Back When at The Waiting Room, April 20, 2013. The band reunites again tonight at The Waiting Room.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Here’s hoping you had a great Christmas. How about that snow, Christmas Eve? What a pain in the ass. The street outside my house still hasn’t been properly cleared. Oh well, it’s inconsequential since I have four wheel drive. It certainly isn’t going to keep me away from the special holiday-tinged shows this weekend.

Top of list is Serial at The Brothers Lounge. Serial is a band that consists of John Wolf (Cellophane Ceiling, Bad Luck Charm, Porn), Tim Moss (Ritual Device, Porn), Lee Meyerpeter (Cactus Nerve Thang, Bad Luck Charm, Filter Kings) and Jerry Hug (Ritual Device, Porn). The show came out of the blue, and is sort of a sequel to last Christmas’s Ritual Device show (though I don’t expect to hear any RD songs tonight). Ron Wax a.k.a. Ron Albertson (ex-Mercy Rule) opens the show at 9:30 (though Brothers’ shows start notoriously late). $5.

Also tonight, Back When reunites at The Waiting Room. The noise-metal-doom band is back with their “We Sang As Ghosts” 5-man lineup. To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the release of that album, Back When will be playing the record exclusively and in its entirety. Co-headlining is the reunion of black-out metal band Paria. Timecat opens. $10, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, down the street at The Barley Street Tavern, a clutch of local singer/songwriters/bands are getting together for a tribute to the late Brad Hoshaw. Actually, the only thing late about Brad is that he’s late getting his next album out (which I’ve been told is a departure from his usual singer/songwriter stuff to new electronic vistas. Really, Brad? Don’t be such a hold-out). Among the musicians/bands scheduled to cover Hoshaw tunes are Scott Severin, Daniel Burns, Elisa Doo, John Klemmensen, Low Long Signal, Mark Sebring, Jeremy Mercy Orion Walsh, Zachariah, Shineys and Vinyl Recliner. This one is free and starts at 8 p.m.

Sunday night it’s back to fabulous O’Leaver’s for a four-band bill: Oquoa, Jake Bellows, Carl Miller and the Thrillers and Field Division. $5, 9 p.m. What’s Christmas without at least one night back at the Club?

And what’s a holiday without a little giving? Sunday night you can do something with that unused coat hanging in your closet when The Waiting Room hosts the Coat Drive for Heart Ministry Center. The line-up is Clarence Tilton (who makes an appearance on this year’s Lazy-i “Best of” compilation), Matt Cox and The Willards. Admission is $8 or a coat. Show starts at 7 p.m.

That’s what I got for the weekend. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Stay warm, Omaha…

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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 © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Gramps at O’Leaver’s, Dec. 11, 2015.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Great crowd at O’Leaver’s Friday night for the Gramps EP release show. Django Greenblatt-Seay and Co. belted out songs off the online-only release (along with a few others) to a festive pre-holiday crowd packed into a very hot room — so hot, in fact, I had to step outside for air halfway through the set. The atmosphere was downright mossy.

Full disclosure: I work with Django downtown at Union Pacific, but rest assured I’m showing no bias when I say Gramps’ style of jangle (not jango)-indie rock has distinctively Nebraskan flavor, sounding like a cross between Little Brazil and Criteria (one song, about four into the set, had a riff and rhythm that directly channeled En Garde).

With all the irons Django has in the fire, Gramps shows are a rarity. If you get a chance, definitely check them out.

Millions of Boys at O’Leaver’s, Dec. 11, 2015.

As much of a draw as Gramps Friday night was the return of Millions of Boys. It’s been a long time since this trio played in Omaha, and they’ve been sorely missed. Whereas Sara Bertuldo’s other band, See Through Dresses, is more of a shoe-gaze act, Millions of Boys is in-yer-face, crunchy pop-punk reminiscent of Weezer. Fun stuff we need to hear more of.

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By now you may already have seen the Facebook invitation for a special reunion show Dec. 26 at Brothers Lounge. It’s the return of Serial, a band consisting of John Wolf (Cellophane Ceiling), Lee Meyerpeter (Cactus Nerve Thang) and Tim Moss (Ritual Device).

John Wolf dropped me an email last Friday announcing the show. “Moss, Lee and I did a few gigs as Serial in ’94-’96 time frame with various bass players, including Eric Melvin from NOFX,” Wolf said. “We coaxed Jerry Hug into playing this show with us!”

Whoa! Add to that a “special guest” and you’ve got a post-Christmas show for the ages.

Speaking of reunion shows, I would be remiss in not mentioning another big reunion show taking place the same night, Dec. 26 at The Waiting Room. Reuniting for one night only, after years defunct, is powerhouse noise-metal band Back When. Joining them is the equally fierce rock of Paria.

Where will you be the day after Christmas?

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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 © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship at The Waiting Room, April 20, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Every band should play one cover song during their set because the song they choose opens a hidden door into what they’re about. At least that’s the conventional wisdom. In the case of Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship, that wisdom does not necessarily apply.

Halfway through their well-attended (200?) album release show Saturday night at The Waiting Room, the band decided to play “the best song we didn’t write,” and tore into Neil Young’s “Hey, Hey, My My (Into the Black).” Fantastic rendition including blazing between-verse guitar solos by frontman Andrew Gustafson. Great song, but who would have guessed that this is the cover they’d pick? I would have guessed something by Sonic Youth or Dinosaur Jr. or even the Pixies, but an old Freedom Rock chestnut from Rust Never Sleeps? Surprising indeed, and somewhat amazing, as was the rest of their set.

Tell me if I’m wrong (my memory, it fades) but I remember Noah’s being an instrumental-only band when they first came on the scene all those many years ago. Now I can’t imagine them without vocals — lead guitarist/vocalist Gustafson has a fantastic voice — imagine J. Mascis without the croak-groan and you’re kinda getting there. He bends his notes in a similar appealing fashion that pulls everything together for this power trio. If you haven’t checked out You Need You you need to.

Back When at The Waiting Room, April 20, 2013.

I found out weeks ago that the opening slot for Noah’s would be Back When’s last-ever gig, but somehow it slipped my feeble mind. Why they’re hanging it up, I cannot say, though one (well-connected) person in the audience told me that the band felt they’d simply moved on to other things, other projects, other lives.

The irony for me is that Saturday night’s show was really the first time that I “got” what Back When was going for, and it came about three songs before the end, during an epic sonic punch-out where each member was locked into every break, every moment, as if channeling some dark, Gothic metal secret shared only by an elite circle of musicians who can hear the rhythmic language that floats beneath the surface of the chaos. Theirs was a pounding, pummeling sound, experimental on a number of levels as well as cinematic in sheer layered scope (pushed in that direction by recent videos). And of course, it could be very dark indeed. You would never mistake it for pop music.

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The line outside of Homer’s yesterday prior to the 10 a.m. opening time. Photo by John Shartrand.

Mike Fratt, who runs Homer’s Records, said Saturday’s Record Store Day was one for the record books. “Historic sales for us as well as every other retailer around the country I’ve talked to,” he said. “Loads of fun and exhausting, too. Crowds/customers were awesome, and we are very thankful for their support.”

The nitty-gritty: Homer’s sold 273 of the 313 titles they got in — double-digits sales quantities on 32 titles. “We still have quantity left on about 80 RSD items, 1’s or 2’s,” Fratt said. “We ordered some items in heavy quantities hoping we would have 3 to 6 left so there would be stock through the year, but many of those totally sold out; Mumford, White Stripes, Notorious BIG, etc.”

I didn’t get to the store until Saturday afternoon, but still managed to find the two main things I was looking for: Pulp Vs. Soulwax 12-inch and  Big Star’s Nothing Can Hurt Me. Both releases are remarkable.

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The Maha Music Festival announced its “local stage” last night, and it’s got something for everyone: Criteria will provide another in its series of amazing “occasional” performances, pop band Rock Paper Dynamite, a reunion of Lincoln indie band The Millions, the arresting chamber pop of Hers, and the winner of the OEA talent contest. And the band I guess could be considered the “local stage headliner”: Digital Leather. Yeah, the night could get weird (in a good way) if DL does its usual set closer “Studs in Love.” But something tells me there will be an Ed Sullivan-type dictum thrown out by the Maha organizers to prevent DL from playing their more racier material. Will Shawn Foree pull a Jim Morrison? We’ll have to wait and see.

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Last week I was whining about the lack of touring indie shows. This week, we’re loaded, beginning with tonight’s Johnny Marr show at The Waiting Room. Lots of buzz about this one. Tickets are still available for $25. Opening is Alamar. Show starts at 8.

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Why are there no photos from this show, which took place at Slowdown Jr. Friday night? Because there was (almost) no light on stage. Not pitch black, but too dark for an iPhone, dark enough to be… afraid. Back When playing virtually in the dark seemed appropriate for the band’s rather dark vibe.

I hadn’t seen them before Friday night, not because I was avoiding them, but because one thing or another got in the way. After seeing their latest video, which surfaced last week, a more intense effort was made to not miss their next show.

Earplugs were tempting and almost necessary while waiting in line to get in. Their sound is mammoth — loud and sludgy, some might say bleak. On first blush it reminded me of stoner rock — there were moments that called to mind Kyuss and Sleep, but Back When is more acidic, more metal, more purposely colossal. A colleague at the show compared them to Source Tags & Codes-era Trail of Dead. Maybe, maybe.

With a low wall of amps stacked behind them, they were indeed powerful, but the compressed size of Slowdown Jr.’s stage cramped their sound and the mix lacked separation that could have been attained on the big stage, which would have been a better fit. Additional research into their recorded material is necessary before I can tell you what they were singing about.

By contrast, The Answer Team (which didn’t perform in the dark, but were dimly lit) sounded downright pleasant. The crowd had peaked for Back When, despite the fact that it was Answer Team’s CD release show — but that’s why you invite a band with a solid following to open these kinds of shows. As on their debut full length, O Sad And Future Human, they most often try the classic quiet-slowly-build-then-explode arrangements that are the hallmark of most of their influences. But too often on stage Friday night they started out loud and simply got louder. Dynamics is one of the only things that can fill the void that all instrumental-only indie bands have to overcome without having vocals and lyrics. Another bridge is varied arrangements, and for the most post, The Answer Team delivered, though they still can fall into that rut of repeating the same four or eight bars’ worth of chord changes over and over — another pitfall of instrumental-only bands. Regardless, by the end of their set, they had the crowd wanting more.

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It’s looking pretty quiet show-wise for the next few days. We’ll make up for it, however, come this weekend with three major outdoor events, including a neighborhood brawl that pits Dundee against the 40th and Farnam area. More later…

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.