If you’re looking for me tonight, I’ll be on my porch eyeing the crowds as they pass by my home on the way to Memorial Park, a beer by my side, a shotgun across my lap…
I’ve been watching the weather the past few days, wondering if the city would cancel the event. The stage is all set up, and it seems unlikely unless there’s lightning in the vicinity. So, enjoy Melissa Etheridge in the park. Just stay off my lawn.
Kidding. But not really. But yeah. I saw Etheridge in concert way back in the early ‘90s as part of a double-headline bill with Matthew Sweet, again, playing in a park, this time in Philadelphia. No doubt fans are in for a good show. Etheridge goes on at 8:30 following Herman’s Hermits w/Peter Noone. Fireworks at 10 p.m.
The rest of the calendar is looking pretty light. There’s nothing happening tonight or tomorrow night, unless you like wrestling or Taylor Swift. Slowdown has no shows at all this weekend.
Sunday night is Fleet Foxes at Steelhouse Omaha. Their last release was 2021’s A Very Lonely Solstice, stripped down versions of older songs. 2020’s Shore I believe was the last original studio album and included the single “Can I Believe You.” The show kicks off at 8 p.m. with a set by Uwade (full name Uwade Akhere), who you might remember from her contributions to FF’s Shore album. She’s got a number of singles out but is yet to release an LP. Main floor tickets are still available for $35. Will there be giveaways leading up to Sunday? Watch your socials…
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Also Sunday night is a sneaky good show at Reverb Lounge featuring a handful of bands I’m just discovering thanks to this show.
Glare is a Texas-based self-proclaimed shoegaze act whose most current releases are on Sunday Drive Records. Their newer stuff is warm, shimmering and gauzy, while their older stuff leans toward post-Grunge ‘90s alt rock. Here’s hoping for a set of the new stuff. Co-headliner, Portland’s Alien Boy (yes, a Wipers reference), is guitarist / songwriter Sonia Weber and drummer Derek McNeil, with a rotating cast of Portland support players. Their music is released on Tiny Engines, and is very indie, very poppy, very hooky, very fun. The Dirts and Glassblower also are on this 4-band bill. $18, 8 p.m.
And down the street at The Sydney in Benson Sunday night, Denton four-piece Pearl Earl headlines. Captain Howdy opens at 9 p.m. $12.
And that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
Making a go of it as an indie band has never been easy. Even in the heyday in the early 2000s, young bands who wanted to break through to the next level had to commit to spending a lot of time on the road, playing to small crowds in venues that ranged from your typical local music club to someone’s basement.
Three weeks ago, Saddle Creek Records’ latest roster addition, Feeble Little Horse, celebrated the release of their Creek debut, Girl with Fish. Pitchfork gave the album its illustrious “Best New Music” designation and a startling 8.2 rating, calling it a “richly textured album full of fuzzy melodic hooks and beguiling left turns.” Sirius XMU began to play the first single, “Steamroller” on high heat rotation.
Everything was setting up well for their just-announced month-long tour and the inevitable world conquest, and then late last week the band posted on Instagram that they had cancelled all the dates.
“we were so excited and this tour meant the world to us. we have been blown away by all the recent support we have received but for now we have to take a step back and reassess our little world for our continued health. we are really sorry if this has a negative impact on anyone’s best summer ever plans it definitely is lame for us as well. right now, we are letting the horse get a good night’s sleep.”
Among the thank you’s was one for Saddle Creek Records: “thank you @saddlecreek for carrying us to heights we never imagined.” There have been no further FLH posts, and who knows what happened, but in this new age when people are now recognizing their health needs (mental or otherwise) and taking the necessary actions, the band seems to have wisely pulled their hand away from the fire when the flame is at its highest. Hopefully they’ll be back on the road soon and will remember Omaha as a tour stop.
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Philly band Speedy Ortiz dropped a new single and video yesterday from their upcoming album, Rabbit Rabbit, out Sept. 1 on Wax Nine Records. They also announced a tour that will bring them to The Slowdown Nov. 17 (OMG, summer will be in our rear view mirrors by then). Check it:
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Omaha’s Ebba Rose a.k.a. Erin Mitchell and 2023 Maha Festival performer, celebrates the release of her new album tonight at Reverb Lounge. The four-band bill includes Cowgirl Eastern, BB Sledge and Trees with Eyes. $15, 8 p.m.
Gazing out the window of my 15-story perch I see the tents remain but the College World Series is over, which means The Slowdown is back in business. The only thing left for Jason Kulbel and his crew to do is sweep up the discarded ten dollar bills that fell out of the pockets of all the loaded LSU fans and continue counting their windfall from this annual sports bonanza.
Tonight The Slowdown’s big-room stage welcomes Athens alt-country indie band Futurebirds. They’ve had LPs released on Fat Possum and Autumn Tone (Aquarium Drunkard imprint). Their latest releases have been a couple of EPs recorded with Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket. Opening the show is Omaha band Cable Network. 8 p.m., $25.
A number of tours were announced yesterday and this morning, one of which is coming through Omaha which you already knew about.
The Good Life is doing a full-blown tour to celebrate the 16th birthday of their seminal release, Album of the Year (2004, Saddle Creek). Wait, shouldn’t that be the 19th birthday? Well they actually kicked it off the tour in 2020 but then COVID happened. This new try starts today July 28 at Wicker Park Fest in Chi-town and winds through the West Coast before the band plays Outlandia at Falconwood Park Aug. 11 (which I thing will actually be a greatest hits set). I always liked this album, but not as much as the follow-up, 2007’s Help Wanted Nights. Where’s that tour?
A few other notable tours that are, unfortuantely, bypassing Omaha.
I’ve been enjoying Cut Worms forthcoming self-titled album due to drop July 21 on Jagjaguwar. The project is centered around singer/songwriter Max Clarke, and the album was recorded by the D’Addario brothers of Lemon Twigs fame. Cut Worms announced a tour today, and the closest passes to Omaha are:
Sat. Sept. 30 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
Mon. Oct. 2 – Kansas City, MO @ recordBar
Tue. Oct. 3 – Saint Paul, MN @ Turf Club
Wed. Oct. 4 – Chicago, IL @ Old Town School of Folk Music
Back when he was working at Homer’s downtown, Eric Ziegler cold-recommended an album by The Budos Band, an instrumental-only outfit that recorded on Daptone Records. I’d never heard of them before, took the album home, and dug it. Yesterday The Budos Band announced a new EP, Frontier’s Edge, coming out July 28 on Diamond West Records, as well as a tour. The closest pass to Omaha:
July 2 – Chicago, IL – Salt Shed
July 3 – St. Paul, The Palace Theater
Yikes, that’s next week!
Will Butler, formerly of The Arcade Fire, has a new project called Will Butler + Sister Squares, whose debut album comes out Sept. 22 on Merge Records. They announced a national tour yesterday, but the closest gig is Oct. 21 at Chicago’s Salt Shed (which appears to be a popular venue). I caught Will Butler at SXSW way back in 2015, and the performance in no way resembled Arcade Fire…
Nashville indie band The Criticals just got signed to Fantasy Records, who is releasing their EP, Front Door Confrontations, July 21. I dig their new single, that also dropped today (see below). They also announced a national tour today, whose closest pass to Omaha is:
Sept 5 – Uptown Theatre Encore Room – Kansas City, MO
Sept 7 – Vultures – Colorado Springs, CO
Sept 8 – Lost Lake – Denver, CO
Look, I receive literally dozens of tour announcements every day. I always check to see if the bands are headed here, and if their music is either important and/or good. If they’re not coming here, I’ll tell you the closest pass to Omaha. This is just to keep you aware that indie is very much alive in well in these United States of America no matter what anyone tells you!!!
Have you been noticing a lot of posts on your social newsfeeds recently from Omaha Buzz? Here’s why…
Music impresario and Homer’s record-slinger MarQ Manner had only recently taken over The Reader’s Backbeat column and returned to writing music features for Omaha’s favorite monthly when it was announced that, after the September issue, The Reader will be no more.
Looking for a new outlet for his writing, MarQ is now posting daily at Omaha Buzz — OmahaBuzz.com. There you’ll find his music reporting, reviews (live and recordings), interviews and other cool stuff.
“I also get personally frustrated at a lack of a simple place to look to see a majority of the choices happening around town on any given day,” MarQ said about why he launched Omaha Buzz, “so I am trying to put together just a list of shows every week.”
Omaha Buzz has accounts on Facebook, and now TikTok and Instagram, thanks to MarQ. “Using Buzz in the name is super cliche, but it’s a throwback (along with the logo) to my first foray into writing on SLAM Omaha,” MarQ said.
Though the site boasts Tumblr banner, Omaha Buzz actually is a WordPress joint. And it’s also a sponsored gig, sort of. The site is brought to you by Solstice and the Veil, whose slogan is “Shop local for all your Magical and Metaphysical Needs…” MarQ said his friend who owns the story covered the site’s initial costs. “(it’s) not really ongoing sponsored… I would like yo make a small amount of money to offset the time involved”
So for all of you who have heartburn because Lazy-i only covers indie music and not other genres, here’s a new go-to website for a broader look at pop music. It joins a list of other local music blogs that includes Kevin Coffey’s Pops and Hisses, and Ed Perini’s Facebook-hosted That Omaha Music Guy blog.
You know what Omaha really needs is a printed arts and entertainment weekly that brings together all these writers (he said contemplatively)…
Violenteer’s old hook used to be their double basses and the trippy, almost Floydian quality of some of the mostly instrumental music. But now with the addition of new vocalist Steve Tulipana, the KC guy you might remember from noise rock bands Season to Risk and Roman Numerals, Violenteer has transformed into something that’s not wholly different but not the same, either.
Those two basses are still there, along with a new drummer who I didn’t recognize, but now Tulipana is at the heart of the matter, a showman vocalist who sings as if he’s standing on the edge of an arena stage instead of in front of about 75 people at Reverb Lounge last Saturday night. Ranging from post-grunge yell vocals to simply spitting out lyrics over Barry and Randy Cotton’s riffs, Tulipana was like a ringmaster emoting to the crowd, switching between a standard microphone and hand-held CB radio microphone that distorted his vocals through the magic of pedals or a synth,
Also controlling some electronic gadgetry, Tulipana and his voice provided another instrument that cuts through the bass sludge at times like a lead guitar, rounding out the heavy metal. On the one song that wasn’t a minor-key stomper, Tulipana sounded like a latter-day Daltrey. Alas, the mix was too rough to make out any of the words, which no doubt would have added another layer to the dark matter. All in all, they’re like a new band playing that old heavy metal punk we all remember from the ‘90s.
Little Brazil at Reverb Lounge, June 24, 2023.
Little Brazil had a tougher night. While the band was on point as per usual, frontman Landon Hedges struggled hearing himself in the monitors, or so it seemed as he continued to signal to the soundboard, resulting in some uncertainty in his usual high-wire act vocal delivery, unlike the stellar vocals heard at that recent Maha announcement gig. Oh, Landon still has it, he just needs to be able to hear himself while he does it.
No touring indie shows again this weekend. What else is new?
However, there’s a couple local gigs worth checking out.
Tonight at the Harney Street Tavern, 1215 Harney Street (not to be confused with the long-gone Howard Street Tavern), Jeremy Mercy and the Rapture Orphans will take the stage. More country than indie, Mercy’s last release (that I’m aware of) was a 3-song EP, Heavyweight: Vol. 1, self-released in 2021. No info on tickets or cover, which leads me to believe the show is free. You’re on your own. Starts at 9 p.m.
Saturday night, one of Omaha’s longest-running indie bands, Little Brazil, headlines a four-band show at Reverb Lounge. LB has been playing out a bit lately, most recently playing the Maha Festival “announcement” gig in the park downtown last month. Also on the bill is Violenteer featuring new vocalist Steve Tulipana (Season to Risk, Roman Numerals). Playing right before Violenteer is Mike Saklar’s The Sun-Less Trio. And kicking things off at 8:30 is Fleek and Foust, a new band that includes Scott Klemmensen and Matt Reinarz. Tickets are $10 today, not sure if that’ll go up at the door. This will be a crowded gig that could sell out (it’s the only indie show of any kind happening this weekend), so consider getting your tix in advance, here.
And that’s it for this weekend. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
On the homefront: Indie artist Samia announced her tour with Venus & The Flytraps will grace The Waiting Room stage Oct. 21. Her single, “Honey,” from the album of the same name released in January on Grand Jury Records, is on super-rotation on Sirius XMU and is destined to be the sing-along song of the year (at least among the indie kids). Venus and the Flytraps are an indie duo whose music is in the same vein as Samia. Tix are $25 DOS.
In the “Away” category, Norwegian electronic music duo Röyksopp entered the national consciousness when Geico used their song “Remind Me” for one of their “so easy a cave man could do it” commercials back in 2004. They rarely tour the states but announced a North American tour yesterday in support of their 2022 album Profound Mysteries. Closest pass to Omaha:
Tonight at Steelhouse Omaha, Elvis Costello and the Imposters with special guest Charlie Sexton will play a “seated” show. Based on the set list for Sunday night’s show in Phoenix, expect a greatest hits set. I suspect this will be much more lively then what we got when he played at Memorial Park back in 2021 (although I don’t see “Uncomplicated” on that Phoenix list – a personal fave we got last time). Nick Lowe backed by Los Straitjackets opens at 7:30 p.m. Ticketmaster shows there are still tickets available for $74.50.
Also tonight, everyone’s favorite tractor punk band, Wagon Blasters, opens for Las Vegas rockabilly act The Delta Bombers at Maloney’s in Council Bluffs, 162 W. Broadway, a newish venue I’ve yet to visit. Gary Dean and the crew kick things off at 8 p.m. $17.
And everyone’s favorite helmeted rock ‘n’ roll astronaut, Bob Log III, brings his one-man-band guitar hi-jinx to Reverb Lounge tonight. No opener listed. 8 p.m., $15.
Indie singer/songwriter Faye Webster announced her North American fall headlining tour. Closest pass to Omaha:
Oct 29 – Chicago, IL – Vic Theatre
Oct 30 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
Geese, who played a sort of half-ass half set at last year’s Maha Festival, announced their 2023 tour yesterday. Closest pass to Omaha:
October 12 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
October 13 – Milwaukee, WI @ Back Room at Colectivo
October 14 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry
October 16 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
Considering that Maha set, I think they owe us one.
And that Blondshell show I’m headed to next month at 7th St. Entry has sold out. No matter, Blondshell just announced another tour with Liz Phair, which will again, miss us. The closest pass to Omaha:
A number of tour announcements are hitting the wire today, and the question isn’t whether these bands are coming to Omaha, but rather which city you’re willing to travel to.
For example, one of my favorite bands, Lewsberg (12XU Records), announced their U.S. Tour this morning. Should I go to Chicago or Lawrence, Kansas, to see them? I’m opting for Lawrence, where they’re playing a tiny 100-capacity school house Oct. 7 (they’re also playing Gonerfest!).
Then there’s Slowdive, who this morning announced their U.S. Tour. I’m not a huge Slowdive fan but I know a lot of people who are. Will those folks be headed to Denver, St. Paul or Chicago to see them?
Early next month I’m headed to Minneapolis to see Blondshell at 7th St. Entry. And so on.
It’s not a bash on Omaha (though it kind of is), it’s just a reality we’re in as so many touring indie bands continue to route around our fair city. The addition of grand new music venues like Steelhouse Omaha and The Astro are of little to no help as their focus is booking acts that will sell between 2,500 and 3,000 tickets — which in this market means bands whose heydays were 20, 30 or 40 years ago. That’s where the money is. (More on The Astro in my column in The Reader next month).
A band like Slowdive, which is playing two nights at Webster Hall in NYC (very likely sell outs), would be a nice fit for Omaha’s larger venues, but how would they draw here? It’s a risk for the promoter, no dobut. We also have plenty of smaller venues perfect for smaller indie tours like Lewsberg. But no one’s booking them, or the bands no longer have Omaha on their radar like they did a decade or so ago when we were in the center of the indie music world.
Traveling to shows is nothing new, but more than ever, it’s become a necessity if you’re an indie music fan. Not such a big deal if you’ve got the money and time to travel — heck, it’s even an escape. But if you’re in college without the means to get to shows, it can be a real bummer. At least they’ve got Maha to look forward to…
Anyway, since Lazy-i’s mission is to cover indie music, in addition to covering local and national tours coming through Omaha, I’ll announce noteworthy indie tours coming to nearby cities and info about the venues (when I have it).
For example: Slowdive tour’s nearest pass to Omaha:
Tue. Oct. 3 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre Wed. Oct. 4 – St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre
Lewsberg’s nearest pass to Omaha:
10/7 – Lawrence KS, The White Schoolhouse
10/9 – Chicago, Sleeping Village w/ CB Radio Gorgeous
Flaming Lips’ 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is a ubiquitous indie moment from a band that had already been around for nearly 20 years, an album that itself is now 21 years old. It’s also clearly the band’s most “pop” moment and most successful release, selling more than 500,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. Single “Do You Realize?” — once the “official rock song of Oklahoma” — was written by frontman Wayne Coyne as a reaction to seeing fellow band member Steven Drozd suffer from heroin withdrawal, and for my money by itself is worth the price of the album… and a ticket to tonight’s performance at Steelhouse Omaha.
If the show is anything like Tuesday’s gig at Riverside Theater in Milwaukee (setlist here), expect them to run through the entire album followed by a 10-song second set that includes really their only other hits, “She Don’t Use Jelly” and “Race for the Prize” from 1999’s The Soft Bulletin, as well as a cover (They did Madonna’s “Borderline” in Milwaukee). All followed by a three song-encore. and upchuck-inducing recording of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.”
No doubt it will be a spectacle as Coyne is nothing if not a showman (Get out those confetti cannons!) If you’re wondering what you’re in for, check out my review of Steelhouse Omaha that was published in the current issue of The Reader (also below). For many indie fans, this will be their first venture into the facility. My advice – stand up and enjoy the ride (cuz there ain’t no seats).
You can purchase directly from the Steelhouse website for as low as $50. Starts at 8:30 p.m.
And that, my friends, is about it for the weekend. Nothing worth mentioning at 1% venues and Slowdown is in CWS mode. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
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First published in The Reader, June 2023:
A Killer of a Grand Opening
Steelhouse Omaha Is a Testament to the City’s Resolve
Although still fresh in most of our memories, we have to acknowledge what we were about to face in November 2019 when Omaha Performing Arts (O-pa) announced the yet-to-be-named, $109 million project that would become Steelhouse Omaha.
The idea of a world-crippling pandemic was the last thing on anyone’s mind at the time. That would come a few months later, in March 2020, when COVID-19 became the center of everything, shutting down our world and the music industry with it.
O-pa’s plan suddenly seemed like a fool’s dream — no one knew what was going to happen with the pandemic. At the same time, the project was a beacon of hope, assurance that somehow we’d get through all the sickness and death, that O-pa and its patrons must know something or they wouldn’t hold onto a commitment to build a facility designed to host a crowd of 3,000 like a herd of cattle, standing shoulder to shoulder in a windowless, confined hall – the absolute last place anyone would want to be in the middle of an airborne-spread health crisis.
And yet, here I was, three-and-a-half years later, COVID-19 much less threatening, standing in a security line next to a bank of search lights on the night of Steelhouse Omaha’s grand opening, waiting to dive head-first into a maskless crowd. Ain’t humanity amazing?
Located at 11th and Dodge, only a stone’s throw from the Holland Performing Arts Center, Steelhouse is destined to become a landmark for live music. From the ground up, it is an ultra-modern concert hall that appears to have erupted right out of the concrete in downtown Omaha.
For its May 12 grand opening, booking The Killers – a band that usually plays 20,000-seat arenas — was like learning to swim by being tossed into a deep, dark lake. Tickets sold out in minutes. I guess if you’re going to pressure-test the system, do it right out of the box.
To O-pa’s credit, Steelhouse passed the hospitality portion of the test with flying colors, thanks to a massive phalanx of smiling, crew-shirted staff at every turn. No gruff, overworked bouncers here — all these folks looked like they were having a good time. After walking through the lobby with its large merch and bar/concessions areas, I bee-lined to the main hall — cram-packed with T-shirt-clad fans holding plastic cups.
First impressions: Wow, this is big and wide open. Concession stands were built into the walls on each side of the hall and in the back – they were everywhere. Even with a sold-out crowd, I had no problem buying my $13 pint of mango wheat beer. All purchases were cashless, so if you go, grab your credit card and ID and leave your wallet at home.
Now with beer in hand, things got tricky. The main floor was already crush-full. I stepped into the mass of humanity a couple of times just to check out the sight lines. Instead of being sloped, the standing-only floor area seemed flat, but the stage was raised high enough so sight lines would be a problem only for the most height-challenged fans.
Somehow, I ended up standing on one of the elevated decks along stage right, where I noticed a guy manning what looked like a battery of cannons.
“Confetti cannons?” I asked. He nodded, smiling. “When will those go off? At the beginning? At the end?”
“All night,” the guy said. “The Killers love their confetti.”
We all discovered this shortly after 8 p.m. when the band took the stage and – bamf! — off went the cannons in a glittering cloud of paper as The Killers slammed into their opening number. And the crowd, as they say, went wild.
The room sounded pretty good overall, if a bit tinny and oversaturated on the high end. Volume was even throughout the facility. The arsenal of lighting was impressive, as was the giant backdrop video that augmented every song. It was as if The Killers had brought a Las Vegas stage show to Omaha (because they sort of did).
The challenges began when I turned around to make my way to the back of the hall. People were smashed all the way across the aisles, requiring that I shoulder my way against the current of flesh. Still, I never felt trapped. The main auditorium is designed with large exit doors that open into a secondary lounge where the bathrooms are located, then into a large patio area — both nice touches and places to escape to when you feel overwhelmed by the sound and noise.
Later that weekend, I returned to the Steelhouse Open House to get a look at the facility without all the people, and yes, all the metal and concrete did feel rather sterile in the cold light of day. But you go for the rock show, not the feng shui.
That evening The Killers slammed through one song after the next, never slowing down and only briefly acknowledging that they had the honor of playing the grand opening. “We’ve been asked to christen The Steelhouse,” frontman Brandon Flowers yelled.“Usually we’re asked to blow the roof off the place!”
Not tonight. All in all, the grand opening felt like a success for Steelhouse and for a city that somehow soldiered through a catastrophe and found music on the other side.
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.
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