Live Review: Mono in Stereo, Infielder at O’Leaver’s…
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
And so we have Mono in Stereo, a four-piece rock band that played to a crowd of around 30 friends and family (or so it seemed) at O’Leaver’s Friday night.
No doubt influenced by the power pop they grew up listening to, frontman/guitarist Charles McNeil threw out “pub rock” as one of his influences. I had to look it up in wiki to discover he means: “rock music that emerged in the early to mid-1970s in the UK, a back-to-basics movement which incorporated roots rock and was a reaction against the expensively recorded and produced progressive rock and flashy glam rock scenes at the time.”
There are a number of bands identified with the “movement” that I’ve never heard of, but musicians Joe Strummer, Ian Dury and Elvis Costello all cite pub rock as an influence.
From a modern-day American music perspective, I would be more apt to classify Mono in Stereo as very cleaned-up garage rock with power-pop influences, though when I think of “power pop” my addled mind immediately jumps to Titan! Records artists like Arliss or The Gems or Boys (which MiS don’t really resemble), and, of course, Big Star and any of its affiliated acts, to whom they kind of bear a slight resemblance.
In my iPhone Notes app, I jotted down “Competent dad-rock version of garage rock; manicured, except for the vocals, which have a well-worn, lived-in, Midwestern feel. Restrained.”
All are seasoned veterans from other bands, and it’s obvious they take band practices seriously, sounding as if they were reading sheet music. This ultra structured approach takes them out of the garage rock world and into something that more resembles straightforward studio-created post-punk. If there was a British influence, I didn’t catch it other than McNeil’s Union Jack guitar.
Top moments were songs “1970 Stereo” (which the crowd loved) and the band’s “attempt at a Fleetwood Mac song” that sounded nothing like Fleetwood Mac, but as McNeil shifted up his vocals, in a way resembled Neil Young. If they roughed it up a little, the song could fit right alongside something from Ragged Glory.
They let their hair down for their closer, a cover of Aussie band DM3’s “1 Times 2 Times Devastated,” which saw everyone in the band (and some of the crowd) joining in on the killer chorus. Good times.
Despite being around for years, Mono in Stereo have no formal recordings. McNeil has placed a few demos on his Soundcloud page. With songs in hand, they appear to be waiting for the right studio and right producer. So, heads-up, producer folks.
I thought about splitting after Mono in Stereo’s set, but hung around long enough to catch the first few songs by Infielder, a very young four-piece pop-rock band who started their set with a cover of Neon Trees’ “Everybody Talks.” I was about to leave when they said the next song was an original. It was much more interesting than the cover, in an emo-rock sort of way. They followed with another original, but I left after they said the next song would be another cover. I get that they’re probably just starting out and have to play covers to fill their set. It’ll be interesting to hear where they go when they have a full set of originals.
BTW, O’Leaver’s security-cam-style stage camera was turned off Friday night. What gives, O’Leaver’s?!
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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.
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