by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Maha Music Festival’s Saturday show is now sold out. This hasn’t happened (officially) since 2015, when Modest Mouse headlined and sold out a day or so before the date.

Back then, a sell out was around 8,000 tickets. These days, with the festival’s increased capacity, a sell out is 11,000 tickets sold — impressive.

Rachel Grace, Maha’s marketing and communications manager, tells me they’ve had reports of fake tickets circulating — what would suck more than showing up and finding out the ticket you spent $100+ for was a fake? Those of you buying tickets in the after-market, be careful.

No doubt ticket sales are being driven by the ascendance of Lizzo as a national pop star. You cannot turn on your TV without hearing Lizzo selling something, whether it’s a mini-van, cell phone or a boutique wine cooler. Add to that a tidal wave of magazine articles and heavy rotation on pop channels, and you’ve got the next Queen Latifah. And she’s headlining Maha.

I’d like to think that The Oh Sees had something to do with Saturday’s sell out, but let’s be real… I doubt that 95 percent of the folks at Stinson Saturday will have ever heard of the Oh Sees. Ah, but for that 5 percent of us, their appearance is a dream come true.

BTW, tickets are still available for Friday night’s show, headlined by Courtney Barnett and Jenny Lewis (and don’t sleep on Thursday night’s Pinback show at The Waiting Room). Also of note, the “Maha Discovery” — the Big Omaha innovation conference that became part of Maha last year — also is sold out.

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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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Petfest is happening again this Saturday inside and outside Petshop Gallery.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

One show tonight, one festival tomorrow…

Tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s the Lupines headline a show with The Broke Loose. $5, 10 p.m.

Then tomorrow night its the annual Petfest at Petshop Gallery in Benson. The “fundrager” starts at 1 p.m. with indoor and outdoor stages.

The line-up:

Laughing Falcon
Mike Schlesinger
BB Sledge
Universe Contest
Eric in Outerspace
Leafblower
The Natural States
Field Club
Those Far Out Arrows
Annalibera
Her Flyaway Manner
Houma
Unmanned
Kobrakyle Richardson
Mesa Bouy
Oquoa
Hussies
Queerniverse
Bokr Tov
Pixel Grip
Solid Goldberg (official)

Admission is $10. This is always a good time. More info here.

Believe it or not, that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great 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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The last we heard about the mammoth (no pun intended) indoor-outdoor music venue planned for La Vista’s City Centre was a story in the Omaha World-Herald back in February. That story said the La Vista City Council gave the go ahead to negotiate contracts. City Ventures developer Chris Erickson said in the article crews were slated to break ground this past spring.

Well, we’re now at the end of summer and still no ground breaking or any other news. So what’s happening with the project? City of La Vista Community Relations Coordinator Mitch Beaumont gave a brief update.

“The platting process has begun on this project, with design review and permitting to come next,” Beaumont said. “The developers are hoping to begin grading and footings in late fall.”

Marc Leibowitz of 1% Productions, the company partnering on the project with Kansas’ Mammoth Live and City Ventures, confirmed Beaumont’s comments, saying the project is moving forward.

No question that once completed, the project, which will be located near 84th and Harrison streets, will be an entertainment game changer. Check out Kevin Coffey and Hailey Konnath’s overview of the project from a June 2018 OWH article.

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The Jim Schroeder Sextet, a project headed by one of the area’s most talented rock guitarists (David Nance Group, UUVVWWZ), is headlining a show tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s. Joining them is New Haven rocker Stefan Christensen (who opened for Stef Chura last night at Reverb) and Lincoln band Leaves Brown. $7, 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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Stef Chura at O’Leaver’s, May 30, 2018. She plays tonight at Reverb Lounge.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Matt Whipkey’s new punk-flavored project Unexplained Death is about to enter the political arena. Whipkey has crafted an album’s worth of angry  rock songs that reflect Nebraska in the age of Trump.

His latest entry is a not-so-veiled attack on Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse titled “Benny and The Sass,” which debuted a lyric video on YouTube yesterday. Who will be the first Washington intern to show it to the senator. And when will Whipkey and the rest of U-Death finally grace a stage near you?

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The Scott McCaughey tour that rolled through an Omaha living room last month rolled into LA’s Bootleg Theater this past weekend with half of R.E.M. (Peter Buck and Mike Mills) in the supporting band. Also on board was Morgan Nagler, Jake Bellows and the rest of Whispertown. Check out the coverage, which includes a shout out and a couple sweet pics of Jake and Morgan. We miss you, Jake…!

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Speaking of living room shows, there’s another one coming up Aug. 28 with Pedro the Lion’s David Bazan. Upon purchasing your limited $25 tickets here, the location of the event will be revealed. No doubt, it will once again be a living room tucked away somewhere in Dundee.

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Tonight at Reverb Lounge it’s the return of Stef Chura and her band. Chura played a sparsely attended set at O’Leaver’s last year (I was there). Her new album, Midnight (2019, Saddle Creek), produced by Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo, has garnered plenty of national attention, which could make tonight’s show a bit more crowded.

Toledo and Chura have something in common: Both have voices that are… challenging. Toledo’s voice swings between wobbly half-asleep tone-waddle and full-throat yell-singing. So does Chura’s, at times a scratchy granny (reminiscent of ’70s hippy yodeler Melanie (“Brand New Key”)) at others, angry nasal lady. I find it strangely precocious.

Toledo gets a ton of credit for this new record’s sound, and in a lot of ways, it’s justified. Compared to her Saddle Creek debut, 2017’s Messes, the guitars on Midnight are crunchier, the bass lines are fuzzier and more out front, and the songs are filled with clean drop-outs that wake up the tracks with karate chop precision.

Lyrically, Chura’s outsider / lost relationship musings can walk home in the dark hand-in-hand with Toledo’s lonely guy odes.

Like last night’s Outer Spaces show, this one is a four-band bill (WTF? Don’t you guys know some of us have to go to work tomorrow morning?). Joining Chura is LA art punkers French Vanilla (Danger Collective Records), New Haven rocker Stefan Christensen and our very own David Nance Group. 8 p.m., $12.

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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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Outer Spaces plays tonight at O’Leaver’s.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The last time Outer Spaces came through town (that I know of) was back in June 2016 when they played the original Milk Run art gallery. From the review of that show (and of the then just-opened Milk Run):

The Baltimore four-piece (looks like they added a new bassist) played a short, sweet set of songs from their just released album, A Shedding Snake (2016, Don Giovanni). On that record, frontwoman/guitarist Cara Beth Satalino has a voice that at times is the spitting image of Edie Brickell’s, at other times she reminds me of Maria Taylor, whereas my wife think she sounds like Anna Waronker (That Dog). Performing live, Satalino has a simple, quiet quality all her own on songs that are classic ’90s-style indie. The live set was more laid-back than what you get on the record, which is one of my favorites from the first half of the year.

Well, Milk Run is long gone, but O’Leaver’s is still around and is hosting Outer Spaces tonight. The band just released their sophomore LP, Gazing Globe, on Western Vinyl. In the tradition of countless rock bands through the generations, the album documents Satalino’s efforts to grapple with “her sense of anxiety and self-doubt after she and partner/bandmate Chester Gwazda decided to take a brake from their long-term relationship.”

It’s a loaded show at O’Leaver’s tonight. Playing with Outer Limits is Anna McClellan, And How and Radiator Hospital. (Ugh! too many bands takes me out of the equation on a school night!). $5, starts at 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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

No Thanks at O’Leaver’s, Aug. 2, 2019.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

No Thanks is a four-piece punk band with a tight rhythm section, an ingenious guitarist and a frontman who knows how to keep a crowd’s attention. Their Facebook bio lists them as Castro Turf, yelling/antics; Ruby Roux, bassist; The Lost Boy, drummist, and Kick Banán, guitarist. The only clue I have to their real identities is that someone told me Mr. Turf is actually a direct relative to former Omaha Mayor Gene Leahy.

Shirtless in tight black pants and black lipstick, Turf/Leahy’s spaz-rock preening conjured comparisons to The Cramps’ Lux Interior, nervously/feverishly pacing back and forth in front of the band for the first half of the set; spending the second half immersed in the humanity that crowded the stage. His voice, a classic post-punk bark – there’s nary a note to be sung, and only a few words were audibly legible.

If you want to know the words, well, go to their Bandcamp page where the band’s 2018 LP, The Trial, can be downloaded/listened to. It’s good, but it in no way resembles the live performance Friday night, which was gritty and hot as you’d expect from any late, well-attended O’Leaver’s show.

I dug around and found the Omaha Magazine story about the band, which came with an identity key: Guitarist Kick Banán is Mike Huber, Turf/Leahy is Brendan Leahy; Ruby Roux is Camille Stout and The Lost Boy is Gabe Cohen. While Leahy is this band’s center of attention, it’s Huber’s guitar that makes it rock with a dark, angular majesty, drilled forward by Stout’s very physical bass skills.

One patron compared their sound to Dischord bands, which I kind of get, though the bands from Dischord that immediately come to mind (Jawbox, Faraquet) have frontmen who actually sing. I was reminded more of acts like Uranium Club, Nots, Diät, Marbled Eye, acts with throbbing, eclectic post-punk sounds that are as much about rhythm as melody. And while musically the band provides the bedrock, it’s Leahy’s intense performance that is mesmerizing.

I was told these guys were pissed because they didn’t make it into my Reader Top 20 list. I find it hard to believe. I can’t imagine they’d give two shits that some old guy left them off a list that has zero relevance with anyone. The fact is, I hadn’t heard the band at the time the list was written (as I said in The Reader, those were the favorites of the bands I’d heard). They would make my list now. They stand out among the handful of new Nebraska acts making a mark on a scene that seems to be fading before our very eyes.

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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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

No Thanks plays at O’Leaver’s tonight…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Welcome to the weekend. Busy Friday, not so busy Saturday…

Dross headlines a show tonight at The Sydney with Oklahoma City indie band Foxburrows (check ’em out below) and my favorite DJ Tyrone Storm. $5, 10 p.m.

BTW, it’s #BFF — Benson First Friday. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by The Little Gallery at 5901 Maple (the east bay of the Masonic Lodge Building) and check out the opening for Shawnequa Linder. Her show is called “Remixing: An Experimental Portrait Series,” and it’s a head trip… literally. We’re there from 6 to 9 p.m. Come by, say hi.

Over at fabulous O’Leaver’s, Omaha punk rockers No Thanks headlines. The four-piece is heading out on tour and will not be taking any prisoners. Hussies open at 10 p.m. $5.

Also tonight, The Brothers is hosting a post-hardcore show headlined by Minneapolis act Scaphe. Also on the bill are Houma, Adult Whisperer and the incomparable Solid Goldberg. $5, 9 p.m.

It’s looking mighty thin on Saturday…

O’Leaver’s has a hardcore show with Come Out Fighting, Red Kate, Bitch Dust and Scab Ghouls. $7, 9 p.m.

Sunday Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit are playing on Military Ave. in Benson as part of the Waiting Room Outdoors series. John Moreland opens at 7 p.m. $40.

And that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great 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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Jason Steady from a screen cap of his latest video.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Jason Steady is joining a long list of Omaha musicians, which recently included The Finks (Todd and Orenda) and Brad Hoshaw, who have flown the coop for better climes in California.

I call it the Great California Migration, but that’s not accurate. “Migration” implies that those leaving are returning as part of a cycle, when, in fact, these folks ain’t coming back.

Steady says he’s heading to the California high desert outside Joshua Tree “to live out the rest of my days in the dust.” If you want to wish him well, do it at The Brothers Saturday, Aug. 24, when he’s playing a goodbye gig with his pals in M34N STR33T.

Until then, enjoy this new video of a song from Return of the Paisley Angels, his project with Chris Twist. The video was recorded by Nosferatune, a.k.a. Adrienne Thomas of Denver. And buy a copy of the album, right here.

So long, Mr. Steady…

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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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.