Writing about music means getting a few hundred (thousand?) pitch emails from promoters and labels per week. All get opened… if only to see if the act is coming to Omaha. If the record label is an indie favorite, or the band is familiar, the music may get a spin. Everything else gets the delete key.
But every once in a while a band sends what appears to be a personal letter asking for a listen. The following ended up in the in-box this morning, f’r instance:
Hi,
We are Stray Radio, an alternative rock band from Poland. We’ve just released a new album called “Afraid of Heights”. Maybe you will be interested in giving it a listen.
Cheers from Poland!
Is it really from Poland? Who knows. Maybe, maybe not. The internet is a wonderful, horrible thing. And despite all the phishing warnings about never clicking a link from someone you don’t know (especially if it’s a tinyurl), the plunge was taken.
Stray Radio hails from Bielsko Biala, Poland, according to their Bandcamp page. The band consists of Jan Cembala – vocal; Natalia Maliniewicz – guitar, Piotrek Góra – guitar, Marcin Maliniewicz – bass, Mikołaj Kowalczyk – drums. “All song written by Stray Radio, Mixed & Mastered by Marcin Maliniewicz, Drums recorded at Czecho Sound, Cover Design by Jan Cembala, Cover art taken from William Baxter Closson, Night Moths.”
That’s all fine, but is the music any good? Frontman Cembala is at his best when he’s not trying to emulate Jim Morrison. Just be yourself, Jan, like on tracks “Candy” or “Monday,” which are the least affected of the bunch. Clearly these guys have listened to their share of the Velvets and Iggy, and I can imagine them playing a darkly lit underground pub in, say, Katowice, each member with a cig hanging from his mouth, a lonely couple dancing close in the muted light. There are also some unfortunate metal-esque moments that remind me of ‘90s grunge, which I could have done without.
Look, I’m part Polish and the rules are very clear that when you get a cold call email from one of your Polish brethren you take it, and I’m not sorry I did… But I wonder if they’re really from Poland…
An observation about the crowd at last night’s “day-after-Christmas” concert featuring Icky Blossoms (and friends) that someone else made, which, on hindsight, seems particularly relevant: Other than ourselves and a couple folks who were with us, there were no familiar faces in the sold-out-sized crowd jammed on the floor of The Waiting Room. Demographically, the audience was young for a band that hasn’t released any new music in almost a decade (eight years since Mask, to be exact) and whose early single (the bouncy “Babes”) was released in 2012. Yet despite this, the crowd was mainly filled with anonymous 20-somethings (other than us) there to get their dance on. These Christmas concerts usually feel like millennial wedding receptions populated with the usual group of music-scene hipsters who grew up listening to the same records from the Saddle Creek label (either their own copies or their older brothers’ or sisters’ copies). This, it seemed, would be a good thing, — a reflection that the band’s audience is rotating a new generation of listeners, perhaps driven by recent song placements in video games (see Sunday’s blog entry) or (more unlikely) the after-effect of Icky Blossoms having performed at this summer’s Maha Music Festival. Either way… hope for the future?
We arrived just as PROBLEMS (a.k.a. Darren Keen) was finishing his set and the place was already jam packed. There was Darren on stage behind his synth equipment riding herd over a flock of gyrating dancers.
David Nance and Pearl Lovejoy Boyd at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2023.
I grabbed my Rolling Rock and we pushed through the crowd toward the front just a David Nance and his band began their set. I’ve always been a Nance fanboy back to his Actor’s Diary (2013, Grapefruit Records) days, having watched him go from a noise collage artist through psych rock, garage rock to what he’s doing now, which resembles something that Robbie Robertson and The Band might have played during their Scorsese-filmed heydays. Nance has a crisp, golden voice with just the right amount of wheeze to give it the soul needed to power these Midwest blues-rock nuggets.
Top of the list was an uptempo rock number about “taking the covers off” with someone, which was a new one on me, and, a more laid-back-than-usual version of “Credit Line,” a cool ripper with a groovy guitar loop that, in times past, had straight-up rocked. Nance’s overall set was more subdued than any in recent memory, powered by his usual sidemen including drummer Kevin Donahue and guitarist Jim Schroeder, with Pearl Lovejoy Boyd providing tasty harmony vocals. I don’t know who that was on bass, but he was awesome.
Then on came Icky Blossoms, and by then we had pushed our way through the crowd to that dark divot off the side of the stage by the bathrooms, well out of the way of what I assumed would be a bouncing mob.
Icky Blossoms sounded as good as always, though I don’t remember seeing them play to such a large crowd. The band played their usual set drawn from their two albums, the highlights (for me, anyway) again being the dance numbers – “Babes” and “Cycle” among them. By the time they got to the night’s big raver, “Sex to the Devil,” they’d asked the lighting guy to turn off the overhead lights, leaving them illuminated only by the under-lit stage lights that strobed in sync with their music. That lighting combined with the bouncing crowd gave the room the same energy I remember from Faint concerts from back in the day.
Joining the core band of Nik Fackler, Sarah Bohling and Derek Pressnall was bass player Sara Bertuldo (See Through Dresses) and drummer Javid Dabestani – with this solid line-up, new music (reportedly) on the way and what appeared to be a fresh new audience, there’s nothing holding back Icky Blossoms except their own complicated lives. It would be fun to see them re-emerge as a modern-day dance powerhouse…
By all accounts, 2023 should have been a turning-point year for the Omaha music scene – two new, grand and glorious 3,000-plus capacity music venues opened. Now no one can say Omaha doesn’t have large-ish, high-quality state-of-the-art music venues to attract the best and brightest touring bands.
And yet, here we are, still getting bypassed by the best and brightest who can’t seem to find Omaha on a map as they plot their tours.
Steelhouse Omaha opened in May – a modern metal box of a venue located downtown with all the charm of an airplane hanger, designed (supposedly) for standing-audience performances of more than 3,000 (though the venue also books seated shows). Its chief competition – the 3,000-plus capacity Astro Theater in La Vista that opened earlier this month — boasts an adjoining 5,000-plus capacity amphitheater that opened in September.
The booking fire-power behind Steelhouse comes courtesy of those greedy bastards at Live Nation, while longtime local heroes One Percent Productions and their partner, KC’s Mammoth Productions, book the Astro complex. Exciting times? Well…. maybe.
Since both opened, neither has booked a performer that could be considered cutting-edge, modern or progressive, and probably rarely will, because of the perception that those kinds of bands don’t do well in this market. Instead, prepare for a parade of legacy acts whose heyday was 30 (or more) years ago (Rick Springfield, anybody?) along with a wagon-train of country performers (Yaw!Git!) and goon rock/metal/tattoo-discount bands. It’s all about booking sure-thing sell-outs (even though Steelhouse is operated by a non-profit organization dedicated to the arts).
It’s not the promoters’ fault. I came to the sad conclusion that indie music – that style of music that made Omaha a nationally recognized entity in the ‘00s years – has quietly gone out of fashion here and gone back underground. Country acts have gained popularity (as far as booking is concerned) — Omaha has always had its share of shit-kicker bars and C&W radio stations.
But in addition, metal & punk have really become a dominant Omaha thing, with punk and metal shows being held almost weekly. Frankly, it’s a long time in the making. The River, 89.7 FM, has made metal/punk music their staple for years. National promoters Mammoth Productions has booked large metal shows for decades, and the mighty Black Heart Booking has really stepped up in its punk/metal productions. Add to that two new all-ages spaces focused on metal/punk — The Swamp in Lincoln and The Blind Spot in Omaha. Both are “text-for-the-address” DIY venues and already have become game changers.
Omaha still gets a respectable number of touring indie shows, thanks to One Percent Productions (The Waiting Room, Reverb Lounge) and The Slowdown (still booked by Knitting Factory, as far as I know), but it’s not like the old days, and very likely will never be again.
But here’s the deal – despite Omaha’s lag of interest in indie, the genre remains as popular than ever outside our state. On the coasts and in big market cities, Indie bands are bigger than ever and continue to produce great music, whether or not we have a chance to hear it here live (or on the radio).
THAT BEING THE CASE… while I had no trouble putting together this year’s Lazy-i Best of 2023 compilation CD (details below), after listening to hundreds of new releases, I still struggled to come up with 10 favorite albums from 2023. Below are the albums I consistently reached for and returned to when listening to new music this past year. As you can see, there are only eight (in no particular order):
Just as interesting are the albums that didn’t make the list. Sufjan Stevens is a perennial favorite, but his latest, Javelin, was another collection of weepers inspired by yet another personal tragedy. I can only take so much of his despair. Mitski, Ratboys, Wednesday, Slow Pulp and Indigo De Souza all released notable individual tracks, but couldn’t carry an entire album. Water from Your Eyes and Actor/Actriz, who topped my live show list (more on that later), weren’t nearly as interesting in the studio.
No doubt about it, vinyl continues to be wildly popular among collectors, but I can’t help but wonder if we’re seeing the decline of the “album” as an art form. How important are albums to a youth generation that listens to the majority their music via streaming, playlists and Tik Tok? Attention-span erosion not only is destroying long-form journalism, it’s killing long-form music formats. It sounds depressing, but I’m not sure it’s necessarily a bad thing.
What is depressing is the continued decline of the media that covers our city’s arts culture. The Reader, Omaha’s only arts and entertainment alternative weekly (that became a monthly), ended its 30-year run with its September issue. I personally miss it and the deadlines it forced upon me, but I’m not certain anyone else misses it.
So who’s left to cover Omaha’s creative endeavors? The Omaha World-Herald is all but gone. In fact, other than, say, Omaha Magazine, I can’t think of any other print publication with an arts voice. Which leaves us, unfortunately, with that echo-chamber we call social media, and folks, that ain’t gonna cut it. The irony, as I’ve pointed out, is that Omaha has more music venues, more art spaces, more restaurants and theaters than ever before.
Speaking of live performances, despite a lack of touring indie shows coming through town, I attended well over 50 rock shows last year, which ain’t bad (but nothing like the old days). Below are my favorites:
Goatfest 2023 – Those Far Out Arrows, Bad Bad Men at Scriptown Brewing, March 11 — loud, hard garage rock paired perfectly with Scriptown’s delectable homemade brew. And those actual live goats only added to the atmosphere.
Water from Your Eyes at The Slowdown, April 8 — Opening for a flat performance by headliner Snail Mail, Rachel Brown spoke or sang lyrics in beat with the dissonance over harsh, brittle, noise symphonies provided by guitarist Nate Amos’ cut-jab guitar riffs and acidic synth tones.
Fleet Foxes at Steelhouse, July 2 — Along with The Killers kick-off, this was the only show I witnessed at this new venue, which by itself was the star of the shows.
Blondshell, Hello Mary at 7th St. Entry, Minneapolis, July 11— My only “travel show” of 2023 was memorable if only for experiencing the shithole that is 7th St. Entry. While we came to see Blondshell, Hello Mary was the show-stopper.
Maha Music Festival at Stinson Park, July 30 — It was the last year for the annual festival at this location and maybe its best line-up in past eight years, highlighted by riveting sets from Big Thief, Icky Blossoms, The Beths, Turnstile and BIB. Next year Maha moves to the riverfront…
Petfest 2023 outside Petshop Gallery, July 20— The all-day festival continues to be the best all-local concert held each year. Highlights included sets by Thirst Things First, Cat Piss and Head of Femur.
Mitch Gettman at The Slowdown, Sept. 16— Gettman and his band performed the best songs from his double-album, Tilde, that showcased the singer/songwriter’s range and talent.
Lewsberg at Grapefruit Records, Oct. 8— The Old Market record store unveiled a new stage and new set-up for its live in-store performances. The Rotterdam four-piece took full advantage, playing a transcendent set that sounded like Lou Reed fronting The Feelies.
Model/Actriz at Reverb Lounge, Oct. 9– All-encompassing, frontman Cole Haden’s in-your-face performance (literally) bordered on disturbing (He’s not coming for me next, is he?) made the spectacle what it was. This was my favorite show of the year.
Sextile at The Waiting Room, Oct. 19 — At their best, even the most dead pile of human flesh couldn’t help but move to Sextile’s coal-black rhythms, but with a crowd of only around 150, the show would have been even better at a club the size of Reverb.
Hotline TNT at Reverb, Nov. 22 — Very much a Sugar/Bob Mould/Teenage Fanclub vibe – pure ’90s post-punk that was even better live than on their much-lauded, overblown debut album.
Neva Dinova at Reverb, Dec. 14 — Playing as a power trio (with special guest Mike Saklar playing guitar on a handful of numbers), Jake Bellows went beyond the usual ballideering for a Live Rust-style rock show that indeed rocked.
Finally, there’s this year’s Lazy-i Best of 2023 compilation CD! I’ve been putting this comp together since 1994, originally on cassette. It’s a collection of favorite tracks I’ve come across during my work as a critic-at-large for Lazy-i.com and the aforementioned, now-defunct, Reader. The CD is mailed to friends and associates as a sort of year-end holiday card that’s also an audio time capsule (and collector’s item!).
In years’ past, I’ve given copies away in a contest. This year, I’m sending copies to anyone who asks while supplies last (and there ain’t many). Just send me your mailing address via email to tim.mcmahan@gmail.com.
Here’s the track list:
Genesis Owusu, “Leaving the Light” from the album STRUGGLER (AWAL)
Sextile, “Contortion” from the album Push (Sacred Bones)
noname, “Namesake” from the album Sundial (self-released)
Slowdive, “Kisses,” from the album Everything is Alive (Dead Oceans)
M83, “Amnesia,” from the album Fantasy (Mute)
Yo La Tengo, “Aselestine” from the album This Stupid World (Matador)
Hotline TNT, “I Thought You’d Change” from the album Cartwheel (Third Man)
boygenius, “Cool About It,” from the album The Record (Interscope)
Blondshell, “Joiner” from the album Blondshell (Partisan)
Lloyd Cole, “Warm by the Fire,” from the album On Pain (Edel Music)
Neva Dinova, “Outside,” single (Saddle Creek)
Slow Pulp, “Broadview” from the album Yard (ANTI-)
Palehound, “Eye on the Bat” from the album Eye on the Bat (Polyvinyl)
Pardoner, “Get Inside!” from the album Peace Loving People (Bar/None)
Lewsberg, “Communion,” single (12XU)
Water from Your Eyes, “Out There (The Dare Version)” from Crushed by Everyone (Matador)
Bad Bad Men, “No Thanks” from the album Messed Up (SPEED! Nebraska)
Model/Actriz, “Mosquito” from the album Dogsbody (True Panther)
Lana Del Rey, “Let the Light In” from the album Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Interscope)
Mitch Gettman, “Empire” from the album Tilde (self released)
Bright Eyes, “Christmas in Prison” single featuring John Prine (Oh Boy)
The playlist also is available in Spotify. Simply click this link or search “Tim McMahan” in Spotify, then select Profiles, then Public Playlists. You’ll find it along with a few from past years.
Fans of Jake Bellows came out in droves last night at Reverb Lounge where Jake, Roger Lewis and Megan Siebe performed as Neva Dinova. It wasn’t a sellout but (I was told) dang near one, with a couple hundred people on hand to welcome their wayward son back to an Omaha stage.
Bellows, who looks identical to the guy I interviewed in his basement practice space 22 years ago, ripped into an hour-plus set of old favorites (“Dances Fantastic,” “Brooklyn” among them) and new rockers. That’s right, I said rock songs, as the new tunes Jake and Co. unveiled (mostly) ripped at the same pace and power of the band’s recent single (which was also performed last night).
I stood next to a long-time Neva fan throughout the set and would often turn to him after songs, both of us saying, “That’s another new one.” Turns out the band will be in town for an extended period as they record a new album, no doubt capturing on in the studio the songs we heard last night.
Jake Bellows holding court at Reverb Lounge, Dec. 14, 2023.
They weren’t all rockers. It wouldn’t be a Neva Dinova/Jake Bellows concert without its share of slow-motion dirges that glow dimly like light through a NyQuil bottle… up until that point in every one when Bellows ripped into one of his Gilmour-esque guitar solos.
Early in the set, the band brought even more fire power on stage by asking Sun-Less Trio frontman/guitarist Mike Saklar to join them for five or six numbers, including some of those Neva chestnuts. Saklar’s ax work added just the right touch of extra spice to the musical stew.
Doom Flower at Reverb Lounge, Dec. 14, 2023.
It wasn’t until I got home and did some research that I discovered the frontwoman of opening band, Doom Flower, was none other than Jess Price of the band Campdogzz, who releases music on Cursive’s 15 Passenger label. Unlike that band’s full-throttle rock, Doom Flower was going for a shimmery, Mazzy Star vibe – mid-tempo songs bordering on slowcore accented with trip-hop beats, a lead guitar tone that sounded like synths, and Price’s withdrawn, indecipherable, mumbled vocals. Gorgeous in its own way if only for the vibe, though I did wonder what Price was mewing about…
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It’s another weekend of local shows, which is what we get this time of year.
Tonight at The Sydney in Benson, Las Cruxes headlines a show that includes locals Frankie Chairo and No Sé, a band that has a potent shoegaze sound – no idea who they are or where they’re from, but check out their two tracks on Spotify. $10, 8:30.
Tomorrow night (Saturday) it’s the big sendoff for The Readerat The Admiral Theater. Omaha’s arts and entertainment weekly turned monthly quit publishing earlier this year and the world hasn’t been the same since (for me, anyway). The invitation says there will be a roast for those responsible, which no doubt will focus on founder/publisher John Heaston. That alone is worth the price of admission (free!), but there also will be music from Stylo, Hector Anchondo, Noizewave and Mandown (it’s like a latter-day Ranch Bowl reunion). The fun starts at 7 p.m. Like I said, it’s free, with any donations going to a charity. Stop by and say goodbye to an Omaha institution!
Also Saturday night, Pageturners in Dundee is hosting a night of local singer/songwriters with Tom Bartolomei, Sean Pratt and Mike Schlesinger. This one is free, though there’s a $10 suggested donation. Starts at 8 p.m.
Sunday night it’s back to Pageturners for a late afternoon musical treat provided by McCarthy Trenching. Starts at 5 p.m. and, same as before, free with suggested donation.
Also Sunday night, Nebraska singer/songwriter Andrea von Kampen provides a night of music at The Waiting Room. Von Kampen was a top-10 finalist in the 2016 NPR Tiny Desk Contest, which likely helped land her a record deal with Fantasy Records. She’s from Ann Arbor, but went to high school in Seward and received her degree in music at Concordia University. $20, 7 p.m.
And that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
Well, I missed the Criteria/Little Brazil show Saturday. And the Ryan Davis show at Grapefruit last night. The holidays being what they are, it just wasn’t in the cards.
I did catch Stephen Sheehan performing with Stigmata Martyr Friday night at Reverb Lounge. This was the best Sheehan performance I’ve seen since his Digital Sex days, thanks to the energy coming off the stage as the band performed four songs by Joy Division. The setlist:
– Warsaw
– Day of the Lords
– Ceremony
– Transmission
The rarely heard “Warsaw” was the big surprise, as was the fact that Sheehan and the band, maybe wisely, bypassed other Joy Division staples like “Love Will Tear Us Apart” or “Disorder,” which may have required Sheehan to attempt Ian Curtis’ famous dance moves. Those songs also invite other comparisons, which aren’t necessary as there is no replacing Ian’s always slightly off-pitch bass-baritone delivery. Instead, Sheehan simply sang the songs as Sheehan, and the performance was better for it.
If you missed it, you’ll get another chance to see/hear Sheehan in action as he’s among the performers taking part in the Damones’ New Year’s Eve Eve show at The Waiting Room Dec. 30.
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You say after a weekend of turkey that you’re hankering for some accordion-powered Spanish-language Tex-Mex punk rock? Well Reverb Lounge has you covered as tonight, San Antonio’s Piñata Protest headlines. Joining them are No/Mas, Amolador and Bolzen Beer Band. $18, 8 p.m.
Reverb Lounge was semi-packed (not jam-packed, not cram-full) for last night’s Hotline TNT show. Pushing through the crowd to get my Rolling Rock, I noticed the booths toward the back were full of very young people stacked up around the tables, looking tired and annoyed. I’m sure there’s an interesting back story to this that involves the two opening band, which I missed.
I had no idea who was on stage – a five piece dominated by a dude playing a Flying V, surrounded by an all-female backing band. This obviously wasn’t Hotline TNT, but who was it? I was pleasantly surprised at how good they were. Especially the dude on the V who had a decent voice. He shared vocals with a woefully under-amped lead guitarist, who, when she sang, could barely be heard.
The Dirts at Reverb Lounge, Nov. 22, 2023.
The guy, however… an interesting voice. It almost sounded like he was singing with an accent. It wouldn’t be until the end of their set, while the guitarist was looking for a capo, that he said (without an accent), “We’re The Dirts and this is ‘High Flying Bird,’” — their last song of their set. I ran into MarQ Manner in the crowd, who said they were, indeed, local and that the guy also was in Garst. The only “Dirts” band I could find online was the Swedish punk act by the same name. TIme for a name change, folks, and please let me know when you play out again…
Hotline TNT came on at around 10:30. Their style — very ‘90s wall-of-guitars — thanks to having three guitarists. Very much a Sugar/Bob Mould/Teenage Fanclub vibe – just a pure ’90s post-punk sound that was even better live than on their much-lauded, overblown (recording-wise) debut album. The only drawback to the live renditions were frontman Will Anderson’s lackluster vocals, but in the end, it didn’t matter when the night’s theme was, “How can we build on this guitar riff?”
Throughout the set, the third guitarist kept breaking strings. When he broke the first one, the lead guitarist handed him his guitar and picked up another. Then when he broke a string on that one, it looked like he borrowed a guitar from the Dirts (though I’m not certain — though it looked like same SG).
This guitar swapping required much between-song tuning, where Anderson asked the crowd if anyone was taking part in tomorrow’s Turkey Trot. No response. He kicked off the next song with, “Let’s see your Turkey Trot right here,” pointing at the area in front of the stage. Not from this crowd. Instead, he just got more fervent head nods.
I liked listening to these guys if only for the sheer guitar-riff power and the wayback-machine quality of their post-punk songs. Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday night before Thanksgiving…
We missed opening band UN-T.I.L. Friday night at The Slowdown, which I guess you could call another life lesson for this very young band that is the product of the Omaha Girls Rock program. We had just seen them a couple weeks earlier at that organization’s fundraiser at Benson Theater (they were awsome) and kind of knew we’d miss them Friday as we were running late. The life lesson: The opening slot in a three-band (or even worse, four-band) bill often gets missed by those who don’t want to (or can’t) spend three-plus hours at the venue.
Spacemoth at Slowdown, Nov. 17, 2023.
We arrived right as Spacemoth began their set. The four-piece led by Maryam Qudus played a woozy brand of spacey shoegaze indie rock, dominated by synths. They were at their best when they were at their simplest – stripped down to the most basic rhythm/melody.
The inability to understand the words sung by the vocalist is practically a shoegaze trope, but here, when the band is straddling the line that divides shoegaze from indie rock, the lack of enunciation only takes away, as the vocals merely become another tonal instrument.
Their set’s highlight was the second to last song, which Qudus said was “a new one.” It stood above the others in its more conventional arrangement – in other words, it rocked. Kicky fun. More of this, please.
Speedy Ortiz came on at around 10 p.m. and proceeded to rock the crowd of around 60. The band’s latest, Rabbit Rabbit, is maybe their least accessible album, with intricate rhythms and melodies that lean close to prog. Surprising time changes, wandering vocals and dominate, at times over-the-top drums make this anything but sing-along stuff. There were moments when the drums were down-right distracting. Songs off the new record performed live were sometimes grooveless, but when they did fall into a groove, you really noticed.
Front person Sadie Dupuis was complimentary about our fair city throughout the set, but the whole band was taken by surprise when the crowd didn’t react to the shout-out. Dupuis said if this were Philly, the crowd would have gone bananas with just the mention of their town’s name; but in this case, the reaction was matter-of-fact, if they acknowledged it at all.
Despite this, later in the set, Dupuis remarked why she loved playing in Omaha. Apparently Mike Mogis mixed the band’s previous album, which meant she spent a couple weeks here, driving around. “It’s almost like a second home,” she said. In that case, welcome home, Sadie, we missed you.
The streets of downtown Omaha were lined with cars presumably belong to patrons of the Shania Twain concert being held at that very moment in the CHI arena. Somewhere, rows of middle-aged women in denim skirts, red boots and bedazzled cowboy hats were line-dancing to “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”
Meanwhile, inside the dark, cavernous confines of The Slowdown, tables of more hip and no doubt more introspective middle-aged music fans waited for Great Lake Swimmers to take the small stage. What would Shania fans think of their style of rural Americana folk rock? Who am I kidding? They’d be bored out of their minds. Not that any style of music is better than another, but Shania arena concerts (well, like any arena concert) is all about the spectacle and radio hits, and, well the only spectacle at The Slowdown was the musicianship of the five people on stage who looked like they were having the time of their lives playing their music.
Fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarist Tony Dekker, the band — stand-up and electric bass, drums, guitar/banjo, keys/guitar — played a tight set of songs from their new album, Uncertain Country, along with selections from the Great Lake Swimmer’s 20-year-long catalog, Dekker quietly introducing most with stories about their origins and meaning, explaining how happy he was just to be able to tour again after the pandemic kept him locked up in his Toronto home.
Their style is indie folk more so than “Americana” and has a lot in common with ‘70s soft rock bands like America and Cat Stevens – at times (considering the rural themes) even reminscent of John Denver, though Dekker’s voice leans closer to Neil Young’s in its high timber.
An evening highlight was born from a calamity — Dekker broke a guitar string right before playing one of the band’s most popular songs, “Your Rocky Spine.” But instead of holding up the performance, he asked guitarist Erik Arnesen to lead off the song. What followed was an extended banjo introduction performed while Dekker kneeled on stage and did his stringing, smiling and nodding his head. The long intro changed the complexion of the song, creating a new drama not heard on the recording that they should make a regular part of their set — in other words, Dekker needs to break more guitar strings.
That moment was only eclipsed by a gorgeous cover of Kate McGarrigle’s “Come a Long Way” accented by beautiful harmonies from guitarist Colleen Brown, and an epic version of “The Real Work,” from the band’s 2018 album The Waves, The Wake (Nettwerk Music Group). The polite, gracious crowd of around 50 never strayed from their seats, leaving only one oddball standing next to the stage throughout the evening.
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Not much happening this weekend. Again, no touring indie bands are coming through. In fact, there’s almost no shows at all. Is this the Husker effect?
Tonight, however, is Benson First Friday, which means Maple Street will be abuzz with art lovers taking in openings in galleries throughout the district. Among them is the opening reception at Ming Toy Gallery (6066 Maple Street) for photographer Jeanne C. Langen’s De Herdere Nacht. The exhibition is a benefit for Wings of Hope Cancer Support Center in honor of Jeanne’s parents – Wesley A. and Judith C. Brown (Pittack), with 100% of all sales going to the non-profit. The show runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Come by and say hi.
As part of BFF, The Sydney is hosting LA electro-techno-punk act Cruel Kiss (a.k.a. Dustin Hollenbeck), along with Ex Lover and Nowhere. $15, 9 p.m.
Saturday night Omaha hardcore band Stronghold is having an album release show at Reverb Lounge with four opening acts: Static Soul, Heavyweight, Healer and Mass Hysteria. $10, 8 p.m.
And that is it. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
The Benson Theatre, located right in the middle of our drunken little townlet, could really be a cool stage for rock shows. The room is, indeed, quite beautiful, well designed, with rows of seating and plenty of room in front of the stage to stand. It’s the best of both worlds, or could be. In my mind I could imagine all those Undertow artists’ shows, like the recent Mark Eitzel show that took place downtown in a brew pub drinking room, performed on the Benson Theatre stage, a room just the right size for tours from past stars who now find themselves nomadically playing people’s living rooms.
Alas, one assumes the operating costs associated with this “non-profit” theater makes such concerts impossible, which is a shame because there’s woefully little programming taking place in the state-of-the-art facility in the heart of the city.
But I digress…
Friday night the theater hosted a fundraiser for Omaha Girls Rock, another Omaha non-profit, this one designed to provide direction both musically and ethically to young women from our community. The sold-out crowd consisted mostly of parents of these young rock stars on hand to give moral support, sitting or standing in groups while young kids ran around in costumes or wiggled on the “dance floor” in front of the stage.
Omaha is currently suffering from a lack of young, up-and-coming indie bands. And as few new or touring Omaha indie bands as there are, there are even fewer bands fronted by women, which is ironic because today’s national indie music scene is dominated by women artists. No need to list them, if you know than you know. Omaha Girls Rock, while not established to fix this problem, could certainly provide an effective remedy.
In times past when I’ve seen OGR bands play at fundraisers I’ve approached it like just another supportive parent (though I’m not), understanding the girls were only just learning their instruments. Not so Friday night. The two bands I saw were actually pretty good. Nothing Rhymes with Orange was cute and showed promise, but UN-T.I.L. actually could stand on its own as a functioning post-punk power trio. No idea who’s in the band, but they had some chops, especially on the last two numbers that had more intricate compositions. And if you doubt me, you can find out for yourself as UN-T.I.L. will be opening for Speedy Ortiz at The Slowdown Nov. 17.
They were followed by the return of See Through Dresses, who haven’t played out in a few years. Drummer Nate Van Fleet even made a special trip to Omaha from his new home in LA just for the show. The entire band dressed in matching skeleton costumes a la Phoebe Bridgers’ band, which made it a sort of double costume.
While the band sounded as good as ever playing music that’s a combination of shoegaze and Dinosaur Jr., the vocals by Matthew Carroll and Sara Bertuldo sounded naked on stage, pulled right out front of everything instead of being properly mixed with the rest of the instruments. I’ve never heard these two so loud and clear, like auctioneers fronting DIIV. Still, despite the poor mix, it was great seeing them on stage again.
In an era in Omaha when we’ve got ginormous new music venues popping up everywhere, here’s a small, well-made smaller alternative venue going mostly unused. It would be a shame if more bands weren’t booked there.
I’ll start with Sextile at The Waiting Room and go backward from there.
The band had made it known they were going on at 10:15 last night, and I arrived shortly before that, catching only the last song by the opening act, someone who’s music I had determined I didn’t need to hear after listening to a number of his tracks prior to the show. Some folks expected Sextile to be a big draw, others were like me, skeptical but hopeful that Omaha would show up — and more Omaha showed up than I expected – a crowd of maybe 150, a fine mix of ages and genders drawn together by a goth sense of fashion and a shared love for this style of post-punk post-New Wave synth-powered dance music.
The trio bounded onto the velvet-black stage to the blump-blump-blump beat of “Contortion,” off their new album, Push. Or at least I think that was the name of the song. I would be lying if I told you I knew the words to any Sextile song or their names for that matter, other than the ones fans consider their “hits” – “Disco,” “New York,” “No Fun,” “Current Affair,” etc., all of which were played at some point last night to a crowd of sometimes-jumping sometimes-undulating fans, many of which looked ready for Halloween.
In addition to having an infectiously driving beat, Sextile songs sport abrasive counter-melodies played mostly on synths but sometimes on electric guitar, and vocals that consist mostly of either frontman Brady Keehn or frontwoman Melissa Scaduto barking out words in a staccato yelp tightly in synch with the proceedings. At their best, even the most dead pile of human flesh can’t help but move to their coal-black rhythms.
So much of the music was preprogrammed that it was hard to say if and when any of Sextile were actually playing anything, other than punching the track number from a play list, though it sure looked like guitarist Cameron Michel was actually shredding that guitar, as did Scaduto. More often, the performance consisted of a bleach-blond-sunglassed Keehn bounding about the stage, spitting out lyrics while showing off his contorted dance moves, glowing/blasting on-off-on in the blinding strobes. T’was a shame the place wasn’t packed, as (like that Model/Actriz show a week ago) I can only imagine how this performance would feel at, say, a sold-out Terminal 5 in Brooklyn.
Another Michael at Reverb Lounge, Oct. 19, 2023.
Going backwards earlier the evening… There was a wholly different kind of audience at Reverb Lounge last night for Ratboys, a well-attended (but not sold out) show. These folks clearly were not ready for Halloween. Opening band Another Michael is a Philly four-piece that plays Americana-inflected indie rock, though that’s not really a fair description. It’s clearly a singer/songwriter act powered by frontman Michael Doherty backed by a rock-solid band anchored with precision and grace by a drummer who’s name I don’t know and can’t find and in this day-and-age don’t want to make any assumptions.
Doherty’s songwriting style would be as successful in the ‘70s as it is here in the ’20s (and upon reading that sentence, I feel very old indeed). The only band I would compare them to is early ‘90s-era The Silos. Doherty has a high, sweet voice and style similar to Walter Salas-Humara, though instead of singing about the Southwest, Another Michael’s songs are rooted in the frozen Northeast. Really gorgeous stuff and a good opener for Ratboys.
Ratboys at Reverb Lounge, Oct. 19, 2023.
A hot ticket thanks to the success of their latest album, the Chris Walla produced The Window, and for touring with bands like Wilco and Guster (who they opened for here in Omaha a year ago), the band has a poise and style that points to much bigger stages than Reverb’s. Singer/guitarist Julia Steiner is like watching Broadcast News-era Holly Hunter lead a modern indie band that has a lot in common with acts like Hop Along (the closest comparison vocally to Steiner). Her voice can be at times sound earnest and personal while at other times almost overtly cute, just as their songs can waver between straightforward indie rock and Wilco-esque Americana.
Steiner also has good between-song-tuning-my-guitar snappy patter, telling stories about “the wooden man” they saw at a Luv’s somewhere in Iowa (Hate for Iowa was a theme throughout the night by both bands who wrongly think Nebraskans hates Iowa for some reason, which couldn’t be further from the truth, but who am I to correct their regional prejudices?). There is no doubt this band is going to be huge, and the fact that this show didn’t sell out tiny Reverb only adds to the continued mystery as to why touring indie shows are drawing so disappointingly in our market.
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Onto the weekend, and an O’Leaver’s weekend at that, though there is one big touring indie show worth mentioning.
First though, like a blast from the past, there are back-to-back nights of live music this weekend at fabulous O’Leaver’s. Tonight, elusive local indie band BB Sledge opens for two bands I’ve never heard of — Saltwater Sanctuary and The Bedrock. Will I finally see BB Sledge after countless efforts to see them in the past were for naught? Maybe. This show is $10 and starts at 9:30.
Tomorrow night (Saturday) at O’Leaver’s see the return of Dance Me Pregnant, who we haven’t heard from since, what, 2012? It’s the classic Dance Me Pregnant line-up with Chris Machmuller, Johnny Vredenburg, Corey Broman and Jeff Ankenbauer. Some of these folks I literally haven’t seen in a decade. If that weren’t enough to get you to O’Leaver’s, the night’s bill also includes The Flamboyant Gods (I’m Drinking This Records) and In Tongues (Robert Little, Jason Ludwick and Boz Hicks). And it’s free. Expect a crush mob. Good thing it’s nice out so you can step out onto their gorgeous patio between sets. Starts at 9 p.m., just like old times.
The other big show Saturday night is indie darling Samia at The Waiting Room. The band is riding a wave of popularity thanks to the sing-along song “Honey” off the album of the same name released earlier this year on Grand Jury Records. Was a time you couldn’t turn on Sirius XMU without hearing the track (how does that happen, by the way?). Also on the bill is the cute Nashville indie duo Venus & the Flytraps. 8 p.m., $25.
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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