See Through Dresses at The Benson Theatre, Oct. 27, 2023.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Benson Theatre, located right in the middle of our drunken little townlet, could really be a cool stage for rock shows. The room is, indeed, quite beautiful, well designed, with rows of seating and plenty of room in front of the stage to stand. It’s the best of both worlds, or could be. In my mind I could imagine all those Undertow artists’ shows, like the recent Mark Eitzel show that took place downtown in a brew pub drinking room, performed on the Benson Theatre stage, a room just the right size for tours from past stars who now find themselves nomadically playing people’s living rooms. 

Alas, one assumes the operating costs associated with this “non-profit” theater makes such concerts impossible, which is a shame because there’s woefully little programming taking place in the state-of-the-art facility in the heart of the city. 

But I digress…

Friday night the theater hosted a fundraiser for Omaha Girls Rock, another Omaha non-profit, this one designed to provide direction both musically and ethically to young women from our community. The sold-out crowd consisted mostly of parents of these young rock stars on hand to give moral support, sitting or standing in groups while young kids ran around in costumes or wiggled on the “dance floor” in front of the stage. 

Omaha is currently suffering from a lack of young, up-and-coming indie bands. And as few new or touring Omaha indie bands as there are, there are even fewer bands fronted by women, which is ironic because today’s national indie music scene is dominated by women artists. No need to list them, if you know than you know. Omaha Girls Rock, while not established to fix this problem, could certainly provide an effective remedy. 

In times past when I’ve seen OGR bands play at fundraisers I’ve approached it like just another supportive parent (though I’m not), understanding the girls were only just learning their instruments. Not so Friday night. The two bands I saw were actually pretty good.  Nothing Rhymes with Orange was cute and showed promise, but UN-T.I.L. actually could stand on its own as a functioning post-punk power trio. No idea who’s in the band, but they had some chops, especially on the last two numbers that had more intricate compositions. And if you doubt me, you can find out for yourself as UN-T.I.L. will be opening for Speedy Ortiz at The Slowdown Nov. 17.

They were followed by the return of See Through Dresses, who haven’t played out in a few years. Drummer Nate Van Fleet even made a special trip to Omaha from his new home in LA just for the show. The entire band dressed in matching skeleton costumes a la Phoebe Bridgers’ band, which made it a sort of double costume. 

While the band sounded as good as ever playing music that’s a combination of shoegaze and Dinosaur Jr., the vocals by Matthew Carroll and Sara Bertuldo sounded naked on stage, pulled right out front of everything instead of being properly mixed with the rest of the instruments. I’ve never heard these two so loud and clear, like auctioneers fronting DIIV. Still, despite the poor mix, it was great seeing them on stage again.

In an era in Omaha when we’ve got ginormous new music venues popping up everywhere, here’s a small, well-made smaller alternative venue going mostly unused. It would be a shame if more bands weren’t booked there.

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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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

By default, it’s Halloween weekend, at least as far as bars are concerned. So brush off your Taylor Swift/Kelce costumes and have a good time. It’s also another no-touring-indie-bands weekend. See what’s on the event horizon through next spring as far as touring indie acts in yesterday’s blog post. 

There are a few local shows happening this weekend, not the least of which is the long-awaited return of See Through Dresses. The band is playing a reunion gig tonight at Benson Theatre as part of the 2023 annual fundraiser for Omaha Girls Rock. They’ll be joined by a handful of OGR bands. Tickets are $25 and available at bensontheatre.org. Music starts at 7 p.m., and yes, costumes are encouraged.

No doubt costumes will also be all the rage tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s as the club hosts a free punk rock show with The Scabby Ghouls, The Shidiots, DSM-5 and Blowing Chunks. The spooky fun starts at 9 p.m. 

Meanwhile, over at The Sydney in Benson, Thick Paint opens for singer/songwriter Anna McClellan. $10, 9 p.m.

Three local shows tomorrow night (Saturday):

Local rockers Garst are headlining at Reverb Lounge with Bad Self Portraits and The Moose & The Public. $12, 8 p.m. 

Las Cruxes is headlining The Down Under Lounge’s 8th annual Halloween show Saturday night. Joining them are Jar, Glue, and Grief Police. $8, 9:30 p.m. Again, costumes.

And finally, Pet Bun and Sputnik Kputnik are playing at Pageturners Lounge Saturday night. No cover but a $10 donation is suggested. Music starts at 8 p.m. 

And then Sunday night Grapefruit Records in the Old Market is hosting a rare Omaha performance by Simon Joyner and the Sirens. It’s a tour kick-off show for the band as they’re headed back on the road. David Nance will be playing a set of brand new material in his opening solo set at 8 p.m. $10. No mention of costumes, but every day is Halloween in the Old Market, right?

That’s it. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a wild and crazy Halloween 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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

We’ve entered the lull season for shows. I see only 12 touring indie shows coming through town between now and next summer. All are listed below. 

Strangely (or maybe not so strangely), two of the city’s biggest, newest music venues in their inaugural years have no touring indie shows booked at all.  The Astro has an excuse. Despite a scheduled opening date of Sept. 7, the venue has yet to host any shows due to “construction delays.” Their next scheduled show was Ruben and Clay — which, because of all the other cancellations, postponements or moves to other venues, would have been the first show for the The Astro. But that’s been postponed, too. The next opportunity to see the inside of this multi-million-dollar facility will be Emo Orchestra Nov. 5 (that is, if you’re into Emo Orchestra). The Astro only has five shows booked through May 15.

Meanwhile, the multi-million-dollar Steelhouse Omaha has a total of 18 shows on its calendar. The breakdown by genre: 4 comedians; 4 country; 3 alt rock, and a hodgepodge of gospel, rave, EDM, “family,” smooth jazz, R&B and tribute/cover bands. No indie, but is anyone surprised?

Sure, it’s the down season, but it’s also the inaugural year for this $100 million-plus venue. Or is there another reason their bookings have been so geriatric and disappointing?

Anyway, below is the current list of indie shows booked at The Slowdown and 1% properties through May 30 of next year. Hopefully, more will be booked. If not, it’s going to be a long winter:

• – Great Lake Swimmers, Nov. 2 at Slowdown
• – Slothrust, Nov. 17 at Reverb
• – Speedy Ortiz, Nov. 17, The Slowdown
• – Atmosphere, Nov. 21 at The Admiral
• – Hotline TNT, Nov. 22 at Reverb Lounge
• – Neva Dinova, Dec. 14 at Reverb
• – Laura Jane Grace, Jan. 2 at The Slowdown
• – Squirrel Flower Jan. 21 at Reverb
• – Yo La Tengo, Feb. 19 at The Waiting Room
• – Katy Kirby, Feb. 29 at Reverb
• – Ty Segall, May 7 at The Waiting Room.
• – Wednesday, May 30, The Slowdown

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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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

As a preview to their upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand, Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst did a couple lengthy inteviews.  It’s a time for reminiscing for ol’ Conor, now 43, who goes back into the mind vault and talks about his early days. 

The article in The Music, “Australia’s most respected source for music news,” is the better of the two. Written as a feature story, the writer lays down some ancient history. 

Here are the best quotes from that article (which you can read in its entirety right here): 

• — “It’s a running joke – or kinda a half-joke – that we’ll be at an airport with a bunch of guitars, and someone asks us, ‘What kind of music do you play?’ and a number of years ago, I took to saying, ‘Yeah, it’s called confusion rock’, have you heard of that?’ It doesn’t make any sense, and all our records sound different, so if you love one, you’ll probably hate the next one!’ That’s our own genre.”

• — On the recent reissues and Companion series: “It basically happened because we moved our whole catalogue from Saddle Creek – which is the label we started as kids, which ran its course – and we moved over to Dead Oceans and the Secretly Group, and they’ve been amazing.” – Last I looked, Saddle Creek still was very much a functioning label. 

• — “When I listen to or think about an album like [2000 third album] Fever And Mirrors, yeah, there’s a lot of embarrassing things on there – things I wrote and the way I sang and the over-the-top adolescence of it – but then every year somebody goes to high school and somebody’s older sister hands them a copy of it, and this has been happening for 20 years.”

• — “I definitely think the output has decreased over the years. When I was a teenager or in my early 20s, I was writing constantly, and it was the only thing I thought about, or cared about really, at all. Probably to my detriment, in a lot of ways, because I think I’ve probably ruined some relationships and made some bad decisions… I don’t know, all of the stuff that you do when you’re a kid.”

• — “I always joke that I’ve never worked a day in my life, which is not true, but you know what I’m saying, it’s fine. My buddy’s a part-time musician, and if I’m ever complaining about something on tour or about something that happened, he always goes [adopts deadpan voice], ‘Hey, beats pushing a broom’. Ain’t that the truth.”

The Mixdown appears to be another Australian-based publication (there’s not a lot of info about them on their own website). Their interview with Oberst is a straight up Q&A by someone who admits to be a long-time fan. 

The best quotes from the Mixdown interview (which you can read in its entirety here):

• — “Commander Venus – such a bad name.” Come on now, Conor, nothing wrong with that band name. Certainly it’s as good as Bright Eyes.
  
• — “People seem to like our records 5 years after they’re released. So it’s always felt like ‘let’s just make something and wait 5 years for someone to tell us it’s brilliant!’ But when it comes out it’s like ‘this is fucking shit!’ [Laughs]”
  
• — On the next Bright Eyes record: “You know, we’ve been recording it… If all goes well maybe next fall. Knock on wood. Or early 2025. That feels so far away though. So I’m hoping for next fall.”

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Tonight at Ming Toy Gallery (that’s the gallery run by my better half) located at 6066 Maple in the heart of Benson, artist and musician Josh Audiss is playing a set of music. Audiss writes in a modern folk, singer/songwriter style. The free show starts at 7 p.m. and you’ll also get a chance to see (and buy) some of his art, which is on display at Ming Toy through the end of the month.

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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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

We tend to make things better in our minds after they’re gone, forgetting the bad stuff, remembering only the good moments – it’s true both for people and music venues. O’Leaver’s is a good example. The energy of a night at O’Leaver’s is hard to describe — when there’s a great band playing on their stage, the crowd is drunk and happy (but not too much of either), and you can find your favorite spot to soak it all in. 

In reality, not every night was so golden, but there was always someone there who knew your name. Then along came the pandemic and O’Leaver’s changed its business model, opened a grill, put in booths and cut down on the live music. Suddenly, unless you had a serious drinking problem or played volleyball, there were fewer reasons to go to O’Leaver’s. 

I cannot blame the folks behind the bar (which include members of Saddle Creek Records band Cursive) for trying the bar-food experiment – after all, it works so well for O’Leaver’s sister establishment – The Winchester (owned by the same team of rock stars). That said, The Winchester ain’t O’Leaver’s. I can imagine taking my imaginary family to Winchester’s for dinner — I can’t imagine taking a family to O’Leaver’s for burgers and cokes (though plenty of people did).

Okay, so yesterday O’Leaver’s posted on social media that it’s pulling the plug on its kitchen. “We were never able to reach our goals of sustainability since opening 3 years ago,” they posted on Facebook. “O’Leavers pub will continue to rock and roll!! We open at 3:30 on the weekdays and noon on the weekends. Happy hour is always a blast and Jeopardy’s still on at 6 every day. AND, live music is on the calendar!!”

Does that mean a return to the old days at O’Leaver’s with live music every weekend? Not likely. Omaha legendary musician and member of the O’Leaver’s brain trust, Craig Dee, said the club may slowly start ramping up music again “but not like the old days.”

Last weekend O’Leaver’s hosted two nights of music, including the return of heritage post-punk act Dance Me Pregnant. Alas, I was unable to attend, but heard it felt like… old times. The club has another free show slated this Friday — a punk-rock gig with The Scabby Ghouls, The Shidiots, DSM-5 and Blowing Chunks. Could more shows be on the way?

I remember a time when fabulous O’Leaver’s booked up to four shows a week, which even for me was exhausting. I’d be happy with rock shows every other weekend, but then again, I’m an old guy. Here’s hoping The Club will re-emerge as another tour-stop and/or viable stage for local post-punk bands, because lord knows we desperately need it…

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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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Wilco plays tonight at The Astro Amphitheater.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Omaha loves Wilco, and Wilco loves them right back, judging by the number of Wilco shows we’ve seen come through town over the years. Tonight the band is playing at The Astro Amphitheater in beautiful La Vista. This show was originally slated to be performed in the The Astro’s indoor music venue, but construction delays continue to plague the project, apparently, and the show had to be moved outdoors to the amphitheater, which actually could be an upgrade considering how nice the weather is expected to be. 

The band is on the road supporting their 13th album, Cousin, release late last month on dBpm Records, Wilco’s own label, which has released all their albums since 2011’s The Whole Love. The album was produced by Cate Le Bon, the first time the band has handed over the reins to someone outside the Wilco circle in 16 years. Based on the setlist from last night’s show at Mission Ballroom in Denver, you can expect a 19-song set that dips deep into their catalog, with a three-song encore. Good thing they moved the show start time back to 6:45 p.m. (doors at 6 p.m. ). Singer/songwriter Nina Nastasia is the opener. Her last full-length, Riderless Horse, was produced by Steve Albini and released in 2022 on Temporary Residence. Tickets are still available, ranging in price from $45 to $100.

When will we get to see a show in The Astro’s indoor venue? Well, Ruben & Clay are slated to play indoors this Saturday. With the weather taking a turn for the worst later this week, it’s very unlikely they’d move that to the amphitheater (though 1% has a lot of indoor options if the Astro is still not ready for action). 

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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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Sextile at The Waiting Room, Oct. 19, 2023.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’ll start with Sextile at The Waiting Room and go backward from there. 

The band had made it known they were going on at 10:15 last night, and I arrived shortly before that, catching only the last song by the opening act, someone who’s music I had determined I didn’t need to hear after listening to a number of his tracks prior to the show. Some folks expected Sextile to be a big draw, others were like me, skeptical but hopeful that Omaha would show up — and more Omaha showed up than I expected – a crowd of maybe 150, a fine mix of ages and genders drawn together by a goth sense of fashion and a shared love for this style of post-punk post-New Wave synth-powered dance music.

The trio bounded onto the velvet-black stage to the blump-blump-blump beat of “Contortion,” off their new album, Push. Or at least I think that was the name of the song. I would be lying if I told you I knew the words to any Sextile song or their names for that matter, other than the ones fans consider their “hits” – “Disco,” “New York,” “No Fun,” “Current Affair,” etc., all of which were played at some point last night to a crowd of sometimes-jumping sometimes-undulating fans, many of which looked ready for Halloween. 

In addition to having an infectiously driving beat, Sextile songs sport abrasive counter-melodies played mostly on synths but sometimes on electric guitar, and vocals that consist mostly of either frontman Brady Keehn or frontwoman Melissa Scaduto barking out words in a staccato yelp tightly in synch with the proceedings. At their best, even the most dead pile of human flesh can’t help but move to their coal-black rhythms.

So much of the music was preprogrammed that it was hard to say if and when any of Sextile were actually playing anything, other than punching the track number from a play list, though it sure looked like guitarist Cameron Michel was actually shredding that guitar, as did Scaduto. More often, the performance consisted of a bleach-blond-sunglassed Keehn bounding about the stage, spitting out lyrics while showing off his contorted dance moves, glowing/blasting on-off-on in the blinding strobes. T’was a shame the place wasn’t packed, as (like that Model/Actriz show a week ago) I can only imagine how this performance would feel at, say, a sold-out Terminal 5 in Brooklyn. 

Another Michael at Reverb Lounge, Oct. 19, 2023.

Going backwards earlier the evening… There was a wholly different kind of audience at Reverb Lounge last night for Ratboys, a well-attended (but not sold out) show. These folks clearly were not ready for Halloween. Opening band Another Michael is a Philly four-piece that plays Americana-inflected indie rock, though that’s not really a fair description. It’s clearly a singer/songwriter act powered by frontman Michael Doherty backed by a rock-solid band anchored with precision and grace by a drummer who’s name I don’t know and can’t find and in this day-and-age don’t want to make any assumptions. 

Doherty’s songwriting style would be as successful in the ‘70s as it is here in the ’20s (and upon reading that sentence, I feel very old indeed). The only band I would compare them to is early ‘90s-era The Silos. Doherty has a high, sweet voice and style similar to Walter Salas-Humara, though instead of singing about the Southwest, Another Michael’s songs are rooted in the frozen Northeast. Really gorgeous stuff and a good opener for Ratboys.

Ratboys at Reverb Lounge, Oct. 19, 2023.

A hot ticket thanks to the success of their latest album, the Chris Walla produced The Window, and for touring with bands like Wilco and Guster (who they opened for here in Omaha a year ago), the band has a poise and style that points to much bigger stages than Reverb’s. Singer/guitarist Julia Steiner is like watching Broadcast News-era Holly Hunter lead a modern indie band that has a lot in common with acts like Hop Along (the closest comparison vocally to Steiner). Her voice can be at times sound earnest and personal while at other times almost overtly cute, just as their songs can waver between straightforward indie rock and Wilco-esque Americana. 

Steiner also has good between-song-tuning-my-guitar snappy patter, telling stories about “the wooden man” they saw at a Luv’s somewhere in Iowa (Hate for Iowa was a theme throughout the night by both bands who wrongly think Nebraskans hates Iowa for some reason, which couldn’t be further from the truth, but who am I to correct their regional prejudices?).  There is no doubt this band is going to be huge, and the fact that this show didn’t sell out tiny Reverb only adds to the continued mystery as to why touring indie shows are drawing so disappointingly in our market. 

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Onto the weekend, and an O’Leaver’s weekend at that, though there is one big touring indie show worth mentioning.

First though, like a blast from the past, there are back-to-back nights of live music this weekend at fabulous O’Leaver’s. Tonight, elusive local indie band BB Sledge opens for two bands I’ve never heard of — Saltwater Sanctuary and The Bedrock. Will I finally see BB Sledge after countless efforts to see them in the past were for naught? Maybe. This show is $10 and starts at 9:30.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) at O’Leaver’s see the return of Dance Me Pregnant, who we haven’t heard from since, what, 2012? It’s the classic Dance Me Pregnant line-up with Chris Machmuller, Johnny Vredenburg, Corey Broman and Jeff Ankenbauer. Some of these folks I literally haven’t seen in a decade. If that weren’t enough to get you to O’Leaver’s, the night’s bill also includes The Flamboyant Gods (I’m Drinking This Records) and In Tongues (Robert Little, Jason Ludwick and Boz Hicks). And it’s free. Expect a crush mob. Good thing it’s nice out so you can step out onto their gorgeous patio between sets. Starts at 9 p.m., just like old times.

The other big show Saturday night is indie darling Samia at The Waiting Room. The band is riding a wave of popularity thanks to the sing-along song “Honey” off the album of the same name released earlier this year on Grand Jury Records. Was a time you couldn’t turn on Sirius XMU without hearing the track (how does that happen, by the way?). Also on the bill is the cute Nashville indie duo Venus & the Flytraps.  8 p.m., $25.

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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

For work reasons I didn’t attend last night’s Amyl and the Sniffers show, which, by all accounts, was a banger. I intend to make up for it tonight.

Los Angeles post-punk band Sextile came out of nowhere in 2015 playing a style of high-energy electronics-driven No Wave rock reminiscent of the early days of The Faint. Their sound is driving, relentless, synth-fueled dance punk, shiny vinyl and strobe lights, with a nod to early post-punk acts ranging from Gary Numan and Flock of Seagulls to The Cramps and Christian Death. 

In 2017 the band played a set at Meatball in the Blackstone District to close out that year’s Farnam Fest. It was a glorious shambles. Two years later, Sextile’s guitarist, Eddie Wuebben, died and sent the band into hiatus. They emerged on the other side of the pandemic to carry on with the single “New York” in 2022. The full-length, Push, was released this past September on Sacred Bones and is their best album so far. 

Tonight’s Sextile show boasts three openers, all laptop performers. N8NOFACE is an LA-based dark-synth punk artist apparently obsessed with killing, judging by his 2022 release Homicide. Lincoln synth-leather-fetish-dance-dude Plack Blague also is on the bill. Runway thumper Jeff in Leather kicks things off at 8 p.m. $20.

I’m told Sextile could go on as early as 9:45 10:15. I bring this up because right around the corner at Reverb, Ratboys is headlining. The Chicago four-piece has been described as “soft-hearted Midwestern indie rock with an ever-so-subtle Americana twist” — about as far away from Sextile as you can get. Their latest, The Window, was released this past August by Topshelf Records. Produced by Death Cab’s Chris Walla, Pitchfork bestowed the record with a massive 8.0 rating while Stereogum described it as “one of the absolute best albums of the year.”

Opening for Ratboys at Reverb is Philly duo Another Michael, who’s new album, Wishes to Fulfill, has a soothing ‘70s FM sound you will immediately recognize if you grew up riding around town in the back of a stationwagon. 8 p.m., $18.

It’s my intent to try to go between the two clubs throughout the evening. We’ll see how that goes…

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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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Amyl and the Sniffers play tonight at The Waiting Room.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This one was originally scheduled for The Admiral Theater a.k.a. the venue formerly known as Sokol Hall. But because of ongoing construction delays (and, I’m sure, other issues) the Chris Distefano concert originally scheduled to be performed at the new Astro Theater had to be moved to The Admiral, bumping Amyl/Sniffers to The Waiting Room (And something tells me poor tickets sales also might have had something to do with it).

Regardless, a show slated for a 1,400-capacity hall has been moved to a venue half that size, which means expect a crush-mob crowd. Heck, I thought Amyl / Sniffers would have sold out The Admiral weeks ago, but I obviously misjudged their popularity in our ever-shrinking music-listening market. 

The Aussie punk band blew up after the release of the 2019 self-titled debut album on ATO/Rough Trade, which, in addition to winning a number of Aussie music awards, also garnered frontwoman Amy Taylor the monikier “one of the hardest rocking people on the face of the planet.” Their follow-up, Comfort to Me (2021,Rough Trade/ATO), landed them the opening slot for Weezer and Green Day in Europe, who they no doubt blew off stage.

To give you a taste of what you’re in for tonight, here’s a clip of the band performing “Shake Ya” this past Saturday in California. 

Opening act, Austin’s Die Spitz, is a perfect compliment – an all-female four-piece rock band that can hold its own with the toughest punk boys. Their latest full-length, Teeth, was released this past January on Poop Butt Records. 

Expect to see a lot of black t-shirts and/or leather jackets tonight at The Waiting Room, and why not? $35, 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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Civic at The Slowdown, Oct. 13, 2023.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Aussie band Civic didn’t so much get NOmaha’d by the crowd as much as they were NOmaha’d by Bad Religion at the Admiral Friday night, or more accurately, Dwarves, who opened for Bad Religion. I have little doubt that the Admiral’s show drew away their target audience, and it was a shame.

While it was an intense performance by Civic, you’re naturally going to lose something when only playing in front of 50 or so people in a mostly empty Slowdown Jr. Frontman Jim McCullough made the best of things, asking the crowd to move up closer to the stage between songs. “We have a problem,” he said with his charming Aussie accent. “This hole right here.” He pointed at the empty space in front of him. “Move up. You don’t have to be afraid.” 

The crowd did move up and a few even tried to start a shoving mosh pit to no avail. Certainly Civic’s music lends itself to shoving, the band takes a clean, modern approach to punk rock even though their music is too well played for punk, sounding more like fast heavy metal with a snarl. I would have loved to have seen these guys play this show at a drunken, chaotic O’Leaver’s back in its heyday. 

Regardless, despite the small crowd, Civic was good-hearted fun, clearly excited to be in Omaha (and Nebraska) for the first time. “For dinner, we were going to go to this joint where you can watch raccoons eat,” McCullough said between songs, clearly referencing the Alpine Inn in Ponca Hills. “But we were two hours late so we’ll have to throw some garbage in the pit and watch you eat it. Just kidding. When we come back, you’re all going with us.”

“And he’s paying,” quipped sideman Lewis Hodgson. Count me in. 

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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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.