by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Regular Lazy-i readers may have noticed that show listings posted on the site for The Sydney typically end with the language “start time, xx p.m., Sydney Time.” I began doing this because whenever I went to shows at The Sydney scheduled to start at, say, 9, they ended up starting at around 10:30, leaving me with 90 minutes to nurse my Rolling Rock and dead-scroll my iPhone. 

Late start times were a normal thing in the pre-COVID days. Most rock shows didn’t start until well after 10 p.m. (and usually closer to 11) in an effort to draw the largest crowd (or sell more drinks). Then came COVID and shows went away. Upon their return a year or so later, venues began to run with strict military precision; specifically The Slowdown, Reverb and The Waiting Room. What used to be three-band bills that began at 10:30 and wrapped up at 1 a.m. have become two-band bills that begin at 8 p.m. and rarely run past 10. It’s a strange but welcome change, especially for old-timers who like to get to bed early. 

The exception, of course, is The Sydney, who has kept operating like the pre-COVID days with late nights and multiple bands. And irregular start times. 

The reason for this enormous preamble: I showed up at The Sydney at 10:30 this past Saturday night (after having drinks with an old pal of mine) to see In Tongues, Housewares and Minne Lussa, figuring at worse I’d miss part of whoever played the opening slot. I paid my $10 and rushed inside only to hear Housewares’ frontman say (paraphrasing): “Good night! Thanks to In Tongues for opening. Minne Lussa is next.” 

For whatever reason, this night The Sydney decided to start the music right at 9 p.m., as advertised, typical “Sydney Time” hi-jinx. 

The good news is I was able to catch an entire set by Minne Lussa, who I’ve seen perform many times over the years, but this night they never sounded better. Dressed in their finest Grand Ol’ Opry outfits I guess for irony’s sake (since they don’t play an ounce of either Country or Western music), the band shimmered both literally and figuratively beneath their Spencers Gifts-quality mood lighting. 

At the heart of their music is the intricate guitar interplay between Matt Rutledge and Eric Bemberger, with Bemberger providing the more fluid, gossamer licks. This will seem uncharacteristic to anyone who only knows Bemberger from his former band, Beep Beep, whose specialty was blaring, angular post-punk. Here, Bemberger weaves his glowing, gorgeous guitar lines with Rutledge’s complimentary counters or rhythms, creating a dense, ethereal soundscape, driven forward at mid-tempo by the ace rhythm section of drummer Eric Ebers and bassist Alan Legge. 

Their songs could hold up as instrumentals, but Rutledge adds warm, grotto vocals throughout, that unfortunately were undecipherable due to the poor vocal mix/PA. Bemberger provided contrasting lead vocals on one very cool song. 

I guess you could call their sound dream-pop or ornate shoe-gaze, comparable to, say more laid-back My Bloody Valentine or (more appropriately) Slowdive. One fan standing next to me said they reminded him of ‘90s Portland instrumental band Pell Mell, which got us talking about Sokol Underground acts like Tresteza and The Mercury Program, though for my money, Minne Lussa is more innovative and interesting.

They closed out their set with a glowing cover of “Alison” by Slowdive, met with a nice round of applause by the 40 or so on hand.  Rutledge said the band enters the recording studio Dec. 7 with producer/engineer Jeremy Garrett. More to come…

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Before we get to this weekend’s rock shows, a reminder that it’s the first Friday of July which means Benson First Friday (#BFF). Galleries and other businesses up and down Maple Street will be celebrating art openings tonight. Among them, our very own Ming Toy Gallery, which this month features the amazing art of Jenna Jaffery. Read my feature profile on Jenna and stop by the gallery (located at 6066 Maple Street, right door to Legend Comics and Coffee) between 6 and 9 p.m. to check out her art, have a drink and say hi. See you there.

After you swing by Ming Toy, head on over to Reverb Lounge for the GRRRL Camp showcase headlined by LinOmaha noise-rock band Size Queen. KC self-described “queer dark-pop band” Boxknife is also on the bill. Lincoln’s Ghostlike opens the festivities at 8:30 p.m. $10. BTW, GRRRL Camp is right around the corner – July 19-20 at Falconwood Park. More info here.

Saturday night it’s back to Reverb Lounge for another three-band bill this time with local, laid-back indie from Bazile Mills, Minne Lussa and Fox (Jessica Errett, Marta Fiedler and Co.). $15, 7:30 p.m. 

Also Saturday night, fabulous O’Leaver’s continues its free concert series with Radical Sabbatical and Aircraft Grade. 9 p.m. and, uh, FREE.

And then along comes Sunday and two competing shows in Benson.

On top of the list is the last hurrah concert by Los Angeles first wave band, X. This concert features the original line-up — Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom and DJ Bonebrake — in what we’re being told will be their last tour ever. Opening is Jesse Ahern (Dummy Luck Music/PIAS). This is it, folks, last stop on the X train. I’m a little surprised it isn’t sold out yet. $40. 8 p.m. 

Meanwhile, around the corner at Reverb Lounge, Seattle shoegaze band TV Star headlines. These guys sound like they grew up listening to Teenage Fanclub for sure. This ticket line-up, again, is loaded with local noise-punk bands Heavy Clippings and Cupholder. $10, 8 p.m. Choose wisely.

And that’s all I got. I’m praying to the rock gods that we don’t get any hailstone/flooding weather this weekend so I can go to these shows! If I missed yours, 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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

We’re in the heart of winter, and that means no touring indie shows for the foreseeable future. Oh well, let’s take what we can get.

Tonight at The Down Under Lounge, for instance, sees the return of indie twang rockers The Broke Loose. As I was digging around the internet to see if the band released anything new, I fell upon their anthem for Omaha soccer franchise Union Omaha, which really isn’t indicative of their sound, but I had to share it anyway. The band takes The DU stage at 9:30. No price listed.

Then tomorrow night there’s a trifecta of bands playing at fabulous O’Leaver’s, headlined by Lincoln band Perfect Form, who we last saw at O’Leaver’s back in 2020 (in fact, I think they were the last band I saw before the Covid lock-down!). Perfect Form includes members of Pharmacy Spirits fronted by Jim Reilly. Their sound is reminiscent of so-called “First Wave” acts like Joy Division, Gang of Four and Wire. Joining them is Omaha band Minne Lussa and Lincoln act Dirty Talker — a trio featuring Brendan McGinn, Adam 2000 and Justin Kohlmetscher. 9 p.m., $7.

Also Saturday night, Bennie Does Bowie returns to The Waiting Room. $10, 9 p.m. 

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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

That Phoebe Bridgers show sounded pretty good… from my back yard a mile away. There are surprisingly few photos from last night’s show in social media, but what I saw looked fun. When is she going to stop forcing her band to wear those creepy skeleton costumes?

I’m out of town this weekend, so here’s a sneak peek at the best indie shows I see on the calendar while I’m away.

Tonight Los Angeles indie band Lo Moon plays at Reverb Lounge. These folks weren’t always indie — their debut album was released on Columbia Records, but their latest, A Modern Life (2022) was released on Thirty Tigers. I’d definitely classify this four-piece as a dream-pop act, their sound has that glitter, warm, mid-tempo underwater vibe. Duluth alt rockers Social Animals opens at 8 p.m. $15.

Tomorrow night (Friday) it’s Benson First Friday — you know what that means — art all along the Benson booze walk (info here). Of course The Sydney always celebrates BFF and this month is no exception. The three-band bill is headlined by Lightning Stills, with Ojai opening and the exceptional Minne Lussa in the center slot. 9 p.m., $10.

Back at The Sydney Saturday night, it’s the hard stuff with metal bands Stronghold, Living Conditions and Wretchgod. bring yer earplugs. $8, 9 p.m.

If you’re wondering what the barricades are for in Benson on Saturday, it’s time for the annual Benson Beer Fest. Looks like it’s only booze and no bands. Drink up!

BTW, The Band Camino show slated for The Admiral Saturday night has been moved to Bourbon Theatre in Lincoln. And the wait for the grand opening of The Admiral continues…

Sunday night, Reverb has rockers The Dylan Doyle Band. Opening is pop punk act Blondo, fronted by Alex Malnack. $10, 8 p.m.

Meanwhile, down the street at The Sydney, it’s a mixed bag of post- bands headlined by Lawrence slowcore act Flooding. Joining them are local heroes No Thanks and Cat Piss (who is just coming off a tour). The Sydney has provided no details on this show — neither price nor start time. I guess just show up and keep your fingers crossed!

If you’re looking for info on that Little Brazil album release show that was slated for June 4, it’s been moved to August 26.

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 © 2022 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

You know that feeling when you’re sitting at your desk at your office (or wherever you work) after returning from a long vacation, when you’re staring at your computer screen and you think to yourself “It’s like I’ve never been gone.”?

That’s sort of how I felt like this past weekend at rock shows. COVID-19 body slammed us beginning in the late-spring / early summer of 2020. Within a few weeks of St. Patrick’s Day, venues had cancelled all their shows, and just a few weeks after that, the venues themselves were shuttered, as were we all, literally.

Looking back on that time it’s still hard to believe what the country went through; what we went through. Glance at this story I wrote during the beginning of the lock down about being locked down, or just scroll back through time in this blog and you can quickly relive the peril. In a lot of ways, we lost a couple years’ worth of the things we took for granted.

And now we’re back. Again. But this time it’s different. This time it feels like it’s for good.

None of this was going through my head this past weekend at Reverb and Slowdown Jr., however. Instead, I looked around at the mask-less crowd and thought to myself, “It’s like we’ve never been gone; it’s like COVID never happened.” Well, that’s not 100% true. The Slowdown was still checking vaccination cards at the door, and there were hand-sanitizer dispensers at the door of the club. And a couple people still wore masks, bless them.

Now we all wait, holding our breath, that another variant doesn’t emerge from the COVID abyss. And now with a war in Europe, we’ve got something else to worry about.

The war wasn’t mentioned on stage this weekend. Lala Lala played to (by my guestimate) about 75 people in the Slowdown small room. It was a very young, hip crowd vs. whoever was over at CHI Center that night for Tool. Backed by an incredibly talented rhythm section and a multi-instrumentalist whose gauntlet included an alto saxophone, front woman Lillie West played about an hour of oldies and newies.

This was the first stop of her tour, and she admitted to having a case of nerves. You wouldn’t have known it from her performance. Her vocals modulated from breathy-whisper-mumble to clear-voiced-spectacular. But from my limited knowledge of her catalog, she played mainly songs from her latest album, but there were some old ones thrown in and one song she said they’d never played before in front of a live audience.

West’s voice is many-layered, and can switch in tone from song to song. On top of that, she adds electronic effects to change it up even more, including layers of electronic harmonies that were gorgeous.

I caught the last few songs from opening act Elton Aura. Figured I should take a photo because this guy is so good he’s destined to become a star, and then I can point to this photo and say I was there when he opened for Lala Lala right after the pandemic. Elton said this was his first show ever. Impressive, Mr. Aura.

Friday night I caught Indian Cave and Minna Lussa at Reverb. Seemed like the majority of the crowd was there for the opener. Indian Cave is a new band and it showed. The style was very much in the emo spectrum, with the frontman’s voice reminding me of Geoff Rickly from Thursday. There were even some Cursive-esque guitar breaks thrown into the usual four-chord compositions to give it a mathy/angular edge. It’ll be interesting to watch this band grow.

Minne Lussa continues to impress with their dense, dreamy sound. I’ve said before they remind me of early Galaxy 500 or Luna and I stand by that, but the addition of warm, glowing instrumentals adds an Album Leaf flair. Frontman Matt Rutledge uses an effect on his vocals to give it a tinty, far-away sound on songs that are otherworldly to begin with. The fact that he’s singing a few of them in French is of no consequence when the vocal mix makes it hard to understand the words. No matter. It’s the vibe that matters on music that’s played in the darkest of dark-blue/purple lighting, as if the whole thing is taking place underwater.

It was great to be back at rock shows, without a mask. As if we’d never been away.

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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 © 2022 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Here comes the weekend.

Tonight it’s all happening in Benson. First on the list is Minne Lussa at Reverb Lounge. Fronted by Matt Rutledge, with guitarist Pat Reefe (ex-Tomato a Day), guitarist/vocalist Eric Bemberger (ex-Beep Beep), bassist Alan Legge and drummer Eric Ebers (ex-Ritual Device), the band has a smokey shoe-gaze quality reminiscent of Galaxy 500 or Luna. Just gorgeous stuff. Opening is local four-piece Indian Caves (Dan Krueger, Joe Ranne, Kyle Moeller and Leslie Wells). $7, 8 p.m.

Meanwhile down the street tonight at The Sydney Darren Keen’s latest project, Problems, headlines a bill that includes Benny Leather and Gore-TXT. $7, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night is the big Lala Lala show at Slowdown Jr. which I wrote about here yesterday. Joining Lala Lala is Chicago R&B/hip-hop artist Elton Aura. $20, 8 p.m. This one is No Vax No Entry, so bring your stuff to get in.

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 © 2022 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Well, 2019 is going out like a lion.

There’s a solid triple-bill tonight at Reverb Lounge headlined by Minne Lussa (Matt Rutledge and Co.), Lincoln legends Domestica (ex-Mercy Rule, maybe it’s time I quit referencing that classic ’90s act?) and Silversphere (ex-Lepers) who opens the show at 9 p.m. $8.

Also tonight, The Brothers is hosting a three-band bill with Staffers (Anna McClellan, Noah Kohll, Ryan McKeever, Ameen Wahba), Razors and Sean Pratt & the Sweats. $5, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, down at The Slowdown it’s Satchel Grande with Omaha Beat Brigade. $10, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) is crowded.

Every holiday season there’s always one gig where a classic local band reunites. This year it’s Criteria at The Waiting Room. The band, with a new album about to drop on 15 Passenger Records, is warming up for a tour with Cursive next month. Huge. Opening is Little Brazil and Lodgings (whose 2019 album, Water Works, made my list of 10 favorite albums of the year). $8, 9 p.m.

Also Saturday night, Spanish-language punk band Las Cruxes is playing O’Leaver’s with a new line-up seeing as Landon Hedges and Nate Van Fleet no longer are with the band. Mere Shadows and Towering Rogue open at 10 p.m.

Over at The Barley Street Saturday night it’s the debut of Fox, a new project by Jessica Errett Renner and Marta Fiedler (ex-Blue Bird). Fox opens for Sadie Sanner and Dave Tamkin at 9 p.m. $5.

Sunday night over at Reverb Lounge, it’s one of those holiday shows where folks are in town and just want to jam, which is exactly what J&M Mowing is. The cover band consists of Mike Jaworski (SAVAK, The Cops), Kelly Maxwell and Mike Loftus (both of Sons of…, Shovelhead, 60-Watt Saloon and Hong Jyn Corp.) and Dave Mainelli of Bazile Mills, who is headlining the show. WARNING: This is a 5 p.m. show because these guys are super-old. $8.

Also Sunday night it’s the return of Saddle Creek Records act Twinsmith to Slowdown Jr. The band plays with opener Salt Creek and headliner The Real Zebos. $7, 8 p.m.

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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This is more of a picture report than a review. I’ve talked about both of these bands recently, and their sets were as good as ever. The event was the 5-year anniversary of Farnam House brewery this past Saturday, and was held in the restaurant’s back parking lot. The bands played in front of — and off — a loading dock right outside where the brewery casks are located, which provided for one of the more picturesque live music settings in recent years. The late afternoon sun didn’t hurt, either. Who needs stage lighting when you’re in the “Golden Hour”?

Farnam House set up tents and tables and served their fantastic beer along with brats and pretzels. The vibe was extremely chill; that is until the Wagon Blasters ripped into their set with their usual bombastic vigor. Gary Dean Davis was in rare form. during and between numbers. The band hinted at a possible new 7-inch in the future, or maybe more from the Speed! Nebraska label. Keep your fingers crossed.

Minne Lussa, the new project with Matt Rutledge at the helm, continued to amaze with its shoe-gazey sound reminiscent of Galaxy 500/Luna. Considering the small PA, the audio was surprisingly balanced and haunting, especially in the fading light of day.

Here’s hoping Farnam House continues to host live music in its back lot as they enter into their next half-decade of business.

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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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.