Conor Oberst on CBS This Morning last weekend.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Omaha show calendar is a series of peaks and valleys. One week you’ll have a great show almost every night; the next week, no national touring shows at all. We’re sitting firmly in one of those valleys right now. Coming off a weekend of no national shows, we enter a week of very little going on indie-wise, and that ain’t such a bad thing when you consider what’s happening next week.

But back to this week:

Rhymesayers artist Grieves performs tonight at The Waiting Room with a couple more rappers. $14, 9 p.m.

Wednesday night Sean Lennon’s psych rock band he fronts with his girlfriend, model Charlotte Kemp Muhl, headlines at The Waiting Room with opener Syd Arthur. $15, 9 p.m. There’s some buzz behind this one.

And that’s it for the week. See Through Dresses kicks off its 2014 summer tour Friday night at O’Leaver’s with the always unpredictable Gordon. And Simon Joyner plays Friday night at Slowdown Jr.

Like I said, peaks and valleys. Next week begins with First Aid Kit, followed Tuesday by Guided by Voices and then Conor Oberst Wednesday. That’s quite a triple-header..

* * *

Speaking of Conor Oberst, the old boy performed on CBS This Morning Saturday. Check out the video below. And look for my interview with Mr. Oberst in this Thursday’s issue of The Reader. It’s been a looong time since I got to ask him any questions…

* * *

One last thing: I checked out the new, improved Beercade in Benson over the weekend. The new bar, located right next door to the old bar, is massive (I was disappointed to find out that they’re not going to call it “Super Beercade”). We’re talking two floors with two bars filled with pinball and video games

Pinball is red hot right now, and the fact that I couldn’t get on one of the eight or so tables at Beercade is testament to that. In fact, the only game I could get my hands on was Tapper. Sadly, the new location — like the old location — is woefully light on Williams video games. No Defender, no Robotron, no Stargate. I don’t know what they did with their Joust machine, but I couldn’t find it. Luckily I have a Williams multi-game stand-up in my basement, but still, it would be fun to be able to play those classics in public, along with Spyhunter, Elevator Action and Tron, all of which were unfortunately also absent from Beercade.

Is my love for Williams arcade games a generational thing? Probably. On the other hand, Beercade had loads of karate and battle games, which I never played back in my college days.

Anyway, the place is amazing and huge. It even has booth seating upstairs so you can cool your heels while you wait for the next pinball machine to open. And if it’s Friday or Saturday night, you could be waiting a long time.

* * *

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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’ve got nothing today, other than to point you to this week’s column in The Reader, which is a review (of sorts) of Beercade, the new arcade-bar that opened last weekend in Benson. I like the place. The column contains lots o’ video game talk, and the story of a legend from my youth… Check it out.

More woeful evidence of how out of touch I am to the current flavors of “pop music,” tonight at The Waiting Room Eric Hutchinson is playing a sold out show. I have no idea who Eric Hutchinson is. A quick wiki search unveils that Hutchinson’s records are released on Warners, and that he’s played on all the late night chat shows (Conan, Letterman, Leno, etc.). He apparently was an opener on Kelly Clarkson’s last tour. I just listened to his “hit” song called “Rock & Roll” on YouTube and would classify him as a John Mayer meets Ben Broussard pop singer of vacuous proportions. His ability to sell out TWR tells me that one of the popular local radio stations must have him in rotation, but who knows, especially in these days of viral marketing and the internet. Opening is the equally mysterious Graffiti 6 (Capitol Records). Strange 8:30 start time.

* * *

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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.