by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Sasami of 2022 barely resembles the Sasami of 2019. The pre-pandemic Sasami Ashworth’s music fell into the ol’ singer/songwriter/indie category, youthful and having fun. She still was having plenty of fun last night at Reverb Lounge.

Since last time here, she got rid of her adorable band and replaced it with three hair-metal dudes who absolutely shred on their instruments, including a guitarist she introduced as “Ram” who was straight out of Wayne’s World.

Sasami 2022 sounds like a modern reinvention of grunge. Live, it’s more riff-oriented and straight-forward heavy-metal than what’s heard on Squeeze, her recent album on Domino that is more acidic, with layered sounds and an industrial hue. Sasami opened with one of the more approachable tracks off the album, “The Greatest,” which straddles the line between the two worlds reflected on that new album — metal and songwriter — but with amps all turned to 10. The best songs of the night were those open-chord rockers fueled by an overflow of fuzz guitar, kind of a Live Rust thing.

The minor-key metal, on the other hand, was post-grunge, powered by a rapid-fire double-kick rhythm section and those buzz-saw leads. I don’t know if it was because she was losing her voice (as she said, introducing the last song of the 40-minute set) or if she just doesn’t have the oomph to be heard above the rattle and hum, but her vocals often dipped just below the waves. Understandable, as it was one of the loudest shows I’ve seen at Reverb. Even the between-set music was loud. (BTW, the interim music was the 1970 Stark Reality album, Discovers Hoagy Carmicheal’s Music Shop, an improvised jazz fusion collection that irritates as much as entertains).

Opening band, New York trio Jigsaw Youth, brought back memories of Fat Jacks, where I used to go in my late teens to catch traveling hair-metal bands in the mid-1980s. Their style was pure riff rock with grunge overtones (Is grunge coming back or something?), carried by vocalist Maria Alvarez’s full-throated growls. The best song of their set was an “unreleased track” with guitarist Nastacha Beck’s killer riff (but an uninspired vocal melody). The band also tried their hand at straight-four hardcore punk on another new song (driven by drummer Alex Dmytrow) that morphed to heavy metal halfway through — they should have kept with the hardcore. They closed out with a Nirvana cover that Alvarez killed in pure Cobain fashion.

Decent crowd for a Sunday night, maybe 70, with at least two dozen up front – mostly young girls — bouncing to every Sasami song, and loving it.

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A sneaky-good show tonight at Slowdown Jr. Pillow Queens are a Dublin-based indie band whose new album, Leave a Light On, just came out last week on Royal Mountain, a label whose roster includes Alvvays, METZ and Nap Eyes, among others. Their sound is reminiscent of Oh Pep!, with delicious melodies and harmonies.

Opening is Toronto’s Deanna Petcoff, and SafeSpace, a sort of indie project by Ione who opened for Squirrel Flower a couple weeks ago as well as for Bon Jovi last weekend (but as a different persona). $18, 8 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 © 2022 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There’s a shit-ton to get to, so let’s get to it…

Tonight Bug Heaven headlines a Bug Symposium production at The Sydney in Benson, where it’s also Benson First Friday (that means art shows throughout our little city in the city). Crabrangucci also is on the bill. $10, 9 p.m.

Both acts are on the line-up for the 2022 Petfest, happening Aug. 13 behind Petshop Gallery in Benson. This year’s headliners are Chicago electronic/industrial duo HIDE (Dais Records) and Amulets. The full line-up:

HIDE
Amulets
Cat Piss
Universe Contest
Ghost Foot
Nowhere
Bug Heaven
Better Friends
Thirst Things First
Mike Schlesinger
Problems
Aly Peeler
No Thanks
Dave Nance Band
Glow
Ruby Block
Jenny Haniver
Marcey Yates
Crabrangucci
Erawq

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: It’s the best local-band lineup of any Nebraska festival. Tickets are $30 advance/$35 DOS, and are available right now.

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Speaking of strong local line-ups, tomorrow night is one of the best: Jim Schroeder will celebrate the release of the vinyl version of his new album, Mesa Buoy, at a concert at Holy Family Community Center, 1714 Izard St. Joining him and his band are Megan Siebe, who’s also celebrating the release of her new album, and Dan McCarthy. It’s a free show and starts at 7 p.m.

Also Saturday night, We Were Promised Jetpacks returns to Omaha, this time to The Waiting Room, with Weakened Friends. 8 p.m., $16.

And then Sunday night is the big Sasami show at Reverb. This is a return engagement, as she kicked ass at Reverb back in April 2019. Since then, she’s really changed up her sound and style. Her new album, Squeeze (2022, Domino) goes from one extreme to another. Jigsaw Youth opens at 8 p.m. $15.

And lest we forget, it’s Bandcamp Friday, wherein the fine folks at Bandcamp waive their fees for all sales made through their website, and some record labels also are following suit. Bandcamp Fridays are becoming an important release date for indie bands, who use it to drop new singles or pre-sale album notices.

Among them are Simon Joyner, who this morning announced his new album, Songs from a Stolen Guitar, comes out May 20 on Grapefruit Records (a label he owns and operates). The all-star support includes Megan Siebe, viola, backing vocals; David Nance, lead guitars, backing vocals; Michael Krassner, guitar, piano; Max Knouse, guitar; Sunshine Joyner, guitar, vocal; Ryan Jewell, drums, percussion; Wil Hendricks, bass guitar, and Ben Brodin, Wurlitzer, B3, vibraphone. Check out a couple of the songs and preorder here.

Singer/songwriter/rocker Mitch Gettman’s new single, “Goldie” is over 11 minutes long and keeps you grooving the whole time. It’s the first track off a yet-to-be-announced new album and features Paul Jensen on bass, Nate Van Fleet on drums (he also co-engineered the track with Jeremy Gerrett, who mixed/mastered), and mind-blowing sax solo by Skye Junginger. Check it out below.

Little Brazil has released yet another new track off their forthcoming album, Just Leave, out June 3 but available for preorder from Max Trax Records website.

Tim Kasher dropped a new song (and video) fro his new album, Middling Age, which comes out April 15 on 15 Passenger (pre-order here). “Forever of the Living Dead” features Laura Jane Grace and Jeff Rosenstock. Check it.

And Dereck Higgins (of Digital Sex and Chemicals) has a new EP out today called Personal Power. Buy the download here, and check out a track below.

That’s all I got. If I missed your show (or your album release) 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 © 2022 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.