by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Welcome to another icebox weekend. Getting tired of all this winter bullshit? Should have thought of that when you decided to live here.

O’Leaver’s has a cure for the late-February wintertime blues: Drink booze, and lots of it.

That certainly will be the remedy tonight when Digital Leather returns to O’Leaver’s. The band’s split LP with The Hussy is now available for pre-order from Southpaw Records, and features disturbing cover art by DL member Todd Fink (also of The Faint). Consider this show as a sort-of warm-up for SXSW, where Digital Leather will be playing the Goner Records party March 14 at the legendary Beerland (FYI, Beerland doesn’t partake in SXSW madness, so that show is actually $10 with or without a wristband).

Opening tonight for Digital Leather at fabulous O’Leaver’s is Skeleton Man. I have no idea who that is. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Also tonight, Chicago metal instrumental trio Russian Circles (Flameshovel, Suicide Squeeze, Sergeant House) plays at The Waiting Room. Ken Mode and Inter Arma open. $15, 9 p.m.

Saturday night, Saddle Creek Records’ latest signing, Twinsmith, plays at Slowdown Jr. This one also is a warm-up for SXSW, where the band has an official showcase gig. Opening is the surreal rock sounds of InDreama (Nik Fackler, Dereck Higgins) along with The Caves and Lot Walks. $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, back at O’Leaver’s Saturday night, The Brigadiers headline a bill that includes Ghosts of Guyana and indie instrumental band Relax, It’s Science (featuring Jeremy Stanosheck). $5, 9:30 p.m.

Finally, Sunday at The Waiting Room it’s legendary rocker Marshall Crenshaw. Doesn’t everyone have at least one Crenshaw record in their collection (Mine’s Field Day from 1983)? Opening is The Bottle Rockets. Tickets are $20 Adv/$25 DOS. PLEASE NOTE: This is a 5 p.m. show! You’ll be home in time to catch the end of The Oscars.

That’s all I got. If I missed something, post it in the comments section. Have a good weekend and (try to) stay warm…

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This week’s column in The Reader is last week’s blog entry about the Civic Auditorium and The CLink, with some slight modifications. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here.

Not much else is going on news-wise as everyone (myself included) gets ready for SXSW. We’ll be seeing a few bands play through Omaha on their way to Austin. I’ll post those gigs before they happen.

Speaking of gigs, there’s yet another Johnny Cash Tribute night, this time being held at The Barley Street Tavern tonight. You can see the full line-up here. The ring of fire gets lit at 9 p.m. and the cover is $5.

Also tonight, Omaha C&W band The Electroliners opens for 24 Hour Cardlock at Slowdown Jr. Also on the bill are Vago and Banana Shadow. $5, 9 p.m.

Finally, it’s the next installment in Film Streams’ Hitchcock 9 Silents in Concert Repertory Series featuring the silent films of Alfred Hitchcock brought to life sonically by live musicians. Tonight it’s the 1927 film Easy Virtue featuring live music by Ben Brodin. Tickets are $12 general; $10 students and $8 for Film Streams members. The curtain rises at 7 p.m. Find out more 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Highlights of the One Percent Productions weekly concert report: First Aid Kit has been scheduled to play The Waiting Room June 2. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. Team Love Records’ second signed artist, Willy Mason, opens that show. (Anyone remember who Team Love’s first signed artist was?).

Also this Friday morning at 10 a.m. tickets go on sale for The Faint’s June 13 show at Sokol Auditorium. I suspect this will sell out, so get them while you can.

And 1% announced that Matt Pond PA is playing The Waiting Room May 14. I like Matt Pond.

Speaking of shows, tonight at The Waiting Room Skypiper headlines a show featuring a cavalcade of artists that includes Eli Mardock. $8, 9 p.m.

Also tonight Your Artist of the Year (according to the OEAAs) Matt Whipkey plays his weekly solo set at Tracks Lounge (formerly The Trackside) at 8. Matt Cox opens, and the show is free.

Meanwhile, Your Songwriter of the Year (according to the OEAAs) John Klemmensen also plays a solo acoustic set out at The Library Pub tonight with Bret Vovk (Under Water Dream Machine). 8 p.m. and free.

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Faint, circa now.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I read it early this morning on Faintbook: The Faint have a new album coming out. Titled Doom Abuse, the new record hits the streets April 8 on SQE Music, home to CSS, Johnathan Rice, Desert Noises, among others.

According to the SQE website: “In the spring of 2013, The Faint existed again. Anxious to make new music the band recorded a 4-song white label 12” they referred to as ‘Preversions.’ That music, primal and punk rock in its approach, became the unplanned blueprint for Doom Abuse.  The band booked time with longtime collaborator Mike Mogis to mix the album before even really having songs written.”

The entire album took three months to make, according to SQE. “Since much of Fasciinatiion was made sitting behind computers, the musicians wanted to embrace a live sensibility and collective rawness. A lot of the record was created live in the room, with first takes and first ideas taking precedent.”

Read the whole SQE write-up here.  Fans can pre-order the record right now on iTunes for $7.99 and can immediately buy and download the first single, “Help in the Head.” Needless to say, a tour will follow.

I guess we kind of knew this was coming all the way back in 2011 when this article came out (followed by this article). Everything seemed to be in place for the band to continue on without Joel Peteresen, and thankfully it has. So can The Faint pick up where they left off six years ago? And what about Digital Leather, Todd Fink’s other band, which is scheduled to perform at SXSW in a few weeks (at at O’Leaver’s this Friday night)? And finally, is there a place in The Faint’s future for Saddle Creek Records, the band’s original label? It seems unlikely, but you never know…

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Speaking of old-time Saddle Creek acts, Cursive just released a new live performance video of Ugly Organ staple “A Gentleman Caller,” via LoveDrunk. The video was shot around the same time as the December trio of live shows at The Waiting Room. Take a look:

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlines at The Waiting Room, Feb. 21, 2014.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Friday night’s Brad Hoshaw & the Seven Deadlies concert at The Waiting Room was more of a victory lap than a CD release show. Hoshaw’s new record, Funeral Guns, was produced partially through a Kickstarter campaign, so 100+ people already have been in possession of the CD for a few weeks.

The evening began with a solo set by Kyle Harvey, the former musician and Benson resident now poet from Fuita, Colorado (who just so happens to have a poetry reading tonight at Pet Shop Gallery in Benson, see below). The last time I saw Harvey perform was on the same stage a few years ago surrounded by no fewer than a dozen people, none of whom were standing on the floor in front of the stage. Last Friday night that same floor was almost filled. It was the largest crowd I’ve ever seen at a Harvey performance, and that fact didn’t escape Kyle, who said, “I guess you waited until I moved away to finally show up,” or something like that.

Kyle Harvey at The Waiting Room, Feb. 21, 2014.

Harvey preceded to play a short set of the introspective acoustic folk he was known for back when he lived in Benson — dark, sad, confessional ballads with a double-helping of lonesomeness for good measure. The irony, of course, is that Harvey is one of the more upbeat guys I’ve known from the scene; his between-song patter was warm and funny and anything but depressing. Harvey says he’s giving up music, but that would be a shame, especially since one of the best songs on the new Hoshaw album was written by him.

Though they’re called the Seven Deadlies, there were only three “deadlies” joining Hoshaw — Vern Ferguson on bass, Scott Gaeta on drums, and guitarist Matt Whipkey, your 2013 “Artist of the Year.” When it comes to this band, Whipkey and Hoshaw have a sort of symbiotic relationship. Yes, Hoshaw’s songwriting and voice are at the center of everything, but it’s Whipkey’s guitar fireworks that add the Technicolor, the panache, the drama.

While I like the new record, there are few things that, uh, left me scratching my head. The production is at times a bit heavy handed. There’s too much organ on too many tracks; and the layered harmonies on a few numbers are reminiscent of dusty Dan Fogelberg albums. There are moments on this record that sound like a product of an El Lay recording studio circa 1975 (to some people, that’s a plus).

All the over-the-top “smoothness” of the record was gone when the music was performed as a four-piece. Hoshaw and Co. stripped the songs down to bare essentials, raw and unvarnished the songs’ natural elements shined so much brighter. It came down to Hoshaw, his acoustic guitar, his songs, his voice, and Whipkey tossing grenades into the audience in the form of his blazing electric guitar work. Whipkey’s solos — while solid on the record — exploded throughout the live set — gorgeous tone combined with glowing drama that (at times) veered close to being out of control, especially on songs like the title track, the grim, gutteral “New Tattoo” and Harvey cover “It Falls Apart.” Riveting stuff.

The night closed with a sing-along encore that included a surreal re-imagining of John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” and a quiet, un-mic-ed edge-of-the-stage version of “Blue Bicycle” that left the 200 or so on hand in a trance.

So I get back to what I asked in last week’s column — what’s this guy have to do to break out of Nebraska and be heard on a national stage? That was a common question being bandied about before and after his set. The consensus: It all comes down to getting out on the road — not as a solo acoustic guy, but with this band or at the very least, with Whipkey, the only consistent member of The Seven Deadlies and the most critical.

Something tells me if you asked Hoshaw, he’d say hitting the road is the plan. But it was the plan the last time, and other than one small tour he never got out of town with the band. He has to this time. He has no excuses, and if he ever wants to be heard outside of Benson, he has no choice.

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As mentioned above, Kyle Harvey reads from his new book of poetry, Hyacinth, tonight at the Petshop Gallery, 2727 No. 62nd St. in Benson. Joining him will be Greg Kosmicki (the 2000 and 2006 recipient of the Nebraska Arts Council’s Merit Award), Paul Hanson Clark (co-founder and operator of the poetry studio SP CE in Lincoln), and Omaha musician and novelist Michael Trenhaile. It starts at 7:30 and as far as I know it’s free. More info 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies at The Waiting Room way back on Nov. 12, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Brad Hoshaw certainly has done his homework. Tonight’s Seven Deadlies CD release show couldn’t have received more coverage in “the local media” (including yesterday’s post). Expect a crowd at The Waiting Room, and arrive early for poet Kyle Harvey as he slings on his guitar once again to serenade the crowd. $7, 9 p.m. See you there.

Also tonight, Copenhagen/Chicago-based one-man-project Cleeman plays at Slowdown Jr. Opening is the incomparable Dereck Higgins (who also will back Cleeman during his set) and Lonnie Eugene Methe (backed by Megan Siebe on cello). $8, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night, The Lupines play at The Sydney with Noah Sterba & the No Way. This from John Ziegler of The Lupines:

“Since Calvin and I are playing together, and since we have the last two recording sessions from Brimstone Howl’s final days recently pressed on vinyl, we will be selling them for seven bucks a copy, one night only!!! There is Magic Hour, recorded by Jim Diamond in Detroit, with the smooth sweet sounds of AM radio magic issuing forth from the grooves, etc. — our last as a band, released by Certified PR Records in Florida. And then our penultimate: Blowhard Deluxe, our final session with local master Mark Wolberg, as groovily dirty as anything we ever did in Brooks Hitt’s studio. Cathartic and off the cuff, released by Deadbeat in Ohio.”

Face it, you need those records. Show starts around 9:30, no idea on the cover, but it’s probably $5.

Also Saturday night, Thunder Power plays at The Side Door Lounge with The Sub-Vectors and Pyrate. 9 p.m. and FREE.

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BTW, did you get your Morrissey tickets for May 19 at Rococo in Lincoln? They went on sale today (presale yesterday). Get them while you can…

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Brad Hoshaw towers over the crowd…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s column, an interview with Brad Hoshaw on what went wrong with the last album and what he hopes will go right with the new one. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online at thereader.com website right here, or since this is a music-related installment, you can read it below:

When Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies released their debut album five years ago, I thought for sure it was going to be a breakthrough.

That record was pure bliss. If you haven’t heard it (and apparently not many of you have), it’s worth seeking out. It’s as good — if not better than — most records that came out in 2009, loaded with heart-wrenching hook-laden folk-rock songs that once heard are impossible to get out of your head.

Despite my growing pessimism about the ever-decomposing music industry, I still believe the only thing that matters is good songwriting — no matter how much music gets thrown into the giant milk barrel we call the internet, the cream will always rise to the top to be discovered by some enterprising record label exec looking to break the Next Big Thing.

And yet, that Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies’ debut album went nowhere. What happened?

Hoshaw said the record’s failure to gain traction outside of Omaha wasn’t for lack of trying. “I did as much as I could to capitalize on that last record, but trying to do the job of a record label by myself was probably unreasonable,” he said over a decaf Americano at a Benson coffee shop.

Hoshaw’s formula to break that first record involved a home-grown college radio campaign, where he personally sat down and called more than 300 radio stations from a promotion list he gleaned off a fellow musician.

“I sent out 120 copies of the CD to radio stations, but when it came time to do follow-up calls, I was burned out,” Hoshaw said. “I hit a threshold with what I could do by myself without going crazy.”

What about touring? Hoshaw said his band went on a two-week East Coast tour, but afterward band members said they couldn’t afford to do more. “They have families and jobs, and it didn’t make sense to lose money on the road,” Hoshaw said. Eventually the “Seven Deadlies” evaporated to just one — guitarist Matt Whipkey.

Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies, Funeral Guns (self-released, 2014)

Now Hoshaw has a chance to try again. He’s celebrating the release of his new Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies album, Funeral Guns, this Friday night at The Waiting Room. The 10-song opus continues along the same path as the debut, with songs destined to be radio-station fodder (if they ever catch a programmer’s ear). Tunes like sinister opening ballad “New Tattoo,” sleek West Coast-rocker “Company” and album-closing magnum opus “It Falls Apart” continue to define Hoshaw as one of the best songwriters to come out of Nebraska.

So what’s he going to do differently this time ‘round? “I want to widen my fan base,” Hoshaw said. In collaboration with Whipkey, Hoshaw has picked Minneapolis, Des Moines/Ames and Kansas City/Lawrence as target markets where he’ll play gigs at least once a month.

Funeral Guns got made thanks to the support of 130 people who funded a Kickstarter online crowd-funding campaign. Hoshaw said he wants to keep that fan base happy and grow it as much as possible because he’ll need to call on them again when it comes time to fund his next record. Call it a grassroots effort rather than the traditional music career path that involves attracting the attention of a record label with hopes of signing a contract.

“Record companies are difficult; the odds are always against you,” Hoshaw said. “On the other hand, every time you go on stage you have a chance to make connections with new fans. It’s not a comfortable living, not like having a record deal where you can say, ‘We’ve made it.’ It’s hard work and constant stress.”

That said, Hoshaw still wouldn’t mind landing a record deal or a booking agent or a promotion company that could take some of the load off his shoulders so he could focus on what he says is his biggest priority: songwriting. He’s already talking about recording his next album this year, and has reached out to producers, including Saddle Creek Records’ veteran Andy LeMaster, whose credits include albums by Bright Eyes, Azure Ray and Now It’s Overhead.

And then there’s Nashville. “I have some friends who are songwriters down there,” Hoshaw said. “I’ve considered moving to Nashville. It would be more as a songwriter than a performer. I would pursue writing songs with other songwriters for other artists. For me, all the business stuff begins with the song — it’s the most important thing to develop, and writing with different people will make that stronger.”

Imagine Hoshaw selling a song like “Funeral Guns” to a hotshot like Blake Shelton. “I would consider it,” he said with a smile. “I would have to look at the contract and decide if it made sense.”

But what would make even more sense is writing songs for other Nebraska musicians. Hoshaw originally wrote the track “Delta King” off the new record for local band The Black Squirrels, while “New Tattoo” was written in collaboration with three other songwriters and album closer “It Falls Apart” was written by former Nebraska songwriter now poet Kyle Harvey.

Hoshaw’s contemplated recording an entire album of covers of songs by local songwriters, and would love for a fellow Omaha songwriter like John Klemmensen to record one of his songs.

“I would love more of that to happen locally the same way Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson played each other’s songs,” Hoshaw said. “I would love to see less fear about sharing art and letting other people interpret it, because in the end, it’s really about performing the best songs.”

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Over The Edge is a weekly 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 in The Reader, Feb. 20, 2014. Copyright © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Tonight at The Waiting Room Snake Island headlines with Swamp Walk and Time Cat. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, it’s the first in Film Streams’ Hitchcock 9 Silents in Concert Repertory Series featuring the silent films of Alfred Hitchcock brought to life sonically by live musicians. Tonight it’s the 1929 film The Farmer’s Wife featuring live music by Dan McCarthy and James Maakestad. Tickets are $12 general; $10 students and $8 for Film Streams members. The curtain rises at 7 p.m. Find out more 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The inside of the Omaha Civic Auditorium.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I am perhaps singularly alone in my disdain for MECA and the City of Omaha for first mothballing the Civic Auditorium from hosting any large concerts and now “selling” it. My disdain is (admittedly) a product of personal nostalgia, as well as loathing for The CenturyLink Center.

Yes, I saw a lot of concerts at the Civic during the heyday of “festival seating,” back when you showed up with your general admission ticket and chanted “Open the Fucking Doors! Open the Fucking Doors!” for 20 minutes while waiting to get in.

Concerts attended include the usual ’80s arena monsters — Styx, Kansas, The Cars, Journey, Van Halen and on and on. The concert experience as a whole was much funner back then. After they did open those fucking doors, you’d run in, get your seat and watch the madness going on down below. Yes, the floor, that concrete slab where people sat in circles and smoked dope as a fleet of multi-colored Frisbees glided through the smokehaze over their heads. Everyone was loaded because everyone snuck booze in. The hour leading up to the concert was as much fun as the concert itself.

But then came the concert. Say what you will about the run-down condition of the Civic and the fact that MECA and the city “let it go” after they built the great while elephant called The CLink, but I can’t remember ever having a bad seat during a concert there, no matter how far up I sat or how far back. With a capacity of only around 9,000, the Civic simply wasn’t that big, though it seemed mammoth at the time. The sound quality, well, it’s exactly what you expected from an arena show — loud as hell.

Skip this if you’ve heard this one before, but I’ve been to three concerts at The CLink — Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen and The Who — all were miserable experiences both in sight and sound quality. I did have the privledge of seeing Neil Young from one of the CLink’s corporate boxes, but even that was a detached experience. I’ve had seats on the floor, on the side, in the back, no matter where I sat the sightlines sucked. The facility’s layout is simply flawed for concert-going.

Even sporting events are a drag at The CLink, at least compared to seeing them at the Civic, where it felt like you were at an E*V*E*N*T rather than an event. UNO hockey — hands down a more exciting experience at The Civic than The CLink. My caveat here: I haven’t been to a Creighton Basketball game at CLink, which I’m told is rather exciting, and I never will since I loathe Creigton’s athletic programs.

As the Civic sat empty in the distance these past few years, I couldn’t help but wonder what we were missing. Surely there is a plethora of concerts not big enough to book at CLinck but the right size for a 9,000-seat arena. When I read that the Civic “has not kept pace in booking events” (as if the structure could book itself) and that it posted a loss of $197,000 last year I wonder whose fault that was. Maybe if MECA had actually tried to book the facility they might have made some money. But they don’t want to pull attention away from their white elephant, which sits across the street from that other white elephant of a baseball park that only gets used three weeks a year.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people who shake their fist at the sky every time an old building gets sold and torn down. If the business is losing money and the building isn’t “historical” then the owner has a right to sell it to someone who thinks they can do better in their space. Venice Inn is a good  example — if you loved the place so much, you should have eaten there more often.  I ate there a couple times a year, and I’ll miss it and its salad bar, but I can’t blame the family for getting out while the getting’s good.

Ah well, maybe it’s time for the Civic to go, too. UNO is building a new right-sized arena for its hockey and there’s always the Ralston Arena if someone can figure out a way to book it. And besides, the bands I listen to these days don’t play in arenas, and probably never will… When the wrecking ball finally comes I’ll say thanks for the memories, Civic as it joins Aksarben Coliseum and Racetrac, Peony Park and the Indian Hills Theater in that great old-fashioned Omaha up in the sky…

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Notwist doing the oldest cliche in the books as far as band photos go. Get off the tracks, you knuckleheads.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Bob Nastanovich shakes a fan’s hand during his guest appearance at the Feb. 16 Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks show at The Waiting Room.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The big surprise at last night’s Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks show was an appearance during the encore by special guest Bob Nastanovich. It was like a mini Pavement reunion for an over-the-top rendition of “Unfair” off Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain that featured Nastanovich contributing his classic yelling. Ah, it was just like old times.

The rest of the show was almost as special. Malkmus is like some sort of ageless rock icon. He doesn’t look any different then when I saw him performing in Pavement at The Ranch Bowl more than a decade ago. Wearing a Missouri ball cap over his tussled hair, he ripped into an hour of songs leaning heavily on material from the Jicks’ new album Wig Out at Jagbags, playing just about every song for a crowd of around 250.

Funny thing about the new record, I’ve become so used to the horn parts that I really missed them when performed live. In my mind I filled in the brass parts for “Chartjunk,” while Malkmus played a slithering guitar solo in place of the missing centerpiece trombone solo on “J Smoov,” which was a one of the evening’s highlights. They threw in only a few older Malkmus songs during their main set, including “Tigers” and “”Asking Price” off Mirror Traffic and “Jo Jo’s Jacket” (the Yul Brenner monologue replaced with an extended piano intro) off his eponymous debut album.

It wasn’t until the encore that he rolled out the heavy guns, launching with “Baby C’mon” off Face the Truth before introducing his special guest who made the trip from Iowa. I had been told earlier in the evening that something special could happen as Nastanovich has been placed on the guest list, and I thought I’d seen him walking around the crowd, looking older but no less devilish. I remember him from the old Pavement days as the second drummer and stage madman who could make things interesting when the band got too focused in the music.

He was no less tame last night when he ran on stage, grabbed a microphone and let out the opening screams of “Unfair.” The crowd rushed the stage with their cellphones held high to snap a photo of the chaos. With a big smile and a lot of hand slaps he left the stage after one song.

How do you top that? The band ripped into “Jenny & the Ess-Dog” off the debut and then the opening riffs of “War Pigs” that touched off a cover medley that included riffs on “Born on the Bayou” and Opal’s “Magic Power.” They closed the encore with one last Pavement cover, “Heaven Is a Truck” off Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Overall a very satisfying night of music for Malkmus and Pavement fans alike.

Tyvek at The Waiting Room, Feb. 16, 2014.

Opening act Tyvek was strong setting the stage with their stripped down, guttural take on garage punk. The trio barreled through a set of short, powerful punk songs that could march or swing with the best of them. The highlight was a brutal version of “Wayne County Roads” off their last album, On Triple Beams, which frontman Kevin Boyer tore to pieces with his brittle guitar.

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In other news…

Beck’s new album, Morning Phase, was made available for streaming last night on NPR (right here). It’s been called a sequel to Sea Change and certainly sounds a lot like that record (maybe almost too much). Still, it’s gorgeous and lush.

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According to Music Feeds (here) Desaparecidos cancelled their schedules appearance at Soundwave Festival 2014 in Australia “due to an issue of a personal nature.” From the article, “(Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah) added that an official announcement was forthcoming and said that he couldn’t offer any details, only ‘offer my support & love to my friend Conor at this time.’” The dates are still listed on the Desa tour page.

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Finally, the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards held their annual awards banquet last night at the DoubleTree ballroom in downtown Omaha. You can see a complete list of the winners 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.