Criteria at The Waiting Room, March 9, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It was another great weekend of shows, starting with Friday night’s 5-year birthday party at The Waiting Room.

I arrived in time to catch one song by The Photo Atlas — their usual high-energy dance rock a la The Rapture left me wondering why these guys have yet to catch on nationally.  By the time Little Brazil came on stage The Waiting Room was crowded, though not a sell out. LB lit it up as per usual, using the opportunity to play some new material which fell in line with their older stuff but somehow felt more modern. Frontman Landon Hedges continues to galvanize his role as indie music’s Freddy Mercury with his soaring, high voice and overall stage bombasity. Before closing their set, Hedges suggested that Criteria’s Stephen Pedersen would have to come out for their last song, a fiery rendition of a Smashmouth tune — not the “Walking on the Sun” Smash Mouth, but Pedersen’s old old band. Sure enough, out came Steve to share vocals on the final chorus, and the crowd went nuts.

Moments later, he was back on stage fronting Criteria. Here’s a band that hibernates for months only to pop their collective head out once a year (or so) to thrill its fans and generate unfounded speculation that perhaps this time they’re back for good (though we all know better).

I’ll say what I’ve said every time this band reunites — they haven’t lost any of their chops. The band still shreds, and Pedersen can still hit those high notes with a mighty fist in the air. His rockstar moves and his movie-star good looks have always made him an indie version of Rick Springfield (“…paging Dr. Noah Drake…“), though these days he’s in Hard to Hold

territory.

The difference between this performance and all the other Criteria reunions was the crowd response — I’ve never seen their fans so animated and into the music. And we’re not talking about oldsters from “back in the day” — there were plenty of youngsters screaming back the lyrics who couldn’t have been around when Criteria was first hitting the stages of America a decade ago. How this happens — how a new generation discovers a band that rarely plays and hasn’t released an album in years (and obviously doesn’t get any airplay) — is indeed a mystery.

Icky Blossoms at The Slowdown, March 10, 2012.

Saturday night was the send-off concert for Icky Blossoms at The Slowdown. The show, originally slated for the Jr. room, was moved to Slowdown’s main stage due to the anticipated crowd size. It turned out being the right call.

Here’s my takeaways:

— The band seemed tighter than usual, maybe they were nervous?

— With the new songs, Derek Pressnall appears to be taking a back seat on vocals to Sarah Bohling, who still doesn’t seem completely comfortable in that lead role. It’s either that, or the sound mix was poor, because I couldn’t hear her on half her songs as she struggled to project above the booming rhythm section.

— Ah, that new rhythm section of Saber Blazek on bass and Clark Baechle on drums is bad-ass. Anyone who’s seen Machete Archive knows about Blazek’s chaotic ballet when he’s deep in a groove, and years of playing in The Faint (and in Bright Eyes) has made Baechle arguably the best drummer in Omaha. HUGE.

— If Sitek has had an influence on their sound, it may be in their new emphasis on deep beats. Icky always was a dance band, but now they’ve pumped up the volume to new levels, reminiscent of The Faint.

The more I see them, the more they remind me of The B-52s and Public Image Ltd (PiL), with Derek divided somewhere between Fred Schneider and John Lydon. Meanwhile, Bohling continues to fill the Nico role. Nik Fackler’s guitar textures continue to impress me, as does his knee drops. When he’s wigging out next to Blazek the whole room feeds off the energy.

In retrospect, I do think Bohling was simply tight at the beginning of the set, because she laid it on toward the end, especially on a new tune that she shared with Pressnall, whose name presumably is something like “Riding Around in My Car Forever.” And then there was the closer, the always huge “Perfect Vision,” which never fails to get the crowd bouncing. It’ll be interesting to see how well the tune translates to a South By Southwest audience this week. I’ll let you know.

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Little Brazil at The Sydney, Feb. 4, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The big news: Megan Morgan, Oliver’s wife, has joined Little Brazil. At first I wondered if that was a good idea. There’s the whole Yoko thing to think about. Do wives and girlfriends belong with the band on the road? But then I realized that Megan has kind of been a part of this band for years. She’s certainly rode all the ups and downs with the rest of the band. She knows what it’s like to tour having been a member of Landing on the Moon (Oliver’s “other band”) for years (though they haven’t toured nearly as much as LB). How the band will pull off a full-out fall or spring tour in support of a new album when Megan has a “real job” as a teacher I do not know. That’s a question that’ll have to wait until the obligatory interview that always takes place before the album release show.

And that won’t be too far off. LB played seven new songs, presumably tunes that will be on their next LP. It was before the second number that Megan was called to the stage as “the newest member of Little Brazil.” The addition of keyboards has done exactly what you’d expect them to do — forced LB to focus more on melodies, and as a result, the new material has more of a ballad lilt to it, it’s more tuneful, less punk, more anthem, and for a band that’s been around as long as they have, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Megan’s keyboards are not front-and-center, they’re a a colorful garnish that doesn’t get in the way of the band’s core sound, which continues to hinge on frontman Landon Hedges’ After School Special vocals, a combination of adolescent high-end and 20-something going on 30-something meloncholy. The music remains that familiar mix of Superchunk and late-’90s early 2000’s emo a la Weakerthans, Sorry About Dresden, Get-Up Kids, and my favorite comparison, Polyvinyl band Sunday’s Best (circa 2000’s Poised to Break

), who they’ve always most resembled (to me, anyway). It’s too early to say if this is the album that pushes them over the hump or merely pushes them along.

LB’s performance was part of the Hear Nebraska Launch Party at The Sydney Friday night, and the crowd pushed the bar to its capacity — at least from a service standpoint. Getting a beer wasn’t easy, and I almost gave up until LB started playing and a tiny space opened at the bar. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a show at the Sydney, and despite having a pool table right in the center of the floor, it could become a great place for live music if it wanted to be. After a few tweaks during the opening number, the room and PA sounded pretty good. But judging from their gig calendar, the folks at The Sydney (wisely) have decided to make shows a distant secondary attraction to garnering a regulars-style drinking club, and who can blame them?

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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.