by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Last year the Maha Music Festival was something of a sausage party. No matter what organizers tried, they couldn’t book a main stage band with even a single female member let alone a frontwoman. This year, Maha is practically a Midwestern Lilith Fair, with co-headliner Garbage (with frontwoman Shirley Manson) and now the all-woman Sub Pop post-punk rock band Dum Dum Girls, announced last night along with Delta Spirit and Eli Mardock. Add to that Icky Blossoms headlining the local stage featuring the sultry vocals of Sarah Bohling (along with rumors of another female-fronted band on the local stage) and holy moly it’s Maha Girls Rock.

So did Maha go out of its way to book a more diverse lineup?

“It wasn’t our overarching concern, but it certainly was a focus,” said Maha main stage organizer Tre Brashear. “(We) wanted to make sure we secured some female performers at the beginning of the lineup process so we didn’t end up getting burned like last year with unavailability when it came time to finish out the lineup. I know it sounds simplistic, but last year the list of available performers that came back from our inquiries didn’t have as many females. This year, there were more choices that we thought would be appealing to Maha fans.”

Yesterday’s announcement also adds diversity from an age demographic perspective. Maha was on the verge of becoming an indie legacy festival, with Guided by Voices and Superchunk in years past and Garbage and Desparecidos this year — a veritable tribute to past decades. Yesterday’s announcement changes all of that. Dum Dum Girls, who will be coming off an appearance at this year’s Lollapalooza Fest, and Rounder recording artist Delta Spirit, are among the hotter new indie acts on tour, while Icky Blossoms is an emerging post-punk-dance-rock dynamo.

Fans seem to like the lineup, if strong early ticket sales are any indication. “We are running 80% ahead of 2010, so, yes, very strong considering that we have traditionally gotten 10-20% of our sales on the day of show,” Brashear said. “VIP tickets are also going well, especially with the out-of-towners. (We) sold one in Australia last Friday.”

For Maha to “sell out,” it would need to nearly double last year’s attendance. “We will treat ourselves as sold out at 6,000 GA tickets,” Brashear said of Stinson Park’s capacity. “(We) could likely sell more for that space, but don’t want to overwhelm ourselves and want to make sure that we create a good experience for everyone attending with space to spread out, parking, etc.” Tickets to the Aug. 11 concert, held at Stinson Park, are $35 and available at mahamusicfestival.com.

Maha announcements aren’t over yet. Look for one more announcement in the near future to round out the festival’s lineup. Can the multi-million dollar Red Sky Festival match up to Maha? Guess it all depends on how much you like C&W and hair metal. MECA just announced three of its four headliners: Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts and Def Leppard. Yee-hawwww!

* * *

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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Very quiet weekend. No national shows worth mentioning. The highlight likely will be tonight, when Icky Blossoms plays at Slowdown Jr. with Video Ranger and Mellow Mic. With no other notable shows going on this evening, has IB grown to the point where they could sell out the frontroom virtually by themselves? We’ll find out tonight. $7, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night, Sun Settings is playing at The Sandbox with Betsy Wells, Video Ranger and Sea Wife. According to this Facebook invite, start time is 7:30, and the show is $6.

Finally Sunday night, traveling troubadour Jeremy Quentin a.k.a. Small Houses plays Slowdown Jr. with Field Club and Howard. $7, 9 p.m.

And that, my friends, is all show wrote.

One more thing: The Maha Music Festival will announce more of its festival lineup Sunday at 9 p.m. This could wind up being the most balanced tickets in the festival’s history (and maybe its best).

Maha beats Red Sky to the punch once again, as MECA intends to announce the Red Sky lineup on Monday. What are my predictions? Well, as I said on an Omahype Facebook thread, I’m pretty sure we’ll see Sharon Van Etten, Spiritualized, Justice, Screaming Females, Wilco, The Oh Sees, M83, The Weeknd, A$AP Rocky, Nora Jones, Bob Mould/Sugar, and the reunited Smiths.

And Poison.

Do I really need to say “just kidding?”

* * *

R.I.P. Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch a.k.a. MCA. We’ll miss the humor, the beats, the music, the man…

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Love Drunk storm team is spending one last night in Omaha before the crew heads to the East Coast for their 2012 Tour. In addition to Tuesday’s announcement, you can read all about the tour and its fearless leader, Django Greenblatt-Seay, in my column in this week’s issue of The Reader, or read it online at The Reader‘s website, right here.

Before they hit the road, The Sydney in Benson is hosting a fundraiser tonight to help cover some of the tour’s costs. Featured bands are Honeybee and Hers, Jasong Mountain (Talking Mountain) and Bazooka Shootout. $5, 9 p.m. More info here.

And as part of this last day in Omaha, Love Drunk also is asking local bands and businesses to donate CDs, T-shirts and other promo material that they can distribute to each band they shoot on the tour, “providing just one more reason to add Nebraska cities to their tour schedule, and helping to build ties across the country.”

Bands and businesses can drop their shit off at The Sydney tonight after 6 p.m. More info about the merch collection here.

The fundraiser isn’t the only thing going on tonight.

Down at Slowdown Jr., Red House Records artist The Pines plays with Midwest Dilemma and Matt Cox. $8, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Barley Street Tavern, Millions of Boys plays with The ACBs and Ghosty. $5, 9 p.m.

* * *

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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Drums at The Waiting Room, May 1, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Just how big was Record Store Day last weekend for Homer’s. Let’s just say sales were at “historic” levels, said Homer’s General Manager Mike Fratt. “We are extremely thankful for all the customer support and all the excitement they create,” he said. “It’s very enjoyable to see fans come out in such large numbers.”

RSD has become a marketing phenomenon of unequaled proportions. The only thing you can compare it to is, say, Black Friday or when Apple launches a new iPhone. It’s huge, not only for Homer’s but for every independent record store in the country. “But with that comes considerable risk as purchases of RSD exclusive product can amount to tens of thousands of dollars, and it’s all sold one way. No returns,” Fratt said. “It is amazing how big an event Record Store Day has become, and it continues to spread internationally. Europe, Asia, South America, Australia. And the indies did this. It dominates Google trends in the week prior, is covered by all major media, and generates positive karma for music and the music business.”

To give you an idea of the enormity for Homer’s: “We brought in more product this year than the last three years combined,” Fratt said. “(It) freaked us out how much we bought, but it turned out well. We sold 66 percent of what we brought in, and have been able to reload on some titles we sold out of since then.”

Among the huge sellers was The Flaming Lips’ Heady LP, which Fratt said not only sold out quickly in Omaha, but sold enough copies that it would have charted in the top 40 on the Billboard charts, and we’re talking about a vinyl release. The key phrase in the last sentence is “would have,” because Fratt said Soundscan somehow didn’t properly report sales on RSD.

“Soundscan showed many cities reported none (of the Lips record) sold (including in Omaha), although we sold all 30 of ours,” Fratt said. “In LA, Soundscan showed just 183 sold when all stores there reported selling all they had, which would have sent the number into the hundreds. Soundscan showed sales in Detroit of negative 400.” Yeah, you read that right.

“Not only did it damage reporting on the three or four titles that would have hit the charts, it also ends up unreporting total impact of RSD, by probably enough to push overall weekly sales up another percent or two — a significant achievement on the part of the indie sector.”

It’s a fuck-up literally of national proportions at a time when the record industry — and indie music stores — can ill afford one. But was Soundscan’s misreporting just a one-time thing or a symptom of a systemic problem? Fratt said the indie music coalition is meeting in LA next week to address the problem. “We are not only concerned about RSD, but ongoing reporting errors,” Fratt said. “Could this loss of reporting move the total national year to date sales up 1 or 2 percent? That is significant if true. No one really knows yet.”

Regardless, there’s no denying that last weekend was wildly successful. Cold hard cash does not lie. “The Indie Retail community saw a 40% increase from last week,” Fratt said. “The overall business conditions were up 3% from last week – which is cool because mass merchants were about even and digital scans were down about 4%.” If that isn’t proof that vinyl is making an impact, nothing is.

While I have your attention, Fratt wanted to pass along some upcoming special events at his store, including in-store performances by My Darkest Days on May 22 and Tech n9ne on May 27, along with listening parties for Beach House and Best Coast May 14 and Sigor Ros May 28.

* * *

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Craft Spells at The Waiting Room, May 1, 2012.

Briefly… I am a sucker for ’80s electronic music a la Factory Records bands such as Joy Division and New Order. So last night’s show at The Waiting Room clearly was right up my alley.

Opening band Part Time set the mood with a micro-set that lasted less than a half hour. So shortcthat it was hard to absorb what they were doing on stage. Add to that the fact that they seemed to just want to get it over with didn’t help matters.

They were followed by Craft Spells, who sounded like, well, a cross between New Order and Joy Division. It was all there in the oh so familiar guitar lines, synth parts and up-tempo rhythm section that was straight off of Brotherhood. It’s one thing to be derivative of a style, it’s another to wholly embody it. There’s no question what these guys were trying to do, and they did it well, though I couldn’t tell you a word of what the frontman was mumbling into the microphone during their short set. I can tell you they were the best band on stage last night.

Here I was thinking I might get home by 11, but The Drums put on a long, if not adventureless, performance. With a sound that undoubtedly has its origins in the ’80s, it hinted at something slightly more modern (as in The Strokes). Blond frontman Jonny Pierce spent most of the set sashaying around the darkened stage vocally emulating Bono. In fact, their music tried to harken back to very early U2, but lacked that band’s anthemic hubris.

Watching Pierce skip and sway through his set without engaging the audience made me remember what made Bono such an incredible frontman back in U2’s glory days — he brought his audience along with him on every song. He was mesmerizing, nearly confrontational, determined to make everyone in the audience care about what he was singing about. Pierce could have been singing words out of a telephone book, which is a shame because The Drums lyrics deserve more effort than that.

* * *

Snake Island headlines a show tonight at The Waiting Room with Lightning Bug, Dim Light and  Swamp Walk. $5, 9 p.m.

* * *

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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Ah yes, it’s that time of year again when Django Greenblatt-Seay (G-S for short) and his band of merry pranksters heads out across the wilderness to capture the best and brightest up-and-coming indie bands livin’ and lovin’ along the Eastern Seaboard.

Of course I’m talking about the Love Drunk 2012 Tour.

The map and list of bands are right there at the top of your screen. We’re talking 17 days, 14 cities, 8 people in one very smelly van.

The Love Drunk Team, photo by Daniel Muller.

Actually, the trip has been split into two tours of duty, with four of the eight splitting time between two legs of the tour. It breaks down like this: G-S, Ben Semisch and The Normans (Angie and Andy, the dynamic duo behind Hear Nebraska) will be along for the full tour. Matt Hovanec and Andrew Roger will be on for the first leg. At some point they will be swapped out with Brendan Greene-Walsh (of O’Leaver’s/So-So Sailors fame) and superstar photographer Daniel Muller (who I refer to as Omaha’s Anton Corbijn).

Like last year, I haven’t heard of many of the bands they’re filming on the road, which G-S said he found via friends, friends in bands and “Facebook trolling.” However, we all know that Cymbals Eat Guitars just got off the road with Cursive; and Spinto the Band opened for Basia Bulat at Slowdown a couple years ago. Beyond that, G-S tells me that Laura Burhenn of The Mynabirds suggested Jukebox the Ghost. Sarah of Millions of Boys suggested Nelsonville. And Spinto came by way of Love Drunk regular Arrah and the Ferns.

So what’s Love Drunk? It’s a live, one-shot music video project that’s featured a number of the better indie bands from around Omaha, including It’s True, Little Brazil, Conduits, Digital Leather and so on. The videos are housed at lovedrunkstudio.com

, of course. Read this 2011 column that outlined last year’s tour. Or read my new column about Love Drunk, which will appear in this week’s issue of The Reader

.

Love Drunk continues to see its viewership grow. The site’s 73 current videos have been getting a total of 18,000 views per month so far this year, about a 25 percent bump over 2011. Not bad. But we all know imitation is the greatest indicator of success; and just a few weeks ago the Omaha World-Herald began their own version of Love Drunk called Guest List, created by paid staff rather than volunteers. G-S ain’t worried. He says there’s room for two (or three or four) different music video projects in Omaha.

Speaking of money, this year’s Love Drunk Tour is being funded by a couple sponsors — Proxibid and Havana Garage. They’re ponying up much of the $5k needed to make thing work. But G-S still wants more, which is why The Sydney in Benson is hosting a fundraiser for Love Drunk Thursday night featuring Honeybee and Hers and Bazooka Shootout. It’ll be your last chance to say goodbye to the Love Drunk team, as they’ll be hitting the road on Friday…

* * *

The boys in Desaparecidos announced a few more tour dates this morning, including Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle and SF, all in mid- to late-August. Check out the sched at their website. Will there be a new vinyl release soon? Keep your fingers crossed.

In addition, Conor Oberst announced some solo dates, including a string in late July out east. Those dates are listed here on his website.

* * *

Finally, Red Sky announced today via its Facebook page that it will name names for its 2012 “festival” next Monday, May 7. Ho-boy, can’t wait for that one…

* * *

Tonight red hot Brooklyn band The Drums plays at The Waiting Room with Craft Spells and Part Time. $15, 9 p.m.

* * *

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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lambchop at Slowdown Jr., April 27, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Another “sit-down” show at Slowdown? This is becoming a habit. A couple weeks ago it was Cowboy Junkies in the big room. Friday night it was Lambchop in the front room for a crowd that looked to be around 100, maybe more, half of whom were seated on folding chairs set up in a space between the stage and pushed-back tables. Obviously it has something to do with either the laid-back music or the mature age of the crowd, or both. And in both cases, the chairs were oddly appropriate, especially since the people fronting both bands also spent the the evening seated.

So-So Sailors at Slowdown Jr., April 27, 2012.

For opening band So-So Sailors Friday night, it was seated frontman Chris Machmuller behind a keyboard, though Mach also stood with a guitar slung over his shoulder. Maybe it was the room’s dark ambiance but this was the most relaxed, most un-rushed set I’ve heard the Sailors play, and also the finest. No one was trying to blow the roof off of anything, instead Mach and his band of merry men provided subtle, complete interpretations of songs off their recently released EP along with a few new songs that will fill out an LP one of these days.

Next was Lambchop, and as expected, seated directly in the center of the stage was Omaha guitarist/musician Alex McManus, a Lambchop veteran back in the fold if only for one night. Judging by the smile on frontman Kurt Wagner’s face, he couldn’t have been more proud. Wagner lead the band seated with an acoustic guitar and his dry, folky mumble, backed by two keyboardists (one occasionally switching to guitar), bass and drums, and McManus adding tasty fills and leads on electric guitar.

Their sound was warm and subtle like sipping a glass of fine old scotch. There was no resemblance to “alt country” at all. In fact, their music has more in common with intimate club jazz, with Wagner’s mid-range voice bordering on rhythmic spoken word, though he showed his range at times. Some really beautiful stuff.

The band played for well over an hour and not only came back for the usual three-song encore but also for a couple more after that. Wagner said they were doing something out of the usual because he loves playing with McManus, who he called “his secret weapon.” A modest McManus merely smiled and waved without looking up at the crowd.

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It’s a sort of busy week for shows. Tomorrow night is The Drums at The Waiting Room; Dim Light and Snake Island at TWR Wednesday; and then The Pines Thursday night at Slowdown Jr. and Love Drunk’s tour fund raiser also Thursday night at The Sydney with Honeybee & Hers and Bazooka Shootout, and then Icky Blossoms returns to Slowdown Jr. on Friday (speaking of Icky, they just dropped their video for “Babes” this morning. Check it here). Get your shows in during the week, because the weekend ain’t looking good (so far).

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Arrah and the Ferns plays at the Barley Street Tavern Saturday, April 28.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There are way too many shows going on tonight. All you promoters and/or venues need to spread the love around a little more. Here’s what’s happening. Pick wisely.

As mentioned yesterday, tonight at Slowdown Jr. it’s Lambchop with So-So Sailors. $12, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Brothers, Team Love recording artist Conduits does a victory lap returning to Omaha after a successful month-long tour opening for Cursive. Up-and-coming buzz band Lightning Bug opens. $5, 10 p.m.

Meanwhile, up the street at O’Leaver’s, Omaha supergroup The Lupines plays with North of Grand (Des Moines IA) and The Dead Girls (Lawrence KS). $5, 9:30 p.m.

And if that wasn’t enough, red-hot electro-dance band Lights plays at The Waiting Room with Carousel. $15, early start time of 8 p.m.

But wait, there’s more: House of Loom is hosting a Goo night tonight with special guest Harouki Zombi — the psycho dance duo of Orenda Fink and Nina Barnes. $5, 10 p.m. More info here. BTW, Goo has found a monthly home at Loom, where it will be hosted every fourth Friday of the month.

Whew!

Things are a bit more civil Saturday night:

Hear Nebraska

and Love Drunk Studios are hosting a rock show at Barley Street Tavern featuring Philly band Arrah and the Ferns along with Denver’s Flashbulb Fires and Lincoln’s Good Show Great Show. $5, 9 p.m. This same lineup will be at Duffy’s Sunday night.

And let us not forget that tonight and tomorrow Big Al’s Free Music Festival wraps up with free shows at The Hideout on 72nd St. both nights. Saturday night is the festival’s best line-up, featuring Brad Hoshaw and metal-rock animals Bloodcow. 9 p.m., and did I mention that it’s free? More fest lineup info here.

Last but not least, one-hit wonders The Rainmakers will be playing a show on their reunion tour Sunday night at The Waiting Room. The band hit it big in 1986 with the single “Let My People Go-Go.” Now they’re back and headed to Omaha. $15, 9 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lambchop

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Because there’s so much going on and I’m afraid this one could fall through the cracks, here’s an early head’s up about tomorrow night’s Lambchop show at Slowdown Jr. To the best of my knowledge, this will be the first time the legendary band has played in Omaha. Centered around genius singer/songwriter Kurt Wagner (who Salon calls “The best songwriter working today”), Lambchop has been marketed as “Nashville’s most fucked up country band,” and is often grouped in the alt-country category for reasons that seem to ignore the band’s eclectic style. Lambchop’s latest, Mr. M. (Merge, 2012), is a rather subdued collection of songs dedicated to the late, great Vic Chesnutt.

Lambchop used to be a huge ensemble, but on this tour the band is performing as a five-piece, or at least they did when they played in Chicago Tuesday night for what was described in this review in the Chicago Tribune as a “full yet hushed” performance. Among the questions entering this show: Will Omahan Alex McManus join the band during their set?

McManus was a member of Lambchop and is credited with appearing on at least six of their albums, going back to 1998’s What Another Man Spills to 2008’s OH (Ohio). McManus’ musical history includes backing Vic Chesnutt from 1994 through 1998, which led to his Lambchop tour of duty. From a 2003 Lazy-i interview with McManus (still online here):

At the same time, McManus had met Kurt Wagner, the frontman for the Nashville-based ensemble Lambchop, a backporch orchestra that contained as many as 15 members playing a sort of avant-garde form of country music. Before long, McManus was also touring with Lambchop, which was building a sizable following throughout Europe. “It ballooned from there and I ended up amicably parting ways with Vic to play more with Lambchop,” McManus said.

His relationship with Wagner and the band continues today, having gone out 13 weeks in 2002 with Lambchop’s mini orchestra. “It’s a really challenging thing to work with Lambchop. You have to have a great deal of restraint to not step all over everyone. I can sit back in some songs and just listen and then make a peep or squawk, and then step out again. It’s fun to be able to know your little part is going to make a difference.”

McManus’ current band, the fantastic So-So Sailors, opens tomorrow night’s Lambchop show, and is doing it on the strength of some very good news: The Sailors announced Tuesday that their EP, Young Hearts, will be released in the UK/Ireland in June on No Dancing Records out of Belfast.

If you don’t have the $12 tickets to tomorrow night’s show, you should probably pick them up ASAP as this one is in Slowdown’s small room, though tomorrow is a hugely crowded night for shows, with Conduits at The Brothers, Lupines at O’Leaver’s, and Lights at The Waiting Room.

* * *

KC band The Life and Times return to Omaha tonight, this time to The Waiting Room. The trio just released a new album, No One Loves You Like I Do, on SlimStyle Records. They’ll be touring with prog/metal band UME this summer. Opening tonight is Landing on the Moon and Lonely Estates. $8, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, fantastic Lincoln punk band Once a Pawn plays with Skyman and Escape the Fire at Slowdown Jr. $7, 9 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

According to our friends at the Omaha World-Herald, Phil “Con Dios” Schaffart and Conor Oberst got the OK from the Omaha City Council yesterday afternoon for the liquor license for Pageturners, their proposed bar at 5004 Dodge St., but with a couple weird provisions. Among them: They can’t sell single-servings of off-sale drinks, which I guess means I won’t be able to go there to pick up my nightly 40 of King Cobra. The story also quotes Super Attorney of the Stars Sean Kelley saying that there would be no “loud live music,” and that the room’s capacity will only be 50. Fifty

? That’s a tiny friggin’ bar. To put it in perspective, I think Conor traveled with more than 50 musicians during his White Tuxedo Tour of 2002. Just glancing through the front window, there’s got to be more room in there than that.

Dundee Theatre

Speaking of new and improved Dundee establishments, check out my column in this week’s issue of The Reader (online here) with details about the top-to-bottom renovation of the Dundee Theatre, including returning the theater’s original live stage, last used during the vaudeville era. That’s right, The Dundee Theatre will host live stage performances in addition to movie screenings. If you’re like me and have been going to flicks at the Dundee for the past 30-odd years, news of its renovation is a big deal. Read about it here, and congrats to Denny Moran and wife Janet for making it happen.

* * *

Looks like this year’s free Memorial Park concert June 29 will feature the King of Wonder Bread rock, Huey Lewis & The News — big step down from last year’s Cheap Trick show. Ah well, at least all the old folks in the neighborhood will be thrilled.

* * *

Night Two of Big Al’s Free Music Fest features Gerald Lee, Jr. (Filter Kings), John Klemmensen and the Party and two bands I’ve never heard of. Like the name says, it’s free and starts at 9 at The Hideout, 320 So. 72 St. More info here.

Also tonight, Des Moines band Bright Giant plays at Slowdown Jr. with Lightning Bug. $7, 9 p.m.

* * *

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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Conor Oberst of Desaparecidos at Slowdown Jr. April. 23, 2012. Photo by Dan Thompson III.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Based on email/text logs, word started spreading at around 10 last night that Desaparecidos finally was getting around to that secret show that never happened last week, moving the venue from O’Leaver’s to Slowdown Jr. This one was, indeed, kept a secret almost up to the moment they hit the stage. Thankfully I was deep in the Land of Nod when all this was going down, saving me the guilt of not going due to a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call this morning.

That said, Kevin Coffey was in the house and filed this review for the Omaha World-Herald, as was Hearnebraska.org’s Steve Ashford (here’s his review). And so was local shooter Dan Thompson III, who shot the above image of Conor in full rage. The biggest news of the night: The band played two new songs, furthering speculation that this reunion is more than a series of one-off shows. I would not be surprised if a new album is in the works, along with a formal tour. Desa fever is definitely catching. Memo to the MAHA Music Festival guys: If the amount of internet buzz (and traffic to my site over the past two days) is any indication, they better start printing more tickets for this year’s festival.

* * *
Tonight at The Hideout, 320 So. 72nd St., it’s the opening night of the annual Big Al Free Music Festival. Now in its fifth year, Al will be hosting shows all week long featuring four to five local bands per evening. The gigs are free, the merch is free (In fact, Al’s goal is to distribute 1,000 local CDs this week). Check out the full schedule here.

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.