We seem to be lost in a time warp here in Omaha. Earlier this week, a swath of concert announcements brought back memories of the Civic Auditorium and listening to Z-92 in my ’79 Ford Fiesta. We’re talking new shows from up-and-coming acts Journey, REO Speedwagon and Steve Nicks. Can Styx, Kansas and whatever is passing as Van Halen be far behind? I’m keeping my fingers crossed for an April Wine reunion.
Ah, but not tonight. Tonight hot new punk trio Mssv is playing at Reverb, a band that consists of Mike Watt, best known as the bass player for early ‘80s punk band Minutemen and 71-year-old drummer Stephen Hodges, whose credits include playing with Tom Waits on his Raindogs album. The trio is rounded out by veritable youngster, guitarist Mike Baggetta. Watt always brings the noise, and joining them is our very own Bad Bad Men. $18, 8 p.m.
Since its Throwback Thursday, check out this 1998 Lazyeye interview with Mike Watt – one of the funnest dudes there is to interview: You just hit the record button and let him go! From the interview:
“D Boon’s mom taught me how to play bass,” Watt said. “When we first started playing together, we tried to cover the big rock songs, like ‘American Woman’ and ‘Black Dog.’ Then we saw these punkers one night in LA, and they couldn’t even play their instruments. Some of them weren’t even musicians; they were artists, but it didn’t matter. Right then we knew that we could do our own thing and not have to play the other stuff.”
After spending decades writing a column, it was strange not having a deadline to meet this month. That’s because the September issue of The Reader is its last issue, as most of you know.
John Heaston is the patriach of The Reader. His illness was a shock when first revealed; his fight to overcome it, an inspiration. That ongoing battle is the most important thing. I have no doubt John will win that battle and will be with us for decades to come. But it’s funny how something you assume will always be around, like The Reader, can go away so quickly.
What’s the old saying: Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. Those who know me know that my column and other writings for The Reader and this website are merely side hustles, and that I make a living working at Union Pacific, which has been sending me a paycheck since 1988. My “plan” was to devote my time to The Reader as a freelancer after I retire from the railroad, whenever that day would come. But here we are.
So I wrote the following column, which was published in the final issue and which went online here yesterday morning, to gauge interest in creating a new, more focused arts and entertainment weekly; a publication that unlike The Reader, would have no hard news or investigative reporting — The Flatwater Free Press provides that along with the Nebraska Examiner and what’s left of the Omaha World-Herald.
Some (or many) might argue the idea of a printed publication is outdated in the smart phone/social media/digital era, and they may be right. Certainly the industry trend would point that way. Still…
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A Goodbye and a Modest Proposal
An argument for a weekly, printed arts and entertainment publication.
by Tim McMahan
So this is it, my last column written for The Reader.
The first installment of this column was dated Dec. 2, 2004. It focused on a young singer/songwriter named Willy Mason who few if any people remember. More than 600 (700? 800?) installments followed in different iterations, all with the same common denominator — they were published in newspapers run by John Heaston.
John is an Omaha hero, there is no other word for it. No single individual has done more for independent journalism than John. He’s kept this beautiful paper going longer than anyone thought he could. The Reader is now being put to rest for all the right reasons. Thank you, John, for everything you’ve done for this city and for journalism. Now it’s time to focus on a more important fight, which everyone knows you’ll win.
The demise of another printed newspaper shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has followed the industry’s eradication over the past 20 years with the rise of social media. U.S. newspapers die at a rate of two per week, according to a 2021 report by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. According to the report, 360 newspapers have shut down since the end of 2019, all but 24 of them weeklies serving small communities.
In addition to losing The Reader, we’ve all watched as the once mighty Omaha World-Herald continues to dwindle into a thin ghost of its formal self. And while its Husker football coverage remains first rate, among its casualties is its arts and entertainment reporting.
The irony, of course, is that Omaha’s arts and entertainment community is enjoying a much needed renaissance. We’ve seen hundreds of millions of dollars invested in new performance venues, including Steelhouse, The Admiral and The Astro. There are more music venues now than ever before. Omaha’s arts scene also is in full bloom with new art galleries opening monthly, not to mention the millions of dollars going into a remodeled and expanded Joslyn Museum. On top of that, Omaha is becoming renowned for its culinary offerings. Restaurants new and old are getting the attention of national food critics.
Now, maybe more than ever, Omaha needs an arts and entertainment publication to not only cover what’s happening, but also to provide a critical voice to tell us what’s worth seeking out.
And so, with apologies to Jonathan Swift, here’s a modest proposal for keeping critical journalism alive in Omaha:
We need a weekly, printed arts and entertainment publication. This free paper would cover music, art, film, food and theater. Each issue would include a feature for each section as well as reviews and a curated show/events calendar. In addition, a page would be dedicated to commentary and letters to the editor, because, let’s face it, it’s one thing to see your comments on Facebook and quite another to see them printed in a newspaper.
The paper would be funded by advertising from all these new and existing performance venues, galleries and restaurants (and anyone else willing to fork over some cash), which would also serve as distribution points for the paper, along with other businesses.
The editorial content would be powered by freelance contributors, including some of the writers, critics and photographers who wrote for this very paper. That team would split whatever money is left after printing and distribution costs were covered.
The paper would start small and only grow as needed. OK, but a printed paper?
The key to making it work is to provide content so compelling that people would seek it out and pick it up. But even then, in an age when you can simply scan news on your smartphone, why would people want to read old-fashioned printed words?
The fact is, folks are returning to analog media in droves. The growth in vinyl record sales, for example, is no secret, even though music is freely available online. Sales of printed books also is on the rise despite novels being available digitally. Heck, Barnes & Noble recently announced it’s opening 30 new book stores in the wake of record U.S. book sales in 2021, according to NPR.
So in addition to those analog examples, what would it take for people to also value a printed weekly publication? Are there enough readers and businesses left to support such a bold initiative? You tell me.
Honestly, a big part of this idea is purely selfish. As a writer, there’s something special and permanent about seeing your words printed on paper. It represents an investment in your ideas much more than seeing those words on a website or in the transient, noisy world of social media.
But more than that, the loss of The Reader is a gut punch to an arts culture that desperately needs an honest critical outlet not only to guide consumers but to provide feedback to the artists, musicians, chefs, thespians and filmmakers who make it thrive. AI and ChatGPT may someday replace news reporting, but it will never replace honest critical writing. Only a human can tell another human what s/he liked or didn’t like, and why.
So goodbye, Reader. Thanks for the memories. Here’s hoping something rises like a phoenix from your ashes for all of us to see, read and hold in our hands.
It’s another ho-hum Husker weekend, but there’s one touring indie show tonight…
Tonight at The Admiral Explosions in the Sky headlines. There was a time in the 2000s when ambient indie all-instrumental bands were the thing. Who remembers Tristeza, who folded in 2010, and The Album Leaf, who are still going strong? Explosions in the Sky were part of that movement, releasing How Strange, Innocence in 2000 and really peaking in 2003 with The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place that included their most popular track, “Your Hand in Mine,” which has more than 66 million plays on Spotify. The band got lucky and broke through to a large audience after writing the soundtrack to 2004 film Friday Night Lights.
Like The Album Leaf, Explosions in the Sky never really went away. and can count themselves among other top touring instrumental-only indie acts like Sigur Ros, Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Caspian. The song formula for these acts is all very similar – each song starts out quiet as a whisper and slowly builds for seven or eight minutes into a crashing, orgasmic conclusion. Expect to hear this formula on repeat tonight.
Explosions is touring their latest album, End, released just last week on Temporary Residence Records. Opening is Glow, who is virtually invisible on the internet. Tickets are $40 ($50.15 with fees). 8 p.m.
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According to their website, The Astro Theater amphitheater in La Vista opens (with little fanfare) tonight with C&W artist Casey Donahew and then tomorrow is hosting The Goo Goo Dolls and Fitz and the Tantrums. The facility was supposed to opened weeks ago, but was delayed, presumably due to construction issues. Some shows were moved to other venues. I see no indication that shows tonight and tomorrow are being moved, so I guess this is it. Congratulations!
These are reserved seated shows, so, for example, for that Goo Goo Dolls show tomorrow, if you wanted to sit up front, tickets wouild run you a cool $145 plus fees. Whereas a ticket in the back section is $44 plus fees, according to the Ticketmaster website that’s handling tix sales. Fitz opens at 7:30.
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Finally, Saturday night at The Sydney in Benson industrial-ambient act Lunacy headlines. They describe themselves as “a dystopian shadow figure located in Rural Pennsylvania, which is a character set in the empty corroded future that focuses on themes of loneliness, emptiness and mental illness. A character that often fits the description of late ‘80s and early ’90s post-apocalyptic films.” Fun! Llora opens at 9 p.,m. $10.
And that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
Alt rock royalty is in town tonight in the form of Queens of the Stone Age at Steelhouse. If you’re not familiar with the Seattle band, they’re the natural evolution of grunge, releasing albums initially on Interscope before switching over to Matador about a decade ago. Their heyday was at the turn of the century with the release of Rated R (Interscope). They’ve got a sort of macho cock-rock strut to their sound, and past members include Dave Grohl, though the main dude has always been Josh Homme.
I’m told there was a bidding war of sorts for this show and that Live Nation — and Steelhouse — won. That said, you can still buy general admission floor tickets for $59 plus fees.
More interesting than QOTSA are the opening acts. Punk Swedes Viagra Boys play a chug-a-lug style rock with a frontman (Sebastian Murphy) doing his best Iggy impersonation. A fun band that is a natural compliment to the headliner. Opening is Savages front person Jehnny Beth, who has performed with the likes of the XX, LCD Soundsystem, Gorillaz and Primal Scream. Her debut solo album, To Love Is to Live, was produced by Nine Inch Nails’ Atticus Ross and FLOOD. Of the three acts, Jehnny Beth is the one that’s the most interesting (to me, anyway). The show has a 7 p.m. start-time according to the Steelhouse website. (I’m not sure that’s a real start time and just a door time, as going to Steelhouse is akin to going to an airport.)
Meanwhile, across town at The Waiting Room, Swans headlines. Emerging from the so-called ‘80s No Wave scene in LES NYC, the band plays a brutal, gothy, post apocalyptical style of rock that has influenced a couple generations of noise bands including Napalm Death, Neurosis, Nirvana, Melvins, Isis and even little ol’ Car Seat Headrest (though I can’t spot the influence in that band’s music). Their sound is dark and can even meditative, with a typical song running well over seven minutes. You’re in for a long, gloomy night. Worth it just to see frontman Michal Gira, who will be 70 in February and is a living legend.
Opening is Norman Westberg, a long-time member of Swans who’s not currently listed in their roster, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he sat in on a few songs. His latest, After Vacation (2018), is a collection of ambient sound collages. Enjoy. $35, 8 p.m.
But wait, there’s more.
Portland (Maine) indie trio Weakened Friends headlines at Reverb Lounge. On their latest, Quitter (2023, Don Giovanni Records), the band plays a bombastic style of indie that melds singer/songrwriter tropes with Weezer-esque powerchords. Opening is Omaha band OJAI. 8 p.m., $18. Take a wild guess which show I’ll go to (if I go out at all)…
No indie shows this weekend. Is this the Cornhusker effect? No, it’s been pretty much like this all year. Should have gone to the Diners show on Wednesday night, eh. Like I said, when you have a chance to go to a touring indie show — any touring indie show — do it. You never know when the next one will be coming through…
That said, there is one show happening tonight…. at Bodega’s Alley in Lincoln.
Dip Tet is a noise-rock trio that consists of Lance Fiedler (F.A.C.E., Halfwit, Gripping), Mike Keeling (Ideal Cleaners, Wondermonds) and Dan Jenkins (Ideal Cleaners, Halfwit, Gripping).
Jenkins reached out earlier this week, saying the band has been together for a little over a year after the dissolution of Gripping. Their first show was in July 2022, and tonight is only their 7th show — a tape release show for their self-titled debut album.
Joining Dip Tet is Lincoln old school rockers Dirty Talker and The Credentials. Show starts at 9 p.m. at Bodega’s Alley, 1418 O St. in Lincoln. No price listed, so who knows, maybe it’s free (but I doubt it).
I typically don’t list Lincoln shows, but hey, it’s the only show in the state this weekend, except for this one at The Slowdown tonight…
The Buttertones are headlining at Slowdown, Jr. These guys used to tour with The Rev. Horton Heat on occasion. According to Wiki, members of the band were connected to the Burger Records sex misconduct scandal of 2020, which led to half of the band splitting. They have a new line-up as of 2022. Tucson duo New Misphoria are touring with them and may be worth the price of admission alone. 8 p.m., $20.
That’s all I got. Unless I’m missing something, like your show. If so, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend!
It’s that time of year again. Lazy-i will be on hiatus tomorrow and this weekend as we take in the sights and sounds of New York City (and yes, there is one show we may attend — Poison Ruin and Success at Union Pool Sunday. If I go, I’ll do a write-up).
Slim pickings show-wise this weekend. There’s a barn burner tonight at Pageturners where Dan Brennan’s rock project Healer plays with Fontenelle. No cover but a $10 donation is suggested. Starts at 8 p.m.
Nothing on tap for Friday night except #BFF, the monthly art festival in Benson. You know what to do. Ming Toy Gallery will be open tomorrow evening until 9 p.m. Come in and see the genius works of Michael Trenhaile!
Saturday night Minne Lussa headlines at The Sydney in Benson. Joining them are Lincoln band The Obscurants. Fronted by Eric May with Shawn Williams, Jon Ruff, Danny Carraher and Chris Maly. We’re talking classic Lincoln indie along the lines of Rainer Maria. The band will be heading to ARC this November to record new material. Rounding out the show is fellow Lincoln band Her Flyaway Manner. This is gonna be a corker! $6, 9 p.m.
That’s all I got. If I missed your show put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend!
Los Angeles vibe-dance trio Cannons’s key to success has been having its songs used in a variety of cable TV shows. The band has been digitally self-releasing EPs and LPs since 2014. But they didn’t catch fire until the track “Fire for You” was used on the Netflix series Never Have I Ever. Since then, their songs have shown up in a number of TV shows, including HBO’s Ballers, Kendall and Kylie Jenner’s Topshop and Fox/Neflix series Lucifer among others.
All of that led to a deal with Columbia Records, who released 2022’s Fever Dream. They describe their music as sounding like “a Cliff Martinez’s accompanied by Stevie Nicks.” Very synth heavy, good beats, and front woman Michelle Joy has a great voice (but she’s no Stevie Nicks). Taken together, it sounds like ‘80s FM synth rock, retro and well made.
Cannons headlines tonight at The Slowdown with Portland synth-rock-dance duo New Constellations and Austin synth-rock-dance duo Jane Leo. This is a main room gig, starts at 8 p.m. and is SOLD OUT.
My evening at Bad Bad Men’s album release show at Reverb Lounge Friday night was successful in all but actually seeing Bad Bad Men perform. It’s starting to become one of those things — at least for 4-band bills — where I’m either going to go early and catch the openers or arrive late and catch the headliners. Having seen Bad Bad Men perform many times and as recently as a few months ago, I opted for the former vs. the latter, as I haven’t seen Wagon Blasters play in awhile. So apologies to John Wolf and his crew, who no doubt killed it, based on the chatter I’ve seen online. Pick up your copy of their new albu, Messed Up, online right here.
As for Wagon Blasters, Gary Dean Davis and company continue to perform with the same energy as any GDD project dating back to Frontier Trust. Gary is a timeless, non-aging entity, which I guess makes him a god (a rock god?). He bounced high on the tiny Reverb stage, belting out classic Wagon Blasters songs, sometimes with cowbell, others times with mouth harp, always with a big voice and the best stage persona of anyone ‘round these parts.
While Wagon Blasters have an amazing rhythm section, the band’s secret sauce is Mr. Will Thornton on guitar – no one plays quite like him and no band has ever matched the twang-meets-punk sound that defines “Tractor Punk.” It’s the combo of Thornton’s ringing style and Gary’s auctioneer bark that drives this massive Case harvester through fields of rolling rock (OK, that is sort of a beer reference). The only quibble about Friday’s performance is that Reverb’s stage may be too small for Gary’s bounding leaps, which one time landed him smack dab into the bass-drum mic set-up (Crunch!).
Those Far Out Arrows at Reverb Lounge, Aug. 25. 2023.
Those Far Out Arrows continue to evolve their garage psych-rock sound, kicking back on grooves that could go on forever (if I had my way). Fronted by the Keelan-White brothers of Ben and Evan on guitar and vocals, the band is one of my favorites for getting lost in their chugging rhythms and hypnotic ax work. Their last release was 2020’s Fill Yer Cup, which means they’re due for a new release. Come on, boys, let get it going!
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Last week Saddle Creek Records released a remix of Neva Dinova’s “Something’s Out There” — the band’s first new music in a decade — by The Faint’s Todd Fink. It’s a trip. Check it out:
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Tonight you’ve got a rare Monday night five-band show at a place called Razor Wire Productions, located at 1808 Vinton Street. Headlined by Las Cruxes, the line-up includes Sacramento band Santohs, Peach Paw, Good View and Grief Police. Ben Eisenberger kicks things off at 7 p.m. It’s BYOB and it’s $5 (suggested donation).
No touring indie shows this weekend, but a couple local album release gigs worth your attention:
Tonight at Reverb Lounge it’s the album release show for the debut album from Bad Bad Men. The power trio consists of Omaha rock ’n’ roll legends Chris Siebken on drums, Jerry Hug on bass and frontman/guitarist John Wolf. The album, Messed Up, is a 10-song scorcher that recalls the gritty, bluesy punk style Wolf brought to classic ‘90s-‘00s act Bad Luck Charm, sung with his distinctive snarl/growl that will have you breaking bottles and starting fights. Siebken and Hug are so tight they sound like they’re attached at the hip, while Wolf’s guitar flies high above it all.
Recorded over two days at ARC Studios with Adam Roberts, it’s the first new release on Speed! Nebraska Records in recent memory. As a result, the album release show is a pseudo showcase, as label executive Gary Dean Davis’ own band, Wagon Blasters, will kick off the evening. Also on this crowded bill are Omaha garage rock titans Those Far Out Arrows and Pagan Athletes — the prog-noise duo of Griffin and Nathan Wolf, who are, yesss, The Sons of John Wolf (now there’s a band name for you)(Waitaminit, does that make Bad Bad Men “dad rock”?).
Then tomorrow night (Saturday) it’s the vinyl release show for R.A.F.’s No Salvation album, which was released this past July. The punk band’s line-up is Paul Moerke, Tim Cox, Dereck Higgins, Dan Stewart and Kelley RAF. At least one of the band’s members is traveling in for this special one-off gig. Also on the bill are punk band Cordial Spew and “2 special guests,” according to the flyer. $15, 8 p.m.
And that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
Desaparecidos keyboardist Ian McElroy’s hip-hop project, Rig 1, released a new single yesterday, “Kindest Brother.” The track comes from his upcoming album, Separation Illusion, which drops Nov. 3 on Maria Taylor’s Flower Moon Records. The song was written by McElroy and Neva Dinova frontman Jake Bellows.
The track will be released as a double A-sided 7-inch b/w “Real Hot Boy,” a track that features Maria Taylor, Mike Bloom and Josh Rawson (Felice Brothers). In fact, the album’s credits is a “who’s who” of early century Omaha Indie music glitterati and includes Todd Fink and Clark Baechle of The Faint, Nik Freitas, Blake Sennet of Rilo Kiley and Kirby James Fairchild (Granddaddy, Modest Mouse).
To me, McElroy’s Rig 1 delivery has always been more like spoken word over trip-hop rhythms rather than straight up hip hop, like listening to slam poetry to a beat track. Check it:
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Tonight at Pageturners Lounge in Dundee indie trio Ojai headlines. The band consists of singer/songwriter Michael Hulstein with Micah Renner on bass and Tanner Rogerson on drums. Sounding like a pop-rock version of Wilco meets Harry Nilsson, they just played the opening slot at Petfest 2023 (and are probably still recovering from heat stroke).
Joining Ojai is touring singer/songwriter Al Oleander — on the road supporting her debut album, Easy Crier, a record who’s backing band included members of The Felice Brothers. Something called Stick With It opened at 8 p.m. No cover, but a $10 donation is suggested.
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