by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

First time back to The Waiting Room since the Before Times and not much has changed. I had no idea Soccer Mommy was as popular as she apparently is, based on the size of the crowd Saturday night, which looked like a sell-out. TWR doesn’t appear to be metering crowd size due to COVID-19, and they’re not obligated to.

And while we were all warned they would be checking COVID-19 vax status, no one checked mine on the way in. That said, everyone in the crowd was wearing a mask except when they were drinking, at the request of the artist. It seemed oddly comforting to be masked in the middle of the crush-sized crowd.

We dropped in while Alexalone was in the middle of his set. He — Alex Peterson — was anything but alone surrounded by a sizable band who navigated through his murky, plodding shoegaze rock that at times sort of reminded me of Bedhead, especially in his dry vocals. The contrast between the quiet numbers and when he punched it up with his band was severe in a good way. An interesting choice for an opener.

Soccer Mommy falls into the club of women singer/songwriters who are tearing up indie these days, falling nicely somewhere between Phoebe Bridgers and Snail Mail, though front woman Sophie Allison has more in common with Liz Phair than either of those two, balancing a sound that hints at Phair’s early sonic choices. Songs like “Royal Screw Up,” and “Circle the Drain” from her latest album recall Exile in all their alienated glory.

The band sounded great; almost too much so as Allison was consistently buried in the mix, but maybe that was the plan or maybe I just lost track as the band played one mid-temp song after another after another…

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On Mondays I’m going to try to take a look at what’s coming up the rest of the week, just to set a course, so to speak. We’re finally getting to a point post-COVID where shows are again being booked during the week, at least at the 1% and Slowdown venues.

For example, that rescheduled Post Animal show is tonight at Slowdown Jr. This is the band with the Stranger Things connection I wrote about here. Garst opens. $20, 8 p.m.

This Thursday Big Thief member Buck Meek headlines at The Waiting Room with Kidi Band. $12, 8 p.m. Surprised to see this booked at TWR, but they’ve already got Dustin Bushon a.k.a. FXTHR booked at Reverb on Thursday night, preforming as Historical Romance. That one’s $10, 8 p.m.

And then it’s the weekend, but I’ll get to that later…

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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 © 2021 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.