Twin Peaks performing at Lincoln Calling Oct. 7. Photo by Lauren Farris, courtesy of Hear Nebraska.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

How about the fantastic weather this past weekend? No doubt it helped get people out to this year’s Lincoln Calling. Andrew Norman, the Executive Director of Hear Nebraska (who ran LC this year), said the festival was a hit.

“The turnouts exceeded our expectations in most cases,” he said. “The venues were all wonderful to work with. The artists, without exception, put it all out there, and many definitely gained new fans in the process. The Nebraska bands represented super well, and handled this year’s various logistical changes graciously and professionally (which was greatly appreciated).”

One of the weekend’s big surprises was a reunion of golden age punk band Sideshow, facilitated in part by frontman Bernie McGinn being in town for an LC workshop.

Despite how well everything went down, there’s room for improvement, Norman said. “There are definitely things we’ll do differently next year, and we will be sending out a survey soon to get artist/venue/fan feedback on what worked and what didn’t. Our volunteers made the whole thing work very efficiently, in my opinion, and handled many curveballs in stride.”

For the record, Norman’s favorite performance of the festival: A Giant Dog. “I’ve been listening to their new record, Pile, for that last few months,” he said, “but I had no idea how fun of a spectacle their show would be.”

All told, Norman said more than 2,000 people attended this year’s festival. Impressive, especially for HN’s first year of management. How will they top it next year?

Check out more photos from the event at hearnebraska.org.

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It’s good to see Conor Oberst getting political again. He’s been somewhat quiet during this election cycle, especially considering that the election of a President Trump would set back immigration reform — a subject that’s always been near and dear to Oberst’s heart — more than anything he battled against with Desaparecidos a few years ago.

No doubt Oberst is aware of this. According to this review of last week’s concert at Dallas’ Granada Theater, Oberst made a “pointed” threat to the audience: “If any of you motherfuckers vote for this orange rat, I swear I will crawl into your house and slit your throat!” Not exactly subtle, but I’ll take it. BTW, if the Observer‘s comments are any indication, Oberst will be catching a lot of bouquets when his new album, Ruminations, comes out next week. Read the glowing review here.
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Quinton and Miss Pussycat kick off your week tonight at Reverb.  Quintron plays a Hammond B-3 and a cache of homemade electronic gear. Miss Pussycat plays maracas, and sings. And then there are the puppets.  Check out their performance at Sonic Protest Festival from this past spring, below. Omaha’s own Sucettes opens. $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 © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.