to The Parish tonight for Saddle Creek Record’s showcase. If I was going, I’d get that coverage out of the way on day one. While it’s interesting to see what kind of reaction Omaha bands get in Austin, there’s nothing more meaningless than traveling cross country to see the same bands perform who play here all the time. Check out the full schedule of Saddle Creek band SXSW performances right here.

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Meanwhile, back in Omaha, the only show going on tonight is yet another tribute / cover band at The Waiting Room. It’s understandable that there are no indie bands booked this week in town, this being SXSW week, but I can’t remember a longer stretch of time that Omaha has been without a decent touring indie show. Is One Percent / The Waiting Room losing interest in indie? The only indie show on their calendar this month (other than the two-night Tim Kasher gig at O’Leaver’s) is Wavves March 28. The kids at Slowburn are doing their best to pick up the slack. Things will (slowly) turn around in April…

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Pro-Magnum at O’Leaver’s, March 9, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The bulk of my evenings this weekend were spent at O’Leaver’s.

Friday night was Digital Leather and a crowd bigger than the one that showed at O’Leaver’s for Criteria the prior weekend, or so it seemed. A real crush-mob. I guess word is getting out about Todd Fink of The Faint joining the band. Or maybe folks are just beginning to “get” what Digital Leather is all about.

Needless to say, the crowd was too big to get close enough for a photo. No matter. You’ve seen these guys before, but you probably haven’t heard them quite like this. The weird, dark, sweaty nature of the evening helped it eclipse the new lineup’s debut a few weeks ago opening for Ty Segall at Sokol Underground. But then again, DL always plays better at O’Leaver’s, where they’re surrounded by friends and booze confessors.

While I have five or six DL albums and tapes, I’m not an expert on the band’s complete discography. That said, I’d never heard the second song played during their set, one in which Fink and frontman Shawn Foree traded vocals. I’m told that they’re writing new material, but I have no idea what role Fink is playing in it. As I’ve said before, Fink adds the synth element that’s been missing in Digital Leather for years, even stretching back to when Foree and others played keys on stage but were barely heard. There’s no missing Fink in the mix. Intense fun. As was the pseudo-encore of “Studs in Love” which is once again becoming a staple in the band’s set (as it should). If you missed it, DL’s next stop is opening for White Lung April 2 at The Slowdown.

Speaking of openers, I got to the club early enough Friday night to catch the last half of Plack Blague’s twisted, bass-heavy, goth-techno-bondage set. The bass was so loud it caused ripples in people’s voices when they spoke. Creepy weird.

So for the past two week’s I’ve gone to the new, improved O’Leaver’s where I saw bigger crowds than I’ve ever seen at this hole-in-the-wall music venue. I’m more used to seeing a casual 40 or 50 people leaning on the railing watching the show, and that’s exactly what I got Saturday night for the debut of Pro-Magnum (They spell their name with all caps, but I’m not doing it. Sorry guys. Just like I won’t add an exclamation point to a band’s name (Snake Island, Thunder Power, take note).https://lazy-i.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

Consisting of Pat Oakes, Paul Hansen and frontman/bassist Johnny Vredenburg, the power trio sounds like they’ve been spending their off hours listening to ’80s metal and prog rock. Heavy, heavy shit with strong riffs on anthems that are more punk than metal and are anything but run-of-the-mill. Halfway through the second song, Vredenburg broke into a super-intricate bass riff that was proggy and powerful and very cool. His vocals are mainly of the shriek/scream variety, but what else would you want from power/metal/rock? For a debut, pretty awesome; they definitely left the crowd wanting more.

As for the rest of Saturday night, touring band Buildings played the kind of driving, dark music you’d expect to hear while beating someone to death with a ball-peen hammer. Closing band, the charmingly named Flesh Eating Disease, played one- to two-minute noise explosions keyed with hyper-active yell vocals, the kind of thing you can imagine being played to break down Gitmo prisoners just before the water-boarding begins.

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Tonight at Slowdown Jr. it’s Seattle mutant garage band The Spits on what I’m told could be their last tour ever. Opening is Coaxed and The Dad. $12, 9 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

And now it’s time for the weekend round-up…

Icky Blossoms and UUVVWWZ are headed to Austin for South By Southwest next week and need some cash to pay off the cops when they get busted doing nude shit on 6th St. It’s the same old story. Anyway, both bands are playing tonight at The Slowdown, along with two other bands that should be going to SXSW but aren’t: Lincoln’s Life is Cool and Omaha up-and-comers Pleasure Adapter. $7, 9 p.m. in the big room.

Meanwhile, across town at fabulous O’Leaver’s, Digital Leather (with newest member Todd Fink of The Faint) takes the stage tonight along with Lincoln leather-hood degenerate Plack Blague and DJ Butterhips, whose mantra is WWBRD — What Would Burt Reynolds Do? $5, 9:30 p.m. Don’t forget to get yourself a Monkey La La in the new tiki room.

Also tonight, Satchel Grande — who also is headed to SXSW — is playing at The Waiting Room. $7, 9 p.m., and Millions of Boys plays at The Barley Street Tavern with St. Louis band Dsoedean and headliner Calling Cody. $5, 9 p.m.

And then comes Saturday night and the stage debut of Pro-Magnum at O’Leavers. The band consists of Paul Hansen (Perry H. Mathews, The Fucking Party) on guitar, Pat Oakes (Ladyfinger) on drums and Johnny Vredenburg on bass and vocals. Also on the bill are Flesh Eating Disease and Minneapolis band Buildings. $5, 9:30 p .m. Get there early.

Also Saturday night, Blue Bird plays The Barley Street with Lonely Estates and Dead Leaves. $5, 9 p.m.

Sunday night Kevin Seconds, founder of influential ’80s hardcore band 7 Seconds, will be presenting a special solo acoustic performance at The Sydney with Filter Kings’ frontman Gerald Lee, Jr. No posted price but these shows usually run about $5 and start at 9 p.m.

Also Sunday night, Doomtree artist Dessa returns to The Waiting Room with Aby Wolf & Purveyors of the Conscious Sound. $10, 9 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Women Who Rock exhibition is at the Durham Museum through May 5.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The following column also appears in this week’s issue of The Reader, and online at The Reader website, right here.

Before we get started, a caveat: I’m not a huge fan of museums.

I know, what’s not to like about majestic limestone-carved capsules of history? How could you not want to spend hours studying the miracles and wonders of our great civilization’s past?

There’s just something about museums that bore the piss out of me.

Maybe it’s the static nature of it all, like staring at a bug encased forever in amber, wondering what could have been had it just moved a little bit faster across the surface of that leaf, avoiding the brown ooze that would capture its languid pace forever so that someone like me could stare at its mistake a million years later. I’m less interested in the bug than in how the bug could have been stupid enough to get one of its shoes stuck in the goo.

Or maybe it’s all the dim lighting. Or the smell. As soon as I step into a museum, a wave of fatigue washes over me like a fuzzy blanket. My feet — perfectly fine before I stepped inside the time mausoleum — suddenly, strangely become sore as I search among the glass display cases for a place to sit down.

Don’t get me wrong — I like the idea of museums, but most times I’d rather be somewhere else, capturing a moment myself rather than staring at someone else’s captured moments.

So with that caveat firmly behind me, I write about my Sunday afternoon at the Durham Museum and one of its current exhibits: Women Who Rock — Vision Passion Power. According to the handout given to me upon paying my $9 admission, the exhibit — created by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — “highlights the flashpoints, the firsts, the best, the celebrated and sometimes lesser-known women who pushed rock and roll music and the American culture forward.”

Sounds impressive. There’s one problem with the concept, however. No one goes to a rock concert to read about music, just like no one goes to a restaurant to read about food. You go to rock shows to partake, to participate in the experience; not to study it, to consume it. And I say this as someone who has been writing about music for nearly 30 years. I know at the end of the day whatever observations or criticism I level about anyone’s or any band’s music isn’t worth the mark left on a piece of used toilet paper compared to actually listening to the music.

(According to QuoteInvestigator.com it was Martin Mull, not Laurie Anderson or Frank Zappa or Miles Davis, who coined the phrase “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” Garth Gimble, you were so right).

When it comes to rock and roll, once you take the actual music out of the equation, all you’re left with is spent drugs, bad sex, inflated egos and broken dreams… and out-dated fashion.

The lasting impression from seeing this exhibit was that the biggest contribution women made to rock music was wearing costumes designed by someone else. Sure, there were other artifacts on display — glossy B&W publicity photos, hand-written song lyrics and studio schedule entries, early album pressings and beat-up guitars. But the majority of the exhibit was dedicated to stage costumes worn by the stars themselves displayed on headless, fist-clenched mannequins, many (most) bearing the stains of last-eaten meals spilled upon their breasts in a drug and/or booze-induced stupor.

On display: Bob Mackie’s indian costume w/feathered headdress made for Cher for her “Half Breed” tour; the futuristic uniform worn by Janet Jackson in her “Rhythm Nation” video; Cyndi Lauper’s Starry Night-painted shoes; a heavily stained sun dress that once covered Mama Cass, and the creme de la creme: Madonna’s cone-tit costume designed by Jean Paul Gaultier. All standing upright like cast-off skins shed on stages across the country, nay the world.

Comment overheard from a klatch of middle-aged housewives who stared with open-mouth wonder at the Pat Benatar outfit: “These women, they were so tiny.” In fact, after seeing these costumes, you would think the average “women who rocked” were only about three feet tall instead of the giants we grew up believing they were.

Just as deflating were the write-ups that accompanied each display, documenting where they were born, their first record and where it was recorded, and the rest of their mundane music history up until around 2010 or their deaths. Academic. Dry. Tame.

Missing was the struggle, the defiance, the heartbreak, the battles won and lost and how they had to fight to be heard. Example: How do you summarize Tina Turner’s career and not mention the years of abuse suffered at the hand of husband Ike and how she ultimately rose above it? I guess it’s not that kind of exhibit.

Some displays felt oddly off the mark, focusing on the asides rather than the achievements. The Joni Mitchell display, for example, concentrated almost entirely on her forgettable debut album Song of the Seagull while virtually ignoring her landmark Blue album. Was the emphasis made on what the Hall of Fame could acquire rather than the star’s actual legacy? Maybe.

Which brings us to the inevitable list of the missing: Courtney Love, Tracy Chapman, Sinead O’Connor, Nico, Carly Simon, Karen Carpenter, Bjork, The Go Go’s, Annie Lennox, Dusty Springfield, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and on and on. The exhibit acknowledges the exclusions due to space limitations, but how do you include an exhibit on country upstart Taylor Swift and not include Dolly Parton?

Most people won’t notice, or care. After all, exhibitions and museums contain only a slice of history, not the whole of history. And anyway, rock and roll’s real museum is the vinyl and tape and CD and mp3 that’s used to record it for play back again and again. The rest is just bugs stuck in amber.

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

First published in The Reader. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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LA indie hip-hop superstar Murs performs tonight at The Waiting Room with Prof, Fashawn, Black Cloud Music, and Kosha Dillz. Get your hip-hop on. $15, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Jeremy Mercy (Travelling Mercies) and Matt Whipkey (The Whipkey Three) open for Chicago singer-songwriter Dan Tedesco. $5, 9 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

With nothing indie musicwise to write about this week (though my column, which goes online tomorrow, is about the Women Who Rock exhibit) I thought I’d take this moment to point out another in a series of flaws and apologize in advance…

I keep finding instances where I either spelled someone’s name or project wrong in a past article or blog post and the person who I was writing about (who must have known I blew it) said nothing. First, sorry for the f-ups. It’s happening more often lately, moreso (I think) out of work stress than age. Second, tell me when I got it wrong, please.

One guy who I’ve been mentioning in the blog for years recently pointed out (very subtly, very nicely) that I consistently spell his last name wrong. In addition to being a cardinal sin in journalism, I’m more than familiar with this sort of mistake as people always spell my name as if I were the lost son of Ed McMahon (there’s no f-ing “o” in my name).

And then yesterday in Facebook I noticed that the trailer for Nik Fackler’s documentary, Sick Birds Die Easy, was finally uploaded to YouTube. I was trying to figure out when I first wrote about Nik’s new movie, so I did a search in Lazy-i and discovered that I referred to the film as Sick Birds Die Young. What a massive f-up. And it appeared that way in print, too. Nik must have saw the error, but being the charming lad that he is, said nothing to me about it. If it appears only online, I can at least try to fix it (that’s the miracle of the Internet). If it’s in print, well, I can’t do anything about that as The Reader typically doesn’t publish corrections.

Anyway… Here’s the trailer to Nik’s new film. Looks like a drug-filled adventure featuring some familiar faces from the Omaha music scene. And tell me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that the guy from the “What do you think this is, a Holiday Inn?” commercials?

Here’s a classic Holiday Inn spot featuring above-mentioned actor. That series of commercials was better than 90 percent of the sitcoms aired on network television over the past 10 years:

That’s not the only project Nik has been busy with. There’s this little ol’ band called Icky Blossoms that just happens to have dropped a new video this week for the song “VIllage,” directed by and featuring the folks in Church of Tomorrow. As George Takei would say, “Oh my….”

One more thing…

As mentioned last week, the comments section of this website has been busted for who knows how long. It’s fixed, so you can now conveniently report my mistakes 24 hours a day…

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Criteria at O’Leaver’s March 2, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Let’s start with the tiki bar.

It’s amazing that O’Leaver’s could create this alternate reality in a club that used to be as well known for its smell as its music. Tucked away in the space just behind the main bar (take a left right after you go through the front door), the room used to house a punching machine and other assorted junk. Bands stored their gear back there between sets. It’s now been transformed into a dimly lit tropical paradise complete with cabana grass and a sunset mural. Classy, very classy.

Manning the tiki bar Saturday night was none other than Cursive guitarist/vocalist and Mayday/Lullaby for the Working Class frontman Ted Stevens. Dressed in a grass skirt w/coconuts Stevens took to his bartender role like he’d been slinging cocktails his entire life, and before you know it, I was holding my first O’Leaver’s umbrella drink — a Mai Tai — and it was damn good. Too good. Going-straight-to-my-head good. Dangerously good. I could get used to hanging out back there, but who knows what the hours will be for the tiki bar. I assume it’ll be manned on weekends and/or show nights. Time will tell.

As for the rest of O’Leaver’s, well the place isn’t that much different. You’ll notice the new baby-poop-brown paint job for the ceiling tile and that any holes in the walls of albums have been properly filled. And the smell is gone. There were other new touches throughout I’m sure, but after that Mai Tai, things became a blur.

Saturday night’s crowd was one of the largest I’ve seen shoe-horned in that place. Tables and chairs has been removed to make more room near the “stage,” and as a result, unless you were in the melee, you couldn’t see who was performing. I’m told that Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship has become a power trio — they certainly sounded like one — lean, mean, in top fighting shape. This new, tight ensemble brings more focus on their Sonic Youth/Pixies-flavored indie songs.

They were followed by the all-powerful Criteria. A note about O’Leaver’s sound — normally it’s impossible to talk to the person standing next to you while the band is playing without shouting a hole in a person’s eardrum. Not Saturday night. The mass of humanity was part of the reason, acting as a natural sound buffer from my perch next to the (new) soundboard in the back of the room. Don’t get me wrong — it still sounded loud, just not painfully so. If Criteria was a test of the bar’s improved sound system, it passed with flying colors.

Criteria rolled out two or three new songs that showed a progression for a veteran band that rarely plays these days. The songs were riff-heavy in a good way; fierce and anthemic as anything they’ve done before. Of course the question is what will they do with this new material. Judging by the rather large contingent of Creekers in the house, could a new release be in the making?

For my ears, O’Leaver’s ranks just behind The Waiting Room and Slowdown in sound quality — it’s  a really balanced room considering it’s just a dive bar. The deficit (at least Saturday night) is the sightlines since the band is standing on the same floor as the crowd in front of it. With no head room to add a riser, the only solution is to get off your ass and join the crowd. Maybe it’s not such a bad problem to have after all.

Sharp-eyed fans noticed that the upcoming Tim Kasher dates at O’Leaver’s (March 20 and 21) are promoted by One Percent Productions. Giving the club the ability to pre-sale tickets is only part of the reason. Will One Percent view O’Leaver’s as a viable venue for smaller touring acts that are ill-suited for the much larger TWR and Slowdown? If so, we could see a new beginning for a club with a legendary past.

BTW, weekends at the club are booked through the balance of the month…

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Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s Utah Valley band Desert Noises with Omaha’s own John Klemmensen and The Party. $7, 9 p.m. Check out some Desert Noises below…

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

O’Leaver’s new tiki bar menu. I see trouble…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

No, I’m not getting paid by Cursive to promote the grand re-opening of their new bar — the old O’Leaver’s on south Saddle Creek Road. I’m merely highlighting that the bar’s next three days of music out-classes most of the area’s “festivals” and multi-band special events.

O’Leaver’s already had a reputation for being a veritable pickle-tank of booze-soaked humanity, a place where any beer-fueled madness could happen and usually does. But now they’ve added a tiki bar. The only thing more destructive to mankind than nuclear fission, television and high-fructose corn syrup is rum drinks. Most people (me included) just can’t resist the fruity temptation of a Zombie, Singapore Sling or everyone’s favorite liquid porn, The Mai Tai. Needless to say, I’ll be sipping on an umbrella drink instead of my usual Rolling Rock this weekend while I enjoy the musical festivities.

It starts tonight, at O’Leaver’s. Simon Joyner and The Ghosts headlines a show that also features So-So Sailors and the mega-talented McCarthy Trenching. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Also tonight, it’s Friday, March 1, which means it’s also Benson First Friday, the day of the month where there’s absolutely no parking anywhere on Maple St. (and which has been declared a holiday by those greedy, car-towing bastards at The Fullhouse Bar). The highlight event is (as per usual) at The Sweatshop Gallery, which tonight features Powerful Science, Gordon, Mint Wad Willy and Austin band Luchuguillas. And, apparently, there will be some boxing action going on “in the ring.” Admission is free but donations are encouraged (all cash goes to support Sweatshop). 7 p.m. start time.

Up the street, The Waiting Room tonight is hosting the Javier Ochoa memorial benefit concert featuring a slew of tribute and cover bands. $7, 9 p.m.

Saturday night, it’s Day Two of O’Leaver’s grand re-opening, featuring Criteria (wow, three shows in as many months, I guess they really are back) and Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship. The usual $5, the usual 9:30 start time.

Also Saturday night marks the return of garage legends White Mystery to The Brothers Lounge. Opening is Snake Island and the incomparable Solid Goldberg. 9 p.m. start time. No posted cover price but probably at least $5.

Meanwhile, over at The Waiting Room, Modern Lovers’ Jonathan Richman returns. $15, 9 p.m.

Sunday is the final day of O’Leaver’s grand re-opening, and it starts in the afternoon with an opportunity to dine on a wide selection of smoked meats courtesy of Smoke Buds — the culinary duo of Danny Maxwell and Craig Fort. Get your meat on. Bands start at 5 p.m. with Ladyfinger and Rock Paper Dynamite.

Missing anything? Put it in the recently fixed comment section. Have a a glug-glug weekend…

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.