by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

UPDATE AS OF 5:30 P.M.: This show has been CANCELLED “due to unforeseen bus issues.”

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“We still play all of our songs live, but there are only so many chords you can put into a three-chord song so many times. You can only sing about having a broken heart for so long.”

That was The Get Up Kids’ keyboardist James Dewees in 2002. Little did he know how wrong he could be, as the band heads to The Waiting Room tonight to play an album that came out 25 years ago. 

When I interviewed Dewees in 2002 (read the interview here), the band was headed for a gig at Sokol Auditorium (now called The Admiral) supporting the release of On a Wire and actively running away from the “emo” tag placed on them by MTV and various music journalists. 

“This is the best time in the world for emo music,” Dewees said back then. “It’s just that we don’t really want to write music like that anymore. We want to experiment with writing slower songs with acoustic guitars or organ or string parts or keyboards instead of the soft-then-loud-then-scream songs with the typical punk-rock-flourish ending.”

Dewees was a late comer to Get Up Kids, which formed in Kansas City back in mid-’90s. Also a member of the metalcore outfit Coalesce, he met the band when the two played together.

According to Wiki, when Get Up Kids broke up in 2004 Dewees played with New Found Glory, continued his work with his band, Reggie and the Full Effect, and eventually joined My Chemical Romance in 2006. He later rejoined Get Up Kids for the 10th anniversary of Something To Write Home About and stuck around for a few more albums before splitting for good in 2019. The band was never able to capture lightning in a bottle like they did with that ’99 album. Alas, Dewees will not be joining them when they play tonight at The Waiting Room.

Surprisingly, this show has yet to sell out. With the rise in popularity of “Emo Nights” at clubs around the country, you’d think second-generation emo pioneers like this band would be a red hot ticket. 

Opening for Get Up Kids is The Anniversary, the Lawrence, Kansas, indie band that enjoyed a heyday in the early aughts, and included singer Adrianne Verhoeven, a former member of Saddle Creek Records band Flowers Forever and Orenda Fink’s Art in Manila. Is Adrianne still in The Anniversary? Head to The Waiting Room tonight and find out. $36, 8 p.m. 

AGAIN, THIS SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

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Tomorrow night (Saturday), newly minted post-punk band Cope Acidic headlines a free show at fabulous O’Leaver’s. I caught a few songs by these guys when they opened for Pile at Slowdown Feb. 29 and was intrigued. Very mathy; pretty good vocals that reminded me of Bob Mould. Joining them Saturday night are Jar and Softlines. Like I said, it’s free and starts at 9 p.m. (O’Leaver’s time, which means probably later than that).

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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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Performing last night in front of a crowd of around 100 in Slowdown’s front room, Pile proved it’ll be the perfect pairing for Cursive as the two launch a North American tour starting this Thursday in Fort Collins. 

In this configuration, the band is a powerhouse four-piece of pure angular goodness, fronted by guitarist Rick Maguire at the height of his vocal prowess – we got him before the tour, folks. 

I’ve listened to a lot of Pile albums but I don’t remember them sounding this straightforward and brutal. They rocked a shit-ton harder than anything on their last EP (of which they only played one song, a white-knuckled version of “Scaling Walls”). The pace throughout the first third of the set was breakneck (Cursive better watch out or they’ll be blown off the stage); leaving room for their weirder stuff later on (except for the set closer, but I’ll get to that in a minute). 

Highlights included the set opener, a song called “Deep Clay” that must be new, followed by a head-banging rendition of “Loops” from their last LP, 2023’s All Fiction. The band reached back into the archives for “Uncle Jill” from 2010’s Magic Isn’t Real before Maguire introduced another new one, called “Meanwhile Inside,” off their yet-to-be-released new album, warning the crowd that it’s “very long.” But it didn’t seem long at all — the intricate time shifts and dynamics made for quite a ride. 

Pile closed the 14-song set with yet another new one, which Maguire said wasn’t about any single person but a bunch of people. Titled “Stephen Miller,” the angular explosion was like listening to a sonic fistfight, with Maquire throwing one haymaker after another while the band crushed – perfect, angry, venomous, mosh-pit punk — exactly what we all need right now. 

I caught the last two songs by opener Cope Acidic and wish I would have heard their whole set. Playing as a power trio, the guitarist/frontman brought shades of Bob Mould to the vocals, while the rhythm section brought the heat. Complex rhythms that never lost track of the core song, in the old days we called this style of post-punk “math rock” — an impressive outing by a band I need to see again. 

Last night was the first time since before the pandemic that I attended a show in the month of January, which is historically always a shit time for touring or booking shows (especially in Nebraska). So, a good sign. We made it through what arguably is the worst month of the year in terms of rock shows, and the calendar is filling up nicely over the next few months…

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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Next Tuesday’s (Jan. 28) Pile concert at Slowdown Jr. will provide concert goers a sneak preview of the Boston band’s new, yet-to-be-released album on their new label. 

It’s also a warm-up gig as Pile will launch a (mostly West Coast) tour opening for local heroes Cursive beginning just two days later in Fort Collins that runs through Feb. 23. 

Pile are no strangers to Omaha. Their first gig here was aboard the River City Star back in the summer of 2017; they returned for a night at The Slowdown two years later. Fronted by singer/songwriter Rick Maguire, Pile’s sound has taken a number of iterations but lands on the same abrasive DIY post-punk territory that’s made them fan favorites. I mentally bunch them in with older acts that have nothing to do with them – Dismemberment Plan, Grifters, Chavez, Silkworm, Karate – though Pile’s sound is much more varied and experimental, often taking wild, progressive tangents. 

Their latest release, Hot Air Balloons EP, dropped earlier this month on Exploding in Sound Records. The tracks were recorded during the sessions for their 2023 full-length All Fiction (Exploding in Sound). Are they leftovers not weird enough to make the cut? Who knows, but I dig this EP much more than the full length if only for its more straight-forward melodies and song structures. Check it:

Pile recorded the EP and full-length as a trio with Kris Kuss and Alex Molini, but appears to be touring as a four-piece. According to their gram, they just wrapped up their next full-length, that will be released on Chicago’s Sooper Records sometime this year, and according to their website, will be playing songs from it next Tuesday. 

Nebraskan by way of Chicago PROBLEMS a.k.a. Darren Keen will open this show along with new Omaha prog-punk-math trio Cope Acidic (guitarist/vocalist Connor Moritz, bassist, Alex Airola and drummer Ramon Carias). $20, 8 p.m., this is a frontroom show.

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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.