by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

How many of the 100 or so folks on hand for last Saturday’s Anna McClellan show at Slowdown had a clue who Kassie Krut was? McClellan said from stage that the show happened because both her and Team Krut were looking for an Omaha stage on the same date and agreed to combine the shows. So it was sort of a two-headliner show. 

However, Slowdown promoted it as an Anna McClellan show and simply listed Kassie Krut as an opener, along with local hip-hop artist Cash Too. I can’t say I blame them. I hadn’t heard of Kassie Krut until I started researching the band for last week’s preview. It was then I discovered the trio was the last vestiges of former Saddle Creek Records band Palm, and that their 2024 debut EP had been heavily lauded by the likes of All Music, Pitchfork and Northern Transmissions. And then I listened to the EP… wow.

The audience was in for a pleasant surprise. The trio came on stage and took positions behind an array of digital equipment, keyboards and electronic drum pads. On either side of the stage, Kasra Kurt and Matt Anderegg hammered at their equipment – one with drum sticks, the other with mallets – while Eve Alpert stood in the middle behind a keyboard holding a microphone. Throughout the set, all were bathed in blood-stain red light.

Their modern, futuristic electronic music tripped forward on a fat cushion of deep bass and an avalanche of rhythms; the perfect soundtrack for a gleaming sci-fi movie set in a dystopian, robotic future where the streets  also are bathed in blood-stained red neon.

Through the cacophony of drum-stick triggered digital sounds was a central rhythm more than enough to get the crowd to move their bodies, especially during set closer (and single) “Reckless.” Kassie Krut would be a welcome match on a bill with acts like YHWH Nailgun or Sextile. Someone at the show said they reminded him of Nine Inch Nails (I assume he meant their early stuff). I felt lucky to be there.

Anna McClellan couldn’t have been a bigger contrast. After Kassie Krut cleared their battery of electronic equipment, up came McClellan holding a table lamp that she plunked down right next to her keyboard in an effort to create a homey vibe on the sterile stage.

I’ve seen McClellan perform at least a half-dozen times over the past decade and last Saturday night’s show was the best she’s ever sounded.  To capture the essence of her last album, 2024’s Electric Bouquet, she surrounded herself with some of the area’s best players, including members of McCarthy Trenching (Dan, James Maakestad) and vocalist Pearl Lovejoy Boyd, whose harmonies took these songs to a different place. 

McClellan, who I believe now lives in LA, testified her love of Omaha before singing her song with the same name, with the line: “Lilting and besot / Why’s Omaha lost in thought?” – a question no doubt asked by an army of Omaha ex-patriots who have ventured to places like LA and Chicago looking for something better, and in most cases, finding it. But never forgetting where they came from and the people still there who helped make them who they are… 

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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.