Bob’s Daisy Glaze at The Brothers May 4, 2018. Bob Garfield is seated right.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There’s a problem with one-off performances like the Bob’s Daisy Glaze gig at The Brothers last Friday night: Even if the gig kicks ass, you’re likely never to see or hear it again. And man, I’d love to hear the band again.

This was a special performance held in conjunction with Bob Malave-Garfield’s 50th birthday. Bob is a veteran of Omaha’s ’90s Golden Age, having played bass in Frontier Trust, Acorns and Dude Wyoming, among others. He’s something of a local treasure, and when you’re a local treasure, you can surround yourself with talent.

For this gig, Garfield, on guitar, was joined by guitarist David Nance, arguably one of the most important talents to emerge from the Omaha music scene in the past five years. Mike Tulis, who handled bass, has been a music scene fixture for more than a decade, currently riding high in Lupines. Drummer Susan Hendrick was the wildcard. Tulis tells me she used to play with Todd Grant, Matt Rutledge and Mike Fratt in Compost during the early ’90s.

Together they sounded like a tight classic rock band with indie rock flair — I was reminded of heavy Yo La Tengo or maybe Crazy Horse, though neither of those quite fit. The six-song set included five Garfield originals that throbbed with locomotive intensity. Garfield handled the vocals while seated on stage, belting out the words to songs like “She Was a Millionaire” and “Charm School.”

It all came together for the final song, a cover of T Rex’s “20th Century Boy” that took that riff-fueled tune and stretched it into a massive noise jam. Teresa and I were seated over by the bar beyond the crowd of standers and tables. About four minutes into the song the guitar solos began — both Garfield and Nance. People got out of their seats to see what was going on, it was one of these moments where you knew you were hearing and seeing something special. Keeping it rolling was Hendrick and Tulis, pounding out a solid rhythm line. Hendrick absolutely killed that drum set and I have to wonder where she’s been and why we don’t see more of her. Any band would be lucky to have her behind the kit.

After the smoke cleared, the entire club sang happy birthday to Bob and enjoyed some cake. It was just another in a long series of special evenings at The Brothers. Now if we could only get these four together again…

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.