This week’s column is actually a feature about The Waiting Room, which was originally slated to be a cover story for The Reader. The editors decided it would make a better “expanded” Lazy-i column. What you’ll read in The Reader is an abbreviated version of this story, where Johnson and Leibowitz discuss their new club and the role it’ll play in the future of the ever-growing Omaha music scene.

So, go read the story here, now, and consider the following as an afterward:

History points to the challenges these guys face just keeping the place open. One of the persistent questions that keeps coming up about The Waiting Room: Will it be open on evenings when no bands are scheduled to play? Leibowitz and Johnson look perplexed when asked. Clearly they’ve never had any intention of making The Waiting Room some sort of rental hall. It’s a bar, first and foremost.

“We’ve built a nice place here,” Leibowitz said. “We’ve made it comfortable. People should come just to hang out.”

“If we had a show every night, we’d eliminate our bar crowd,” Johnson said.

“Other bar owners have tried live music because they think it’ll bring people in,” Leibowitz added. “We’ll bring people in when we have shows, but I don’t know if Omaha would support a show here seven nights a week anyway. We’re looking at three to five shows a week, which is still a pretty good goal that will require expanding into different areas from what we’ve booked in the past.”

Leibowitz said that The Waiting Room will provide the most comfortable live performance environment for a room its size. “It’s not The Music Box, which was clean and all neoned out and too adult,” he said. “Some people who haven’t gone to shows since the Music Box closed will be coming here.”

So could it be that after years of whining that there aren’t enough live music venues in Omaha, that for the first time the city actually may have too many venues?

From their perspective, the answer is a resounding ‘No.’ After all, One Percent will be booking shows at practically all of them. In fact, despite the opening of The Waiting Room and Slowdown later this year, Leibowitz said Omaha still lacks at least one important stage.

“From a One Percent Productions perspective, Omaha needs a 215-capacity club, an 800-capacity club and a 2,500-capacity club,” he said, adding that only the largest will be missing. “We really need something like the old Peony Park Ballroom for acts the size of The Pixies, Flaming Lips, The Shins, Modest Mouse and Bright Eyes.”

Leibowitz said The Waiting Room is the perfect size to not only grow new talent, but to grow One Percent Productions, which incidentally, will have its offices housed in the same building. “We needed a place to develop new bands and talent,” he said. “Not only on a local side, but on a national side, too. This will be a realistic place for a smaller touring band to have a successful show. If you bring in 100 to O’Leaver’s, it’s too packed. One hundred at Sokol looks horrible — it’s empty. Here, 100 hopefully will be a success. One Percent needs to present as many alternatives to booking agents as possible, and this should help us do that.”

Yeah, but what about parking? I assume that Friday night’s show will be a capacity crowd, and that most of them will get plenty of exercise walking to the venue as the bar doesn’t have its own parking lot. You’re looking at street parking, or a public lot a couple blocks away. “I’m a big fan of parking,” Leibowitz said. “It’s the main reason why I don’t go to the Old Market, but my favorite place in Austin was a 1,000-capacity club with no parking. This is an issue that people deal with in other cities all the time. I wish there was a better scenario.

Johnson pointed out that D Dubs used to do a helluva business, “but there would be 100 bikes lined up out front,” he said. “If everyone got a Vespa, we could do 90-degree Vespa parking and the problem would be solved.”

* * *

Speaking of big shows, O’Leaver’s has one of its own tonight — Ladyfinger and Dance Me Pregnant. I suspect there will be more than 100 people there. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Look, I know you’re getting sick of all this Bright Eyes news. Every day it’s something else. Well, it’s only going to get worse. Just bear with me. Today’s news is that Bright Eyes announced the first leg of their tour in support of Cassadaga. Among the dates is a gig at The Holland Center April 26. Opening will be local boys and Team Love artist McCarthy Trenching along with Merge recording artist Oakley Hall. Expect a large ensemble on stage for this BE tour, including lots of lush strings. Tickets go on sale March 16.

And speaking of openings, The Waiting Room has opened their actual website at www.waitingroomlounge.com. Look for a long profile on Leibowitz and Johnson and the new bar online here tomorrow. An abridged version appears in this week’s issue of The Reader.

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Those of you keeping score, Bright Eyes has once again made it into the pages of the great, gray New York Times. In a review by our old friend Kelefa Sanneh, who has penned most of that paper’s Saddle Creek coverage, Conor is defined as a ‘miserablist.’ Since I’m not as smart as the typical NYT reporter (Who is?) I had to look it up in Merriam’s, but, alas, I couldn’t find it listed. It also didn’t show up at AskOxford.com. It must be a word, though, or the NYT wouldn’t let Kelefa use it in the headline (The Miserablist, All Grown Up and Hard at Work). Throughout the review, Sanneh comments on how Oberst has been labeled a boy genius, even though he now is in his late 20s. He then goes on to say Conor has earned his rep as a miserablist thanks to songs like “Laura Laurent.” Maybe Kelefa thinks the song is miserable and, since Conor wrote it, that would make him a miserablist — kind of like how a writer of a novel is a novelist? Anyway… Kelefa liked the concert, which went down last Friday at the Bowery Ballroom. You can read the full review here. So far the press on this BE tour has been positive, except for the consistently negative comments about Conor’s hair. This Globe and Mail review said he “resembled Anthony Jr. from The Sopranos (the sixth-season Anthony, not the baby-fat Anthony).” Funny. There should be an avalanche of Four Winds reviews hitting the net over the next few days, as the album drops today (as did Maria Taylor’s new one, Lynn Teeter Flower). It’s all just a mild precursor to the release of Cassadaga in April.

Even bigger news, however, is tonight’s show at O’Leaver’s featuring The Terminals, Brimstone Howl and their Alive Records labelmates Radio Moscow. The show is listed on SLAMOmaha as starting at 8 p.m., but is listed on the Terminals Myspace as starting at 9. Consider it a warm-up for all the bands’ upcoming South by Southwest gigs.

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My weekend was dominated by my parents’ 50th anniversary, a joyous occasion that kept me out of the bars Saturday and Sunday night. I did get out to Sokol Underground Friday night for Cap Gun Coup, Baby Walrus and Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs?

The highlight was Baby Walrus, a trio featuring a drummer and two guitarists — with the frontman switching between guitar and keyboards. The guy sounded like a young Jim Morrison, especially on songs that had that weird Doors wonky flair. Their music was brash and bluesy and intricate bordering on experimental. They’re one of the best new bands I’ve seen so far in ’07.

Friday was Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs?’ debut at Sokol, and you could tell. One funny comment from someone in the crowd: “They sound more like a Bright Eyes rip-off than An Angle.” There were definitely plenty of Conor-isms to go around, but like An Angle, WHD? also doesn’t have anything resembling Oberst’s songwriting chops. I’m told all the band members are transplants from Florida who made the trip to be near Nebraska’s burgeoning indie scene (or to be closer to Conor, whom I’m told they adore). Take the Bright Eyes adoration out of the equation and they come off as a very young band with a slightly skewed vision, which may or may not be misguided. With their preening frontman and stable of prancing musicians, they were more precious than Tilly and the Wall and would probably be eaten alive at rough-house bar like The 49’r. By the end of their set they exceeded their cuteness quotient when I noticed a young girl — maybe 17 — sitting on the floor next to the bass drum. Just sitting there, smiling like a stage prop.

Finally there was Cap Gun Coup, who I really came to see. I was told by someone who has heard them before that it wasn’t their finest moment. The set was sloppy and out of sync, and I have to wonder if it wasn’t just an off night. That said, the crowd of around 80 didn’t seem to mind. In fact, the whole evening had a house party feel to it and you could tell that the crowd consisted mostly of friends having a good time. Nothing wrong with that.

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I have no idea what’s going on tonight, the day after the blizzard of ’07. Last night I was driving around and the streets were snow-packed but fine. Still, OPS is closed today, as are a number of businesses. That said, check with the venue if you’re wondering about a show’s status tonight. The only real question mark that I have is whether Once a Pawn makes it from Lincoln tonight for their show with Jaeger Fight and Bent Left at O’Leaver’s. Last week I mistakenly said that Paper Owls had been recording with ARC Studio’s Ian Aeillo (and that may be the case in the future), but the fact is I confused them with Once a Pawn, who actually has been recording with Ian. That show is $5 and starts at 9:30.

Another notable show tonight is Cap Gun Coup w/Baby Walrus and Whatever Happened to Dinosaurs at Sokol Underground. Cap Gun Coup has the distinction of being name-checked by Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst during a recent interview — what that equates to, I don’t know. I haven’t seen them perform live yet, but dig their stuff on their Myspace page. $7, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, rootsy folk band Outlaw Con Bandana plays at Mick’s with jazzmen Kevin Pike/John Kotchian and Hot Sick. ($5, 8:30 p.m.).

And for the strangest gig of the evening, according to their Myspace page, New Jersey band Ours, who records on Geffen/Universal, are scheduled to play at The 49’r tonight with Bay Area band The Michetons. Ours, who I’ve never heard of, obviously are heavily influenced by Radiohead, right down to their vocalist’s Thom Yorke aping. $7, 9:30 p.m.

If I’m missing anything, post it here. Look for another show update tomorrow.

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I blame the various local television affiliates for my lack of show-going on Saturday night. At around 8 o’clock I looked outside and it was coming down hard. The fear-mongers said it would continue that way all night, exceeding 12 inches. That was enough to keep me off the roads. The next morning when I went out to shovel I noticed we only got around 3 or 4 inches, that it never snowed much after that initial blast at round 8. Now I now regret not venturing out to either the TSITR show at Sokol or Bright Eyes show at Murphy’s. If anyone was at either, let us know how they went here.

Pitchfork weighed in on last night’s Bright Eyes’ gig in Chicago (here). From the review: “The opening one-two punch of ‘Four Winds’ and ‘Reinvent the Wheel’ seemed to indicate that this would be a high-energy performance; alas, that was not the case. Soon, everybody had settled comfortably into a languid country-rock pace that would last for the rest of the evening. Even the show-closing ‘Old Soul Song.’ which usually erupts into exquisitely controlled chaos, had mellowed.” Keep in mind that this is a stripped-down version of Bright Eyes on this tour, featuring core players Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, along with Neva Dinova’s Jake Bellows on bass and guitar, and drummer Rachel Blumberg (ex-Decemberist, Norfolk & Westerner). Expect a much larger, more robust ensemble when he goes out on the second leg of the tour in support of Cassadaga.

I did go out Friday to see Kite Pilot and Adam Weaver at The Saddle Creek bar, arriving just as Spring Gun was finishing their set. Not a bad draw, maybe 50 people? Spring Gun sounded pretty good, and I would have liked to have seen their entire set. Next time.

Kite Pilot ran through their set with the usual panache, though their songs seemed to move a bit slower than the last time I saw them at O’Leaver’s. That O’Leaver’s set left me thinking they’d be just fine without Austin Britton’s guitar. Now I’m not so sure that they don’t need someone there to fill in their sound. As a trio, the keyboards and bass alone aren’t enough, and even on the few songs where Erica Hanton switched to guitar and Todd Hanton handled the bass lines on his keyboards, something was lacking, especially on the punkier numbers. KP has altered their style to something more beat-heavy that borders on Talking Heads, which I dig. We’ll see if they make any adjustments before their next gig at Saddle Creek Bar March 9, which I’ll likely miss as it’s the opening night of The Waiting Room.

This was my first go-’round seeing Adam Weaver and The Ghosts. Not bad, though the music was a bit too mid-tempo for my mood that evening. Most of the well-performed songs were acoustic droners heavy on layered tones, and felt somewhat maudlin. Beneath the laid-back, acoustic folk rock were some interesting melodies that left me wondering how they’d sound played twice as fast (and twice as loud). Weaver says I’m the only person who’s compared his voice (and his band) to Toad the Wet Sprocket, but again, that was the first thing that came to mind on Saturday, along with Joshua Tree-era U2, thanks to the chiming, textured second guitar. All and all, pretty music, though no melody stuck with me to Monday morning.

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I’ve got a feeling that “parking” is going to be on the minds of a lot of people in 2007. Yes, parking. We need a feasible commuter system in this town, folks, just so we can go to shows and not have to worry about parking our vehicles for the evening, wondering if the windows will be busted out while we’re at the show, wondering if we’re going to survive the long walk through the cold arctic blast…

It took forever to find parking last night because there was some sort of play going on upstairs in Sokol Auditorium. I drove around and around and finally found a place that was only a quarter-mile away. By the time I got to Sokol, I had missed most of Aloha‘s set, catching only the last song, which was great.

The place, as they say, was packed, and I’m still not sure who everyone came to see. It seemed the most crowded for Aloha, but almost no one left by the time Mewithoutyou came on — which leads me to believe that they were the main course for last night’s ticket buyers. The band started the set by saying this was the fourth time they’d been to Sokol. “This room is my only image of Omaha because I never see any of your town,” said lead singer Aaron Weiss, who went on to say perhaps they’ve worn out their welcome, then quickly added over the chorus of No’s “I didn’t mean it that way, as if I was trying to get a response or something, but it seems like we’ve been here 10 times in the last two days.”

On their records, gaunt-looking frontman Weiss (with the scraggly beard, he kind of resembled a thin version of Dave Matthews) actually tries to sing, but on stage he turns from “singer” to “vocalist” barking out lyrics like an earnest slam poet with something “really important” to say (the meaning of which, one would assume, is probably Christian-based if the fact that their music is released on Tooth & Nail is any indication). He came off as an emo-hippie version of Craig Finn without Finn’s amusing, colorful and dirty anecdotes. When Weiss did sing, usually alone with his guitar, the effect was touching, especially since it was in such stark contrast to the band’s blazing bombasts. In fact, the band (or I should say, the music) was top-notch post-punk drenched in shimmering guitars rife with echo and delay. Add the throbbing rhythm section and you’ve got yourself a first-rate power-rock band, fronted by an evangelist.

After their set, patrons streamed out of Sokol Underground, and I wondered if Sparta was about to be Omaha’d. Most returned (apparently having finished crowding the sidewalk for a smoke), though more than a few never came back. What to say about Sparta… Although I always thought At the Drive-In was an uber-cool rip off of Chavez, I enjoyed their charisma and their afros. ATDI should have stayed together regardless of their so-called creative differences. Well, after the split, The Mars Volta got the afros and the lion’s share of charisma. Sparta, apparently got the big-band posturing that was never a part of At The Drive-In’s style. Front-man Jim Ward has an arena-rock set of pipes. In fact, after the first couple songs, I expected him to introduce the next one with something like, “There’s been a lot of talk about this next song. Maybe, maybe too much talk… This song is not a rebel song, this song is SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY” (Only people with a copy of Under a Blood Red Sky will understand that reference). To me, Ward had a few vocal mannerisms that reminded me of early U2, and if this band had existed in the ’80s they could have been the precursors to The Alarm or even (god forbid) Big Country, though their style is much too angsty and emo-esque to run with those big-hearted lads. Despite having a full, gorgeous rock sound underscored by a chest-thumping kick-drum, Sparta was kind of boring, thanks to a lack of dynamics and variety. Once you heard one song, you’ve heard them all. Halfway through their set I was able to walk right up past the poles, the crowd had thinned so dramatically. For a band that’s supposed to be the big-label headliner, it was obvious that either people hadn’t come to see them or had seen enough after the first 15 minutes of their set, as I had. I zipped up my jacket and headed out the door to my long walk back to the car.

* * *

What a screwed up weekend of shows. Tomorrow night’s offering is sheer and utter madness. But before we get to that, here’s what’s on tap tonight:

— At The Saddle Creek Bar it’s Adam Weaver & the Ghosts, Kite Pilot and Spring Gun. $5, 9 p.m. If you haven’t seen the new version of Kite Pilot before, you really should. It’s more straight-forward and, frankly, punkier than the Austin Britton version.

— At O’Leaver’s, it’s Root Shoot Leaf, Thunder Power and Paper Owls. Thunder Power is intern Brendan Greene-Walsh’s band, which is reason enough to attend. $5, 9:30 p.m.

— Over at Hotel Frank, 3821 Farnam (across the street from The Brothers) it’s Cap Gun Coup, No. I’m the Pilot, Articulate and Deep Sleep Waltzing. There is a major buzz going around these days for Cap Gun Coup. Check them out before they get signed.

Then there’s Saturday night. Rarely has there been a more crowded evening of shows. I’ll go down the list and let you decide which makes the most sense.

— First off, the benefit for Terrence Moore, which I wrote a column about a couple weeks ago (here). You former patrons of Dirt Cheap Records who will be in Lincoln that evening owe it to yourselves to go.

— Down at Sokol Underground it’s The Show Is the Rainbow (which I wrote about here) with Yip-Yip, Prostitute and Flamethrower. What will Darren Keen have up his sleeve for this show? Add Yip-Yip’s costumed antics and it should be a colorful evening. $7, 9 p.m.

— Meanwhile, over at The 49’r it’s The Monroes with The Filter Kings. $3, 9:30 p.m. Rare is the opportunity these days to see the mighty Monroes. And you already know how I feel about The Filter Kings.

— If you’re in Lincoln and aren’t going to the Terrence Moore benefit, there’s Domestica (ex-Mercy Rule), Robot Creep Closer and Strawberry Burn at Bob’s Tavern in ultra-cool Havelock. I don’t have a specific address, just ask around. Someone in Havelock is bound to know. Show starts at 9 and is absolutely free.

— Back in Omaha and over at O’Leaver’s it’s the All Riot Records launch with CD releases by Jealous Lovers (ex-Snake Handlers) and The Upsets, with Sioux City rockers Dead Man’s Hand. $5, 9 p.m.

— Finally, there’s Bright Eyes and Maria Taylor at Murphy’s Lounge. I mention this only because it’ll be of interest to the 200 or so people who got tickets within the 7-minute window in which they were available before selling out. No reason to rub your noses in it.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something. If you think of it, post it here.

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