#BFF, Bob Hall, Chemicals; Lincoln Calling weekend kicks off tonight…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , — @ 12:46 pm May 3, 2024
Chemicals performing at Hi-Fi House, April 16, 2016. The band plays tonight at The Sydney as part of #BFF.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The big deal going on this weekend is, of course, Lincoln Calling. I’ll get to that in a sec. First, the reason why I won’t be at LC this weekend….

Tonight is the first Friday of May, which means it’s Benson First Friday (#BFF). That’s the day of the month when venues and art galleries up and down Maple Street open their doors to local artists and their wares.

And that includes Ming Toy Gallery, where tonight we have an opening for Marvel comics artist and Lincoln native Bob Hall. Throughout his career, Hall drew some of the most iconic superheroes of the ’70s, ‘80s and ’90s, including The Avengers, Spider-man, The Champions, Dr. Doom, as well DC hero Batman and many more. We’re featuring Hall’s comic art – including many original, full-page comic book panels. The opening tonight runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at Ming Toy Gallery, 6066 Maple St. Come by, say hi, see some heroes and have a beer.  

BTW, you can read all about Bob in my first-ever story for Flatwater Free Press, published this past Wednesday. Click here and give it a read.  T

And in case you didn’t know, Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. Joining in the celebration is Legend Comics and Coffee, located right next door to Ming Toy, where Bob Hall will be on hand doing drawings and signing stuff. Ming Toy will be open all day tomorrow, too, in support of Free Comic Book Day. 

Back to the music…

As part of BFF, The Sydney in Benson is hosting a show that features the return of progressive jazz ensemble Chemicals, whose members include bassist Dereck Higgins. Joining them tonight is Agronómo and Heavier Than Air. $10, 9 p.m. 

Now, onto Lincoln Calling. You can read my recap about this year’s LC line-up here. The festival’s full schedule, as well as ticket info, is available at Lincolncalling.com. So if I did go to LC tonight, I’d be checking out Cherry Glazerr, The Dirts, David Nance and Mowed Sound and PROBLEMS. Lincoln Calling’s Saturday highlights (to me, anyway) are Friko, Water from Your Eyes, Dip Tet, Bad Bad Men and Ritual Device.

By the way, if you missed it, here’s my review of last night’s Ritual Device show at Reverb. If you can’t make it down to Lincoln this weekend, you’ll have another chance to see Ritual Device tonight at Reverb Lounge with Bad Bad Men and Gerald Lee Jr. 

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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

Ritual Device begins 3-day reunion tour tonight with Pagan Athletes, Nowhere…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , — @ 10:41 am May 2, 2024
Pagan Athletes at The Sydney, March 6, 2023. The duo opens for Ritual Device tonight at Reverb Lounge.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s night one of the Ritual Device reunion tour.

Tim Moss and company (read all about them here) are kicking things off tonight at Reverb Lounge. Tonight’s openers are Pagan Athletes (the Wolf brothers) and noise-punk band Nowhere. 

Tomorrow night (Friday), Ritual Device returns to Reverb with Bad Bad Men (the power trio of Omaha legends Chris Siebken on drums, RD’s Jerry Hug on bass and frontman/guitarist John Wolf) and Filter Kings’ frontman Gerald Lee Jr. 

Both Reverb shows have a $20 cover and 8 p.m. start time. These may sell out, so get your tickets early via the One Percent Productions website.

Ritual Devices closes out its reunion tour at Lincoln Calling Saturday night. More on Lincoln Calling in tomorrow’s blog.

I’ll be there tonight to hopefully catch and take home a pig ear! See you 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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

Oberst plays Desa w/Denver; Cherubs, Violenteer, Jason Isbell 400 tonight…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , , , — @ 11:58 am May 1, 2024
Violenteer at Reverb last June. They’re playing tonight at Reverb Lounge.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Conor Oberst closed out his residency at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom last Thursday with a large cadre of guest stars, including Desaparecidos’ Denver Dalley, which I’m sure had something to do with the band playing for four Desa songs during the show. I can’t tell from the videos if Ian McElroy also is on stage during these songs; the Brooklyn Vegan coverage doesn’t mention him. I fear this may be the closest we ever get to a Desaparecidos reunion, but you never know. Oberst sure looked like he was having a good time singing these old Desa tunes…

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Austin band Cherubs was part of that early-‘90s noise-punk movement that included acts like The Jesus Lizard and Steel Pole Bathtub and, yeah, Ritual Device. Just prior to the release of their ’94 studio album Heroin Man (Trance Syndicate), the band broke up. They reunited in 2014 and signed to Relapse Records, who released their most recent studio album, Immaculada High, in 2019. And tonight they’re playing at The Sydney in Benson. Joining them is Omaha’s own current-day noise-punk band, Violenteer, along with Moon Pussy. 9 p.m. $12. LOUD.

No doubt the Cherubs show is really drawing fans away from tonight’s Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit show at The Astro (j/k, obviously). Their latest studio album, Weathervanes, was released last year on Southeastern Records/Thirsty Tigers. Jobi Riccio opens at 7 p.m. $65-$125. 

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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I reluctantly inform you: Cindy Lee and Freak Heat Waves play tonight at Pageturners… (Nevermind – SOLD OUT).

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , — @ 7:34 am April 30, 2024

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

UPDATE, NEVERMIND: I just discovered looking at the Pageturners page that this show is SOLD OUT. I didn’t know they were offering tickets… Here’s the preview anyway…

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For purely selfish reasons, I thought about not writing this preview of tonight’s Cindy Lee / Freak Heat Waves show at Pageturners Lounge. 

Lee’s new album, Diamond Jubilee, has been playing on repeat in my car and on my earbuds for the past couple weeks, after Lazy-i reader Jim DeRouchey pointed out how I forgot to list tonight’s show in my “look ahead” column. Jim included a link to Pitchfork’s review of the album, where it received both a “best new music” designation and a staggering 9.1 rating. I can’t remember the last time (if ever) Pitchfork rated a new-ish underground artist’s album above a 9.0.

So, I immediately went to Spotify to check out the album, but… it wasn’t there. It isn’t on Bandcamp or Apple Music or any other major streaming service, either. Instead, you can download the Diamond Jubliee’s two hours-worth of music from the artist’s geocities website (the cost is a suggested $30 donation via Paypal). I rarely agree with Pitchfork these days, but this time the hype was real. The album is a spacey collection of echoey folk-rock tunes that sound like they were recorded by The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson between Pet Sounds takes. 

Cindy Lee, a.k.a. Patrick Fiegel, is the former singer/guitarist for the band Women. While the rest of Women went on to form the band Preoccupations, Fiegel created Cindy Lee, and here we are.  You can listen to the Diamond Jubilee in its entirety at YouTube, below. I like this business model – keep the album off streaming services and make it available via download from your own servers! Let’s get artists paid again.

Anyway, why the reluctance to let you know about tonight’s show? Because it’s being held at tiny Pageturners Lounge. The last time I went to Pageturners to see a performance I never got in the door because there was nowhere to sit or stand to listen the band. I fear the same thing could happen tonight. Yes, I could get to Pageturners an hour early and scope out a table, but I got shit to do, damnit!

Seriously, congrats to Pageturners for getting this amazing show. In the current state of Omaha’s music scene – when the city’s many high-end venues are busy booking vanilla pop acts, stand-up comics, yee-haw cow pokes and has-beens freedom rockers whose last hit was 30 years ago — seeing quality touring indie bands has become an every-man-for-himself endeavor.

Opening for Cindy Lee tonight is fellow Canadians Freak Heat Waves, the duo of Steven Lind and Thomas Di Ninno, whose new album, Mondo Tempo, includes a guest vocal by Cindy Lee. The show starts at 8 p.m. and is free, though a donation is suggested. Look for the awkward dude crammed in the corner, trying to stay out of people’s way, bobbing his head to the beat… UPDATE: THIS IS SOLD OUT.

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

Ritual Device original line-up reunites for Lincoln Calling, Reverb shows…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , — @ 9:54 am April 29, 2024
Ritual Device circa 1994. Photo by Mike Malone.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

One of the biggest surprises of this coming weekend’s Lincoln Calling Festival line-up is that legendary Nebraska punk band Ritual Device is reuniting for a one-off concert featuring the band’s original line-up. 

A four-piece consisting of guitarist Mike Saklar, drummer Eric Ebers, bass player Jerry Hug and frontman/madman Tim Moss, Ritual Device was one of the key bands during Nebraska’s first golden age of indie music. Along with acts like Mousetrap, Frontier Trust, Simon Joyner and Lincoln’s Mercy Rule, Ritual Device recorded and released music and toured throughout the country at a time when very few Nebraska bands did. 

For those who missed it, here’s my original description of this band, written 30 or so years ago: Ritual Device is a tortured, monolithic punk rock band whose sound had been aptly described as “gutter groove.” They make perfect background music for your typical serial killing or high-speed chase through a bombed-out Beirut neighborhood. The closest comparison? Maybe the Jesus Lizard meets Ministry with a little Nine Inch Nails thrown in (without the synths, of course). It is violent music, scary.

On stage, Ritual Device also was violent – shows were riots of noise and panic, with Moss egging on the crowd with a microphone chord wrapped around his wrist and elbow, his long hippy hair sweat-matted to his face, throwing raw pig ears into the thrashing mob. Through that haze of mayhem, the band’s bass/drum/guitar groove piston-pumped like an overheated Mopar engine – angry, infectious, and, yes, groovy.

Ritual Device at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

And now you, too, can experience Ritual Device in all its glory, not only Saturday night at Duffy’s as part of Lincoln Calling, but at two nights of shows – Thursday and Friday – at Reverb Lounge. When the band last reunited almost 10 years ago at a crowded Waiting Room Lounge, Moss had said it would be their last waltz. But when Lincoln Calling organizers reached out, he and the band couldn’t say no.

“I didn’t think we’d play again, either,” Moss said Sunday night after the band’s first rehearsal for this spate of shows. “I had to sit on it a few days before I talked to the other guys. It seemed like, ‘Why not?’ We were all in a good spot to do it.”

Moss, who lives in San Francisco, is the artist manager for bands Faith No More and Sleep and the road manager for Mastodon, who currently isn’t touring. The remaining members are active in other local projects. Mike Saklar fronts The Sun-Less Trio and Jerry Hug plays bass in Bad, Bad Men (who will be playing right before Ritual Device Saturday night at Lincoln Calling and Friday night at Reverb). Last year Ebers played drums with the Cotton brother’s band, Violenteer.

So how was that first practice? “It was a little rough,” Moss said, but quickly added that they’ll be ready by this weekend. The set list no doubt will include songs from Henge, the band’s 1993 debut on Redemption Records. Produced by the band and recorded and produced by The Jesus Lizard’s David Wm. Sims, it’s something of a lost treasure of punk rock, having never been rereleased and unavailable on streaming services Spotify and Apple Music… but not for long.

Ritual Device, Henge (1993, Redemption)

The band will reintroduce Henge to the world with a remastered digital-only version. The plan was to have the new version available before these shows but “it’s taking a little longer for us to be happy with it,” Moss said. Working on the project is Chicago’s Carl Saff, whose credits include mastering albums by Sleep, Mudhoney, Bardo Pond, Sonic Youth and more. In addition to the full album, the release will include tracks from the band’s “Pork Fist” single. 

In a post on social media, Moss summed up his feelings about Ritual Device and the role it’s played in his life: “After the band broke up, my path now clear to me, I moved to California and never looked back traveling further into this life of Music, but it was this band, this little noise-rock punk combo, that introduced the World to me, and I will always be grateful for that and to my three band mates who shared it with me.”

The schedule for this week’s Ritual Device reunion shows are as follows. Choose wisely:

  • — Thursday, May 3 at Reverb Lounge, Ritual Device with Pagan Athletes and Nowhere. 8 p.m., $20.
  • — Friday, May 4 at Reverb Lounge, Ritual Device with Bad, Bad Men and Gerald Lee Jr. 8 p.m., $20. 
  • — Saturday, May 5, at the Lincoln Calling Music Festival – Duffy’s Tavern, 11 p.m. Full weekend passes are $60; one-day passes are $40 and available from Lincolncalling.com

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

Filter Kings tonight; William Elliot Whitmore Saturday; STRFKR Sunday…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , — @ 9:15 am April 26, 2024
Icky Blossoms at Earth Day in Elmwood Park, April 22, 2017. Earth Day in Elmwood happens again this Saturday, but sadly without the Icky’s…

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Storm warnings this weekend – keep your head on a swivel and your car in the garage! 

Tonight our old friends The Filter Kings bring their shit-kicking country rock to the Reverb Lounge stage. Drop on by and check out Lee and the boys, and don’t forget your cowboy boots (and hat!). Omaha rockers Garst opens at 9 p.m. 

The twang continues at Reverb Saturday night when so-called “insurgent country” artist William Elliot Whitmore headlines. More folk/Americana than country, Whitmore has released albums on a variety of indie labels including Anti-, Southern and Bloodshot. His latest is the self-released Silently, The Mind Breaks. The Filter Kings’ Gerald Lee, Jr., opens at 8 p.m. $20.

Also Saturday night, The Sydney in Benson is hosting Minneapolis artist ET. I’ve looked and looked and can’t find out a single thing about ET, so you’re on your own. Jeff in Leather and Ex-Lover open this 9 p.m. show. $12. 

Also, Saturday is Earth Day in Elmwood Park. Like every year, there’s a live music stage. Artists include Bad Self Portraits and Un-Til. Check out the full schedule here.

Sunday night, Polyvinyl artist STRFKR headlines at The Admiral Theater. The band may be best known for their publishing rights deals, having had tracks used on a variety of TV shows (Weeds, The Blacklist, Skins), films (The Fault in Our Stars, 21 & Over), and TV commercials (Target, Apple). You’ve heard their music before; you just didn’t know it was them playing it. Chromatics’ frontwoman Ruth Radelet opens at 8 p.m. $30.

Also Sunday, The Slowdown is hosting an alt-punk show in their main room with bands Strung Out, The Casualties and The Venomous Pinks. $30, 8 p.m.

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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

New Stathi (and opening for Oberst NYC residency); Sheer Mag at Reverb tonight…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , — @ 12:21 pm April 24, 2024
Sheer Mag play tonight at Reverb Lounge.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Former Nebraskan now New Yorker, Stathi, dropped a note the other day to say he’s got a new track out called “Chasing Dreams, Chasing Time.” You can find it here on Bandcamp

Stathi also recently opened for Conor Oberst at Bowery Ballroom during his sold-out NYC Residency, night one. “Very cool experience! I played a few songs in his band during this set as well on keys and vocals,” Stathi said. 

Like its Los Angeles version, the weekly New York City residency, called Conor Oberst and Friends, has had a plethora of “special guests” including Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, Yeah Yeah Yeahs members Brian Chase and Nick Zinner, the Strokes’ Nikolai Fraiture, LCD Soundsystem’s Nancy Whang, and Clark Baechle of The Faint, according to Stereogum

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Tonight at Reverb Lounge it’s the return of Philly rockers Sheer Mag. Their latest, Playing Favorites, was released last month on Third Man Records. At the band’s core is frontwoman Tina Halladay, who has one of the most distinctive, raw vocal styles in indie these days. Omaha rockers Garst opens at 8 p.m. $20.

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

Grrrl Camp Festival is summer’s best indie lineup; Silversun Pickups tonight…

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In February when the Maha Music Festival announced it was 86-ing this year’s festival, it felt like another symptom of the slow death of indie music here in River City. Maha is/was the last reflection of a time when Omaha was a magnet for up-and-coming touring indie bands. And now even that festival was gone (for now?).

Then last week Grrrl Camp Festival announced its 2024 line-up and, by god, they’ve managed to out-Maha Maha in terms of up-and-coming touring indie bands. While no rules govern Grrrl Camp booking, there’s little doubt that the festival is a celebration of women artists in a time when women artists are calling the shots – both in the indie and pop music worlds. 

Slated for July 19 and 20 at Falconwood Park in Bellevue, One Percent Productions and Falconwood have put together one of the strongest lineups of up-and-coming touring indie acts of any local regional festival. It’s loaded top to bottom.

Clockwise from top left, Mannequin Pussy, Shannon and the Clams, Hurray for the Riff Raff and Indigo de Souza are the headliners for this year’s Grrrl Camp Festival July 19-20 at Falconwood Park.

On top of the list, Indigo de Souza, Saddle Creek Record’s current break-out act, whose last two albums have been critical and indie fan favorites.

Mannequin Pussy, who’s latest, I Got Heaven (Epitaph), is a Pitchfork “Best New Music” pick (a staggering 8.8 rating) and will provide the festival’s eye-gouging power rock moment.

Hurray for the Riff Raff‘s latest, The Past is Still Alive (Nonesuch), also is a Pitchfork “Best New Music” pick (8.3 rating)). The indie veterans who play gorgeous folk-tinged rock and count Conor Oberst among their fans (Conor also sings on their new album). 

And the last big-font name is none other than Oakland garage-punk heroes Shannon and the Clams, who I was lucky enough to see perform on The River City Star’s “sailin’ and wailin’” cruise back in May 2016. 

That alone is pretty impressive, but the remaining 10 bands on the bill are also top-shelf.

Rosali is a known commodity here in Omaha as her backing band is made up of dudes who play with David Nance (and includes Nance himself). Her latest album, Bite Down (Merge Records), is a standout. The band has been touring the U.S., culminating in a sold-out show at fabulous O’Leaver’s last weekend.

Annie DiRusso plays gritty confessional indie rock in the vein of Blondshell. Her latest EP is God, I Hate This Place (2023, Good Partners), and is a personal favorite. She’s got a full-length in the can for release later this year.

Minneapolis trio Vial’s latest, burnout (2024, Get Better), is 10 songs in 10 minutes and is brat-punk gold. They played at Reverb Lounge last year. 

Leeds, England, trio Girl Ray plays fun dance rock that sounds like un-cheesy disco with a nod toward Bee Gees and George Michael. Their latest LP, Prestige (2023, Moshi Moshi), was co-produced by Ben H. Allen (M.I.A., Gnarls Barkley, Deerhunter). 

Boston duo Mint Green‘s sound borders on modern emo. Pictoria Vark is throw-back indie (who remembers Kite Pilot?). Wichita trio Keo & Them has an R&B vibe that kind of reminds me of Khruangbin. 

Three locals round out the bill. Lincoln’s Estrogen Projection, Madeline Reddel and Krissy.

To give you an idea just how “up and coming” these bands are, albums from three of the bands currently are charting in the top-20 on the College Radio Charts — Hurray for the Riff Raff (No. 7), Mannequin Pussy (No. 8) and Rosali (No. 15), while Vial’s latest is No. 76. Indigo De Soua’s last album also topped that chart.

Hat’s off to One Percent Productions and Falconwood for putting together this line-up. Grrrl Camp is like a perfect “other” to One Percent’s Outlandia Festival, whose headliners appeal to an older audience (The Flaming Lips, Head and the Heart, Dinosaur Jr., etc). 

The biggest challenge for Grrrl Camp will be overcoming its name. If you only knew the name, you’d think the festival was a two-day music development camp that’s an off-shoot to Omaha Girls Rock. In fact, some dudes may not even check out the line-up or will think the festival isn’t for guys at all, which is anything but the truth, according to organizer Shannon Claire, who said guys are indeed invited to this Grrrl Camp…

Early bird tickets for the full weekend are just $65 – insanely cheap! Tix and more info at https://www.falconwoodpark.com/grrrlcamp

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LA-based alt rock band Silversun Pickups headlines tonight at The Admiral. The band’s last formal LP was 2022’s Physical Thrills (New Machine Recordings). It should be noted that the Pickups’ biggest hit “Lazy Eye” is not the official anthem for this blog. LA four-piece Rocket opens the show at 8 p.m. $40.

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

Weekend preview: Self Evident Thursday; Rosali, Velveteers, #RSD Saturday…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , — @ 10:21 am April 17, 2024
Rosali at The Waiting Room April 29, 2022. The band plays at O’Leaver’s Saturday night.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Lazy-i will be going on a brief hiatus until next Wednesday. Being out of town means I’l miss one of the better shows of the year Saturday night when Rosali plays at fabulous O’Leaver’s. 

Rosali’s new album, Bite Down, was released late last month on powerhouse indie label Merge Records and features a team of Omaha’s finest as her backing band including David Nance on bass, guitar; James Schroeder on guitar, synths; and Kevin Donahue on drums.  The band has been on the road since mid-March supporting Mary Timony and doing solo tour dates in April throughout the country. 

The O’Leaver’s gig is the final stop on the tour, and will no doubt be a special performance. Dereck Higgins as D.H.X. will open. $15, 9 p.m. 

Another show of note actually takes place tomorrow night at The Sydney in Benson. Self Evident is a Minneapolis-based post-punk band that’s been around at least since the turn of the century. Local boys Fromanhole toured with them back in the day (and word on the street is to keep an eye out for a new iteration of Fromanhole under a different name later this summer). Playing with Self Evident Thursday night is another throwback band, Oklahoma City’s Traindodge. Omaha’s own Ojai opens at 8 p.m. (though, knowing Syd’s track record, it could be more like 9). $12.

Back to the weekend…

Also Saturday night, Denver alt rock band The Velveteers headlines at The Slowdown small stage. Their last studio album, 2021’s Nightmare Daydream, was produced by Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and has a sort of Garbage vibe. Omaha acts JACK and Cape Acidic are supporting. $20, 8 p.m.

And, of course, Saturday is Record Store Day. There was a time when this was a much bigger deal. I guess it still is a big deal for the hardcore collectors who will be in line at Homer’s, Grapefruit, Vinyl Cup and Recycled Sounds trying to nab their limited-edition RSD-exclusive vinyl. For those participating, may the odds be in your favor…

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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

Indigo Girls, VNV Nation tonight; upcoming touring indie shows through July…

Category: Blog — Tags: , — @ 9:26 am April 16, 2024

Indigo Girls circa the ’90s. The duo plays at The Astro tonight.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I was sitting on the side of a grassy hill somewhere in Philadelphia circa 1991 the last time I saw the Indigo Girls. It was shortly after the release of their breakthrough self-titled album – a record that carved their name into the zeitgeist of ‘90s pop culture and continues to be popular thanks to the film “Barbie” that used the track “Closer to Fine” in its soundtrack. It’s hard to underscore the album’s impact when it was first released, placing Indigo Girls alongside artists like Tracy Chapman, 10,000 Maniacs, The Sundays and Suzanne Vega. The style wasn’t folk as much as college rock and certainly not something you could hear on Omaha radio stations…

Anyway, The Indigo Girls play tonight at The Astro in La Vista. Joining them is singer/songwriter Annie Humphrey (whereas, when I saw the IGs in the ‘90s, a Lincoln kid named Matthew Sweet opened that show). Tickets range from $51 to $90 via Ticketmaster. Show starts at 7:30. 

Also tonight,  Irish electronic music group VNV Nation plays at The Slowdown in the main room. Joining them is Canadian cold wave duo TRAITRS. $37, 8 p.m. Bring your dance shoes.

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Here’s a glance at what’s on my radar through July. No doubt more shows will be added…

  • April 18 – Self Evident @ The Sydney
  • April 20 – Rosali @ O’Leaver’s
  • April 24 – Sheer Mag @ Reverb
  • April 25 – 9Million @ The Sydney
  • April 27 – William Elliot Whitmore at Reverb
  • April 28 – STRFKR @ The Admiral
  • April 30 – Cindy Lee @ Pageturners
  • May 1 – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit @ The Astro
  • May 2-3 – Ritual Device @ Reverb
  • May 3-4 – Lincoln Calling
  • May 7 – Ty Segall @ The Waiting Room
  • May 7 – Wild Party @ Reverb
  • May 12 – Horse Jumper of Love @ The Blindspot
  • May 14 – Local Natives @ The Admiral
  • May 19 – The Chats @ The Slowdown
  • May 22 – Social Distortion at The Astro
  • May 30 – Wednesday @ The Slowdown
  • June 4 – Cloud Nothings @ Reverb
  • June 5 – Dead Horses @ Reverb
  • June 9 – Lucinda Williams @ The Admiral
  • June 10 – The Mars Volta @ The Admiral
  • June 25 – French Cassettes @ The Slowdown
  • July 8 – The Baseball Project @ The Waiting Room
  • July 15 – Etran de L’Air

What am I missing?

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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