It was a lazy weekend for Lazy-i. Lazy in that I only saw one band perform, and it wasn’t in a club. Stop Having Children played a set at Almost Music’s “Terrible Twos” birthday event Saturday afternoon. The band was made up of Simon Joyner, David Kenneth Nance, Mike Marasco, and Dis Cretin (as he’s known in the rock world) playing some heavy shit. Whoda guessed Joyner could shred respectably alongside veteran shredder Nance?
I’m already regretting my lethargy in hitting shows last weekend, looking at the calendar. Nothing happening ’til the coming weekend, when it lights up again on Friday (and, there is a Bloodcow show Thursday, too), but more on that later…
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A quick recap of Lincoln Calling 2015, which took place a couple weeks ago. LC frontman Jeremy Buckley said it was another successful year.
“I’d say better than last year,” he said. “There were shows at capacity every night from Tuesday to Sunday and I think the bands were generally happy with payouts and bar owners were pretty happy with booze sales. Biggest night was Saturday, with Friday being a close second.”
So what about Lincoln Calling 2016?
“One thing that ended up working out really well this year was asking friends and peers to help with curating some of the shows,” Buckley said. “At least 10 of the lineups were curated by other people, which I think added diversity that I wouldn’t have thought of, as well as showcasing 15 of Lincoln’s regularly performing comedians and continuing our local music-oriented film festival.”
Buckley said he hopes to get even more people involved with putting LC together next year. “My hope is to have people that know bands on the local level to help with that with more fervor, so I can spend time talking with booking agents and national touring bands so we can up the amount of touring talent we’re introducing to our scene and our bands.” Hear hear!
Not sure how it happened, but the weekend’s back-loaded with shows, with three happening Sunday night. So call your boss, tell her/him you’re gonna be late in on Monday. Or just get your excuses in order over the weekend.
Of the trio of Sunday shows, Head of Femur at O’Leaver’s stands out. The band is reuniting for this show and tonight’s show as part of Lincoln Calling. Here’s some background on the band from back in the day, and here’s a current-day story from Hear Nebraska. Opening is the entrancing McCarthy Trenching. $7, 9 p.m.
While that’s happening Sunday night, downtown at Slowdown Jr. Michigan punk band Cheap Girls headlines. The band has been on a zillion labels including Asian Man, Suburban Home and Paper + Plastick. Openers are just as good: the mighty Lupines and Gordon. 8 p.m. $10 Adv. /$12 DOS.
Show No. 3 happening Sunday night is The Dodos at The Waiting Room. The San Francisco duo of Meric Long on guitar and Logan Kroeber on drums has music on FrenchKiss, Wichita and their latest album, Individ, was released this past January by Polyvinyl. Eklectica opens. $12, 9 p.m.
Yeah, that’s all great and all, but what about tonight?
Tonight (Friday) fabulous O’Leaver’s hosts the return of Ghost Foot. Opening is local super group Montee Men (featuring John Laughlin (Pro-Mangum), Chris Kelley (Back When) and Matt Baum (Desaparecidos)). and the return of Peace of Shit. $5, 9:30 p.m.
Also tonight is Benson First Friday — the usual art / bar crawl starts at 6 p.m. If you’re going, I beseech you to drop by and see the work of Omaha artistic legend Sidney Buchanan, who has a one-man show at The Little Gallery, the art gallery my wife and I run located right across the street from The Sydney. We’ll be hanging out ’til 9.
After checking out the Little Gallery, head on down to The Barley Street Tavern where Clarence Tilton is headlining tonight (Friday) with Denver’s King Cardinal and Omaha’s own Blue Bird. $5, 9 p.m.
Get your Benson fix in because you’ll want to avoid that stretch of Maple Street tomorrow (Saturday) when Benson becomes the playground for the annual Zombie Walk. Ugh. Have a good time.
Instead, head back to O’Leaver’s Saturday night for the return of everyone’s favorite electro-noise-leather-gimp Plack Blague. The one-man obscenity charge is headlining a show that’s sure to disturb, with openers Grab Ass, Ruby Block and Hag. $5, 9:30 p.m.
Also Saturday night Make Believe Records is hosting a showcase at The Slowdown. Practically the entire label roster is performing, including Conchance, BOTH, Sam Ayer & The Love Affair, Lightning Bug, Sam Martin, Third Eye Merchants, Black Jonny Quest, and Dojorok & Kethro. $7, 8 p.m.
And then, of course, it’s Sunday.
But lest we forget, Lincoln Calling is happening all weekend long, and as I mentioned the other day, tonight features perhaps the weekend’s best line-up. For your convenience, here’s the remaining Lincoln Calling line-up, taken from the event’s Facebook event listing.
Lincoln Calling
Friday, October 2
Bodega’s Alley
9:30 pm – 3 Son Green
11:45 pm – The Midland Band
$5, 21+
Bourbon Theatre
9 pm – The Renfields
10 pm – Oquoa
11 pm – Twinsmith
12 am – Head of Femur
$10, 18+
The Cask
9 pm – Alli and I
11 pm – Ro Hempel
no cover, 21+
Duffy’s Tavern
(early show)
6 pm Bloodhound (Kyle Henderson of Desert Noises solo)
7 pm McCarthy Trenching
8 pm Emily Bass Band
$5, 21+
(late show)
9:30 pm – Domestica
10:30 pm – See Through Dresses
11:30 pm – Bummer
12:30 am – Halfwit
$5, 21+
Knickerbockers
9 pm – Gordon
10 pm – Hyborian
11 pm – Desir Decir
12 am – Powers
$5, 18+
Single Barrel
9 pm – Belles and Whistles
10 pm – Matt Cox Band
11 pm – Dylan Bloom Band
$5, 19+
White Rabbit
5 pm – Emily Bass
no cover, 21+
Zoo Bar
(early show)
6 pm – Red Elvises
$10, 21+
NOTE: NOT INCLUDED WITH ALL ACCESS PASS
(late show)
9 pm – Laughing Falcon
10 pm – Rock Paper Dynamite
11 pm – American Pinup
12 am – FREAKABOUT
$6, 21+
Saturday, October 3
Bodega’s Alley
9:30 pm – A Ferocious Jungle Cat
11 pm – Pure Brown
12:45 am – Life is Cool
$5, 21+
The Cask
9:30 pm – Martini Tiny w/ Hana Zara and Jack Rodenberg
no cover, 21+
Duffy’s Tavern
8 pm – Jay Kutchma
9 pm – The Heather Berney Band
10 pm – blét
11 pm – Mike Semrad
12 am – The Allendales
1 am – Desert Noises
$6, 21+
Knickerbockers
9 pm – This Machine Kills Vibes
10 pm – Scruffy and the Janitors
11 pm – Westside Proletariat
12 am – Night Push
$5, 18+
Single Barrel
9:30 pm – Lazerwolfe
$5, 21+
White Rabbit
9 pm – Luke Polipnick w/ Max Stehr
no cover, 21+
Zoo Bar
(early show)
6 pm – Maria Muldaur
$15 adv, $20 dos, 21+
NOTE: NOT INCLUDED WITH ALL ACCESS PASS
(late show)
9 pm – Tie These Hands
10 pm – Ghost Foot
11 pm – Cupcake
12 am – Universe Contest
$6, 21+
Sunday, October 4
Tavern on the Square
12 pm – Brunch on the Square featuring Alison Hill Catering and Aaron Weaver with Amu Manu + White Rabbit
with music provided by Polar Bear, $pencelove and Dr. Zhivago
$10 per person includes a drink ticket and food, 21+
NOTE: NOT INCLUDED WITH ALL ACCESS PASS
Duffy’s Tavern
9 pm – Omni Arms
10 pm – Glo Worm
11 pm – State Disco
12 am – Powerful Science
$5, 21+
Zoo Bar
8 pm – Zoolarious featuring Ross Brockley, Brad Stewart, Audrey Farnham, Jordan Kleine, Grant Parsons, Drew Bohlke, Chris Hinkle, Corey Brewer and Ariel Sinha
$5, 18+
That’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
Lincoln Calling, the annual multi-day multi-venue fest held in the Star City, actually kicked off yesterday with a limited slate of shows. The real deal begins tonight with more than 100 bands playing in 10 Lincoln venues over the course of the week and into Sunday.
This is Year 12, if you can believe it. Whoda thunk it would still be around and would have gotten so big? It’s arguably the biggest music festival in Nebraska and continues to maintain its tradition of actually paying the bands that perform, which is not only amazing but magnanimous.
An all-access pass which gets you into all the venues all week is a mere $30. Day passes are available for the following prices: Wednesday: $10; Thursday: $10; Friday: $15; Saturday: $15. Or you can pay the cover for wherever you’re going.
Someone yesterday asked me if I could only drive to Lincoln for one day of the festival, which day would it be. The answer is Friday, which is stacked with performances by Oquoa, Twinsmith, Head of Femur, Domestica, McCarthy Trenching, See Through Dresses, Halfwit and Gordon. You’d be hard-pressed to find that many quality bands playing in one city on one night. The problem, of course, is that many of their sets overlap. Decisions, decisions…
Duffy’s Tavern
9 p.m. – Shark Week
10 p.m. – MC TEACH & Trev Taylor
11 p.m. – BOTH
12 p.m. – The Palmer Squares/The Rapper Chicks
1 a.m. – Psalm One
$7, 21+
Knickerbockers
9 p.m. – The Gov’t
10 p.m. – Clementine
11 p.m. – The Inner Party
12 a.m. – Bandit Sound
$6, 18+
Tower Square
6 p.m. – The Wildwoods
7 p.m. – CJ Mills
no cover, all ages
Zoo Bar –
(early show)
6 p.m. – Josh Hoyer and Soul Colossal
$6, 21+
(late show)
8:30 p.m. – The Bottle Tops
9:30 p.m. – Jack Hotel
10:30 p.m. – Joshua Powell and the Great Train Robbery
11:30 p.m. – The Mezcal Brothers
$6, 21+
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Meanwhile, back in Omaha, Wet Nurse is headlining a show tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s. The Orlando band who counts Taco Cat and The Vivians among its influences has a new album out on Recess Records. Opening is The Ridgways, The Morbs and Ebony Goddess Wanted. $7, 9 p.m.
Sorry for no updates the past two days. Reader deadlines. Look for a looong feature on Desaparecidos and a review of the new Mynabirds album in the September issue of The Reader. I’ll let you know when the stories are online.
* * *
Little Brazil blew a hole in the ozone layer above the O! Chamber Courtyard in the Old Market today during the last of this season’s Hear Omaha lunchtime concerts. I’m told their performance was the loudest of the series, and can attest that Mike Friedman’s ringing guitar licks could be heard as I walked out of the Union Pacific HQ building at 14th and Dodge, about a half-mile away. Good crowd, great music, great series. Hopefully it’ll be back for 2016.
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Some catch-up:
By now you’ve seen the new online partnership between Hear Nebraska and The Omaha Public Library called Download Nebraska, right? You haven’t? Well, here’s the link and the skinny: The website hosts full albums from Nebraska artists, curated by the Hear Nebraska staff. You can stream them from the website for free, or download the tracks if you have an OPL Library Card (and who doesn’t?).
Among the artists available on the website are Eli Mardock, Both, Digital Leather, Little Brazil, Matt Whipkey, Millions of Boys, Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship, Pleasure Adapter, Yuppies and on and on.
Hear Nebraska major domo Andrew Norman says more albums will become available on the site in the future, and that all bands with music at downloadnebraska.org got paid — a rarity in the streaming era.
Here’s an another “Did You Know?”: There’s been a website online for years and years called The Band Broke Up that also offers downloads of albums from Nebraska bands for free. We’re talking old-school Omaha and Lincoln acts like Rent Money Big, 13 Nightmares, Thunderstandable, Mister Baby, The Monroes, Opium Taylor, Fullblown, Marianas, The Bombardment Society, the list goes on and on. Check it out, too. These two sites should cross-link or (better yet) merge!
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The 12th Annual Lincoln Calling Festival has been announced for Sept. 29-Oct. 3 to be held at nine venues in Lincoln. The bands confirmed so far:
A Ferocious Jungle Cat
All Young Girls Are Machine Guns
American Pinup
Andy Butler
AZP
Bandit Sound
Better Friend
Bloodhound
BOTH
The Bottle Tops
Bud Heavy & the High Lifes
Buffalo Rodeo
Bummer
Clementine
Communist Daughter
Cupcake
Desir Decir
DJ Relic
Dylan Bloom Band
Ebony Tusks
Elsinore
Emily Bass
FREAKABOUT
Gerardo Meza Band
Ghost Foot
Gordon
The Government
Halfwit
Head of Femur
Homegrown Film Festival Volume 8
Hyborian
The Inner Party
Jack Hotel
Josh Hoyer and Soul Colossal
Joshua Powell and the Great Train Robbery
Lazerwolfe
Little Brazil
Matt Cox Band
McCarthy Trenching
The Mezcal Brothers
The Midland Band
Mike Semrad
Motion Trap
Oquoa
The Palmer Squares
Ponyboy
Powers
Psalm One
Pure Brown
Red Elvises
The Renfields
Rock Paper Dynamite
See Through Dresses
Shark Week
Thirst Things First
Tijuana Gigolos
Twinsmith
VAMOS
Universe Contest
What the Fuss
Zoolarious
Lincoln Calling organizer Jeremy Buckley said there’s even more band announcements to come. The full schedule should be finalized in a couple weeks.
Lincoln Calling has the distinction of being the largest Nebraska music festival involving the most bands, all of which are paid for participating, which makes it somewhat amazing.
* * *
Tonight at O’Leaver’s Philly band Beach Slang headlines. The band opened 40+ shows for Cursive last year. Opening tonight’s show is the always amazing See Through Dresses and Eric in Outerspace. $5, 9:30 p.m.
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