Bull Nettles at Dr. Jack’s Drinkery, May 29, 2021.
It’s so weird going inside anywhere without wearing a mask let alone a club, but that was the sitch Saturday night at Dr. Jack’s Drinkery, the bar formerly known as The Brass Knocker.
I had a mask in my jacket pocket not knowing the bar’s masking protocol. I could have left it at home. No signs on the door and no one inside wore a mask and there was no evidence we’d ever been in a pandemic. In fact, had I put on my mask I would have have been the subject of much pointing and maybe even a confrontation. No doubt people who still feel like wearing a mask inside clubs will feel intimidated to not wear one – no one wants to be the center of attention.
I’ve been long vaccinated, though that doesn’t guarantee I’ll never get COVID, only that I might not die from it. Which leads one to wonder how many people in the room Saturday night have had their shots…
Enough about the pandemic. I haven’t been in this club in well over 20 years, back when it was the Brass Knocker. My recollection of the layout is rather foggy, but I seem to remember there was a staging area for karaoke, which is now gone. Instead, on the other side of the bar is a small “stage” set-up with old-fashioned PAs stacked on either side. Though Dr. Jack’s hosts shows, you can tell the place wasn’t designed for live music (but then again, neither was O’Leaver’s).
As The Mudpuddles ripped through their set, I wandered outside through an open overhead door where a bunch of people were hanging out drinking. The patio is actually nicer than the club’s interior, which was a bit ramshackle.
Bull Nettles, the trio trio that features Travis Linn (a.k.a. Travis Sing) on lead vocals and guitar and Doug Kabourek on drums (and “Steve” on bass), kicked into gear at around 10:30 for a set that featured mainly songs from their new EP, The Last Days of Empire, whose release they were celebrating Saturday. They call their sound “cow punk” but it’s really alt country, and live reminded me more of Centro-Matic than Frontier Trust, because Travis actually sings (vs. Gary Dean Davis’ barrel holler).
It’s a quibble, but the mix was not good unless you really wanted to enjoy a band’s rhythm section. Travis and his guitar at times got lost, which was a shame because both are among my favorite things on the EP. Also lost with this crowd was Sing’s clever, biting political lyrics, which make seeking out the Bandcamp page and following along with the lyrics a smart go. It’s hard to write political stuff without sounding preachy, but Sing pulls it off better than most these days.
Among the highlights was a rousing version of stand-out track “No Higher Ground,” and album opener “Howl & Whine,” along with nice version of Creedance’s “Don’t Look Now,” and an old At Land song by Doug Kabourek.
If you missed the show you’re out of luck with these guys, as they posted on their Facebook page afterward that this would be their last gig for the foreseeable future. “We never really intended to be a live band, plus there are radical changes afoot for one of the bandmates.” A pity.
Not a bad way to come out of a pandemic, but I’m still waiting for the city’s real clubs to book some decent live shows. And it could be awhile.
Those Far Out Arrows at Slowdown Jr., Aug. 8, 2017. The band plays tonight at The Sydney.
Oh my gawd, live shows are back!
They’ve actually been back for awhile — most venues reopened weeks ago — but this weekend is the first time there are shows I actually want to write about.
As we all know, the city dropped its mask mandate earlier this week; and while people no longer are required to wear masks in businesses, each establishment will have its own masking policy. I spoke to one local venue owner who said he’s taking the mask signs down at all his clubs, if only because most restaurants and other establishments are. That said, each club will be different, and I’ll have one with me when I go out this weekend.
And I have no doubt people still will wear masks in the clubs. I went to HyVee the other day to pick up a six-pack and about half the shoppers wore masks. It’ll be a hard habit to break for some.
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Tonight at The Sydney it’s the long-talked-about return of Those Far Out Arrows. The band released an album last year called Fill Yer Cup that includes the weird, funky single “Snake in My Basement” that’s become something of an underground hit among a number of my friends.
Also on tonight’s bill at The Sydney is the soulful hip-hop of Marcey Yates. This gig has been sold out for a couple weeks, but I’m told by a little birdie that a few tickets will be available early at the door. $10, 10 p.m.
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Also tonight, singer/songwriter/rockstar Jack McLaughlin is headlining at The Slowdown (on the big stage!) with Bokr Tov and Magū. McLaughlin has a new track out called “Interpret It All,” that features Mitch Gettman on guitar, Nate Van Fleet on drums and Dan Artz on bass. Says McLaughlin, “I bought and renovated a house by O’Leavers during the shut down and built a recording studio in the basement….that’s where we are at in the video.” Like I said, this is a main room show (thanks to COVID). $10, 8 p.m.
Also tonight, Township & Range plays at The Down Under with Eddie Spencer. It’s a free show that begins at 9 p.m. Here’s where you can point and laugh at me: I didn’t know that Travis Sing was the frontman in T&R.
In fact, Sing (whose performance name is Travis Linn) is also the frontman in Bull Nettles, a new “cow punk” trio in the vein of Frontier Trust with Doug Kabourek on drums and “Steve” on bass (I don’t know who Steve is, but he’s good). Travis Sing is great on lead vocals and guitar, and their new EP, The Last Days of Empire, blew me away. This is the rural punk-ish album with a political edge you’ve been waiting for.
“I really wanted this record to come out in the late summer/early fall last year to coincide with the election, but obviously that didn’t happen for numerous reasons,” Sing said. “I lean left, but I think there’s plenty on the left to criticize, too. This record is likely to piss off people on both sides.”
Yeah, there’s a Frontier Trust flair to the EP, but this one also will appeal to fans of Filter Kings and Social Distortion. The band is celebrating the EP’s release tonight at Dr. Jack’s Drinkery, 3012 No. 102nd St. (102nd and Maple (the old Brass Knocker)). Also on the bill are The Mudpuddles and Danny Burns. $5, 8 p.m.
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That’s all I got. If you go out this weekend, be safe, and don’t be afraid to wear a mask if you want to. Staying alive is pretty cool.
Get your lawn chairs out. The Maha Music Festival is back July 31.
Those who know me and know where I work now know why I haven’t written extensively about the 2021 Maha Music Festival. The line-up was announced Wednesday night, along with the presenting sponsor.
Still, I have an opinion about the line-up (though to be clear, it’s mine alone). All in all, it’s pretty damn good, especially considering we’re coming out of a national pandemic.
Japanese Breakfast, who adorns the cover of the brand new issue of Under the Radar (“The Protest Issue”), is an act I’ve dug for awhile and definitely look forward to seeing and hearing live.
Thundercat, the last band a lot of people saw before the world shut down (at Slowdown), is coming back to Omaha. As is local favorite Drive-By Truckers. Then there’s the yeehaw stylings of Shovels & Rope, who I know has a lot of local fans.
As for the headliner, Khruangbin, I’m only familiar with a couple singles that have gotten airplay on Sirius XMU (“Time (You and I),” “So We Won’t Forget”) – slick, catchy, light-as-air pop tunes, and quite a contrast to the rest of the droning, World-dub jams on the band’s latest album, 2020’s Mordechai (Dead Oceans), some of which sounds like the nondescript, drug-infused noodling they play between bands at large concerts. Hey, but what does it matter? I never stick around for the Maha headliner, anyway.
This year’s locals are Matt Cox & the Marauders, Edem Soul Music, Dirt House, J. Crum, Kethro, and Crabrangucci.
The one-day fest is July 31 at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village. Tix go on sale this morning at 10 a.m. at the Maha festival site — $65 advance / $75 DOS. VIP tix are $155 advance and $175 DOS. Because of COVID-19 they’re limiting capacity at Stinson Park, and conversely, limiting the number of available tickets. So if you’re into it, you better get them tickets while you can. After being shut in for a year, people are starving for entertainment, and it won’t surprise me if this one actually sells out.
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Wish I could point you to some rock shows this weekend, but it’s still too early for touring shows and even good local gigs, despite the fact that all the clubs are open. Next week Omaha’s mask mandate will very likely go away for those vaccinated, and I have a feeling clubs will follow suit and not require masks wearing. Watch as the “must wear masks” signs begin to disappear along with the plexi-glass shields.
I Haven’t Given Up We’re all waiting to get back to the clubs, aren’t we?
The Reader; May 4, 2021
I haven’t updated my daily local music blog, Lazy-i.com, in over two weeks, which is long enough for people to question whether it’s still “alive.” I’ve been writing the blog for (my god!) 23 years. I haven’t given up. There’s just so little to write about music-wise right now.
Omaha’s two major clubs for indie music — The Waiting Room and Slowdown — both have reopened. But with few bands touring yet, their offerings are (how to put this) somewhat lacking: cover bands, live professional wrestling, comedians, local productions of bad musicals. There are a few exceptions, but nothing on the indie music radar or that piques my interest.
It’s the way it’s going to be for a while. All the quality local bands simply haven’t played together in a year out of caution and responsibility, and musicians are just now getting vaccinated. It could be a month or two until they start practicing again, and who knows what has changed in these musicians’ lives over the past year of crippling isolation?
Staying in touch with one another via Facebook is a far cry from the up-close-and-personal relationships one forges by living in a pot-smoke-filled van for two months on the road. “Jamming together” by recording tracks alone on an iPhone and then sending them around to bandmates to add their parts just isn’t the same as having to breathe in each other’s vicious BO during a hot, cramped band practice in the bass player’s basement.
When these bands finally do reunite for the first time since spring 2020, there could be camaraderie and rejoicing, or picking up right where they left off, or the worst case scenario — a new realization of just how much they actually hated each other and how they should never have played together in the first place.
And then there are those bands that won’t get back together at all because one of the musicians had to figure out a way to make money after losing his or her job and now is stuck in a new career they never had to deal with before all this happened.
Some will have new relationships, maybe new family members, certainly new responsibilities; and suddenly the idea of making music will seem frivolous.
And a sad few may finally have convinced themselves they’re too old for this rock and roll lifestyle, which is something that even in my 50s has never crossed my mind.
Sometimes it’s the little things that keep you going.
I was pushing my shopping cart through the crowded parking lot of the Saddle Creek Baker’s after my usual Sunday-morning grocery haul, dodging dirty SUVs across the bumpy tarmac, still wearing my mask.
As I approached my VW, I looked up across the lot and there was a guy I recognized from one of the local rock bands — a tall dude in his 30s with long brown hair who plays a mean guitar and has been a staple in the Nebraska underground music scene for the past decade or more. He had just stepped out of his car with his wife or girlfriend or whomever. Also wearing a mask, he looked up across the lot and saw me loading my car and did a little head nod and wave. I did the same in return.
As I returned my cart to the corral I thought, “Huh, he remembers me,” as if I was a prisoner who that morning had been released after 20 years in the state penitentiary. I hadn’t been forgotten … by someone I’d never formally met and who likely was mistaking me for someone’s dad.
One of the biggest questions about life after the real passing of the Pandemic of 2020 (because that’s what they’ll call it 100 years from now after we’re all long dead) is whether people will go back to the same lives they lived before. It has to be a question gnawing on the minds of owners of movie theaters, restaurants and music venues.
Restaurants I’m not so worried about. People already are returning to their favorite places, even if they have to wear a mask to go to the bathroom. If we never questioned the food we bought as take out during the pandemic (and why we didn’t, I still don’t understand — what made us think the cooks back in the kitchen were wearing masks and diligently washing their hands like surgeons?), we’re sure not going to question it afterward.
Movie theaters are another matter. People have become so used to watching streamed content from their home theaters or on their iPads they might balk at paying $10 to sit in an auditorium with a bunch of filthy patrons to watch the same thing they can watch in their underwear on Disney+.
And then there are music venues. Rock and roll or whatever you want to call popular music continues to reinvent itself from generation to generation. Kids will continue to go to clubs to see their favorite bands just like people are returning to sports facilities as quickly as the local ordinances will let them.
Still, there are those few who are getting a little older, those who were always looking for an excuse to stay home on a Friday or Saturday (or weekday) night. They’ll be the last to return if they do at all.
I used to see bands three or four nights a week when the scene was more “indie-music friendly.” Five hours of sleep was plenty. But right before the pandemic struck, I’d limited myself to weekends or “can’t miss” shows. Now I wonder if I’ll be able to once again stand elbow-to-elbow at, say, O’Leaver’s, next to people young enough to be my grandchildren.
Fact is, I can’t wait. I miss my extended family — the club owners, the bartenders, the punk rock regulars and that guy in the Baker’s parking lot who I don’t really know. And besides, I’m going to need something to blog about.
Over The Edge is a monthly 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.
Dolores Diaz & The Standby Club at The Waiting Room, May 21, 2016. The band’s debut album, Live at O’Leaver’s, was released on vinyl today.
I was out and about in Benson late afternoon yesterday, hours after the CDC announced new mask guidelines that say you don’t have to wear a mask indoors if you’ve been vaccinated. I expected it to be like VE Day, with people kissing in the streets. Instead, while a lot of people were maskless on the sidewalks, a lot also still wore masks.
I talked to a masked Maple Street proprietor who had a “masks required” sign on his door. He hadn’t heard the news, and wasn’t bowled over by it. “We’re still requiring masks until we’re told otherwise,” he said, adding that he’d been vaccinated (and also had COVID last year). “Let’s see what happens. If cases start spiking again, the masks will be back.”
Maybe, maybe… And though I’m a bit giddy at the prospect of putting my masks away, I also can’t imagine, say, shopping at the Saddle Creek Baker’s without one (but maybe that has nothing to do with COVID…).
And maybe it’s a coincidence, but suddenly show announcements are popping up again. Last week Petfest announced that it’s coming back Aug. 14 outside of Pet Shop, and the line-up is pretty staggering. It includes Those Far Out Arrows, Lightning Stills, Anna McClellan, And How, Leafblower, Benny Leather and tons more. Full line-up here.
Not to be outdone, Maha announced it’s hosting a one-day music festival July 31 at Stinson Park, with limited capacity. No word on the line-up yet, but no doubt the announcement is imminent. Make your headliner guesses in the comments below.
Speaking of Those Far Out Arrows, that May 28 show at The Sydney is now officially sold out. If you’re like me, you didn’t even know there were tickets for sale!
The moral to the story is if you want to go to a show in the coming weeks / months, you better get your tickets when you can. People are starving for entertainment, and until they pull back on all restrictions, shows are going to be at limited capacities. Looks like I’ll have to wait until Petfest to see the Arrows…
One final note: Today Live at O’Leaver’s, the debut album by Dolores Diaz and the Standby Club, was released on vinyl. The album can be picked up at your local record store (try the new Grapefruit!). Or you can order directly from the 15 passenger Bandcamp site. As someone who was there, it’s worth it if only a memento of another amazing night at The Club.
Now if only O’Leaver’s can remove those booths from their “stage” and get the “Live” thing rolling again…
Hey there, here’s that column I mentioned last week about not updating my blog in so long and how it will live forever (or at least until I don’t). It’s published in the May issue of The Reader, and online here. Go read it!
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Brion Poloncic’s Weird Therapy opens at The Little Gallery Saturday.
It’s an anomaly similar to the perfect aligning of stars in the sky — both Benson First Friday and Blackstone Second Saturday are this weekend.
BFF you know about. BSS is a new art effort in Blackstone where galleries host openings. To celebrate, The Little Gallery Blackstone (formerly in Benson) is hosting Weird Therapy – a collection of 130 small ink-on-paper works by Brion Poloncic.
Local punk rock fans with a sense of history will remember Poloncic from his work the bands Tomato a Day and seminal Grass Records act Cactus Nerve Thang. Poloncic’s art is as mind-blowing as his music.
The show runs from 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday at The Little Gallery Blackstone, 144 So. 39th St. (inside The Mansion just north of Night Owl). The event is free, distance controlled, and wear a mask! Free beer! Come by and say hello.
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In music news, Tim Kasher of Cursive and The Good Life launched a new Patreon called Home Phone. The archive project is a mix of new songs under the Home Phone moniker: “Short, catchy, to-the-point jams – unreleased songs I’ve written for Cursive / The Good Life / solo material that never saw any light of any day,” Kasher said of the project.
The online subscription service costs $6 a month (or $5 a month with annual subscription). The Patreon site will also include live streams, and if this goes the way of other Patreons I’ve seen have, Kasher will be doing all kinds of outlandish things online in no time. Check it out at https://www.patreon.com/timkasher
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In other Kasher news, there’s a massively long video interview with Tim by Bringing It Backwards – the online interview show of American Songwriter magazine. The nearly hour-long interview delves deep into the history of Kasher’s music, Cursive, Saddle Creek Records and more. Check it below.
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Azure Ray has dropped yet another track from their forthcoming album, Remedy, out in June on Flower Moon Records. This one has a good beat, you can dance it, check it out.
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Grapefruit Records opens today in the Old Market.
Simon Joyner’s new record store in the Old Market, Grapefruit, is slated to open today at 11 a.m. The shop, located at 1125 Jackson St., Suite 5, will sell new and used records, and the space will also be the world headquarters of Joyner’s Grapefruit Records label.
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And lest I forget, it’s the first Friday of the month which means Bandcamp Friday – that day when Bandcamp waives fees on its download sales. Go to Bandcamp and buy some stuff!
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