Destroyer at The Waiting Room, Feb. 3, 2018. The band returns to The Waiting Room Sunday night.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The million dollar question: Will rock shows currently scheduled still happen this weekend? That’s what everyone’s wondering. Top of mind is the Destroyer/Nap Eyes show at The Waiting Room. There’s no indication the show is (or will be) cancelled, so one assumes it’s all systems go. (Wrong: Destroyer just CANCELLED).

The next question: Will anyone be at the Destroyer/Nap Eyes show? Omaha is a notorious walk-up city — as in a lot of people buy their tickets day of show (because with fees, there’s no advantage to buying advanced tickets unless you think the show will sell out in advance). I know people who have tickets and are on the fence about going, so afraid are they of COVID-19.

I had another person who works at a different club ask if I thought his venue should cancel shows for public health reasons. I said I thought the problem would solve itself — if no one goes to shows because of fear, it’s only a matter of time before venues temporarily shut their doors just to save operating expenses. And there’s the issue of bands cancelling their tours…

Anyway, as of now, the shows I’m listing below for this weekend are still on. Will they be an hour after you read this? Who’s to say?

The folks behind the Midtown Art Supply two-day closing festival have said their shows will go on tonight and tomorrow, and I have no doubt they will. Ten acts are scheduled to perform starting at 6 p.m. tonight at the venue, located at 2576 Harney St., including Effluvium, Las Cruxes and Histrionic. Sixteen bands are slated to perform tomorrow starting at 3 p.m., including Conny Franko and Digital Leather.

Tickets are $7 per day or $10 for a 2-day wristband. For more information, check out the invite at Facebook.

Tonight The Slowdown has its big sold-out Thundercat (of Flying Lotus fame) concert. Joining them are Guapdad 4000. 8 p.m.

Meanwhile, back in Benson tonight, punk trio Radkey is headlining at Reverb Lounge. Joining them are The Many Colored Death and Gallivant. $12, 9 p.m.

Nothing is holding back the fine folks at The Brothers Lounge, which currently has shows booked tonight and tomorrow night. Tonight’s show features Matt Whipkey’s poli-punk project Unexplained Death, who opens the show at 10:30. Laughing Falcon also is on the bill. $5.

Then tomorrow night (Saturday) Silversphere headlines at The Brothers. Our old friend Darren Keen (of The Show is the Rainbow fame) also is on the bill along with a tba. 9 p.m., and no price listed (but probably $5).

Finally, Sunday night is the aforementioned Destroyer show at The Waiting Room. Nap Eyes, who you read about yesterday, opens the show at 8 p.m. $22. THIS IS CANCELLED!

Now as I said, cancellations can happen in a moment’s notice. The only way to know for sure if the gig is still happening is to call the venue or check their website. If I hear of a cancellation, I will update this page with strikeout text over the listing and the word CANCELLED, so check back if you wanna.

Will I be at any of these shows?

Have a great weekend and WASH YOUR HANDS!

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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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Nap Eyes plays at The Waiting Room Sunday, March 15.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Halifax, Nova Scotia, four-piece Nap Eyes, fronted by singer/songwriter Nigel Chapman, has been playing its brand of laid-back indie since 2011. Their PR folks compare them to Silver Jews and Daniel Johnston, “but the new sheen and maturity also now brings to mind the wide-angle appeal of The Jayhawks and the addictive brightness of Green Day’s Kerplunk!”

The Jayhawks I can see, Green Day not so much (and that’s a good thing). While their earlier releases were looser and more free-form (think Pavement meets Wilco), their latest, Snapshot of a Beginner, is a more-tightly produced collection of indie rockers. The band went to The National’s upstate New York Long Pond Studio and worked with producers Jonathan Low (Big Red Machine, The National) and James Elkington (Steve Gunn, Joan Shelley). The end result sports some of that National grandiosity, with a touch of new frontier drama brought back down to earth by Chapman’s nasal croon.

I caught up with the band and gave them the ol’ Ten Questions treatment. Here’s what they had to say:

1. What is your favorite album?

Nap Eyes: Curtis Mayfield – Curtis

2. What is your least favorite song?

“A Man Needs A Maid”

3. What do you enjoy most about being in a band?

Eating at restaurants.

4. What do you hate about being in a band?

Eating at bad restaurants.

5. What is your favorite substance (legal or illegal)?

Legal: silk. Illegal: lsd.

6. In what city or town do you love to perform?

Boise, ID

7. What city or town did you have your worst gig (and why)?

Nanaimo, BC, because a guy grabbed the mic and started rapping (though perhaps this was also the best gig simultaneously because of this fact?)

8. Are you able to support yourself through your music? If so, how long did it take to get there; if not, how do you pay your bills?

None of us have other jobs right now which is probably extremely short sighted. We just eat beans and rice and live monkish lifestyles.

9. What one profession other than music would you like to attempt; what one profession would you absolutely hate to do?

Love to attempt: Ben and Jerry’s quality control. Hate to do: bathroom attendant at an all you can eat buffet.

10. What are the stories you’ve heard about Omaha, Nebraska?

Heard the water tastes like wine.

Nap Eyes plays with Destroyer Sunday, March 15, at The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple St. Showtime is 8 p.m., tickets are $22. For more information, go to onepercentproductions.com.

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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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Cloud Nothings at The Waiting Room, Nov. 13, 2018.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Solid crowd for a Tuesday night at The Waiting Room last night.

Cloud Nothings won me over with a set that intensely focused on their new album, Last Building Burning. While the album is white-hot fractured punk rock bordering on emo, there’s not a lot of melody in the songwriting to tie yourself to. It’s more about bright buzzsaw riffs and frontman Dylan Baldi screaming/croaking out the vocals that sounded like a cross between Cobain and the old punk version of Rzeznik.

No, what mesmerized me about their performance was their drummer, Jayson Gerycz. With merely a snare, tom, kick drum and a couple cymbals Gerycz blew me away with what was nothing less than a virtuoso performance, a rapid-fire machine-gun that dominated every song. I could not stop watching every clever, intricate, amazing roll, fill and crash, song after song. Blazing, exhausting; like watching the film Whiplash atop a mountain of coke.

The set’s high point was a lengthy feedback interlude during epic song “Dissolution”; all guitarists had their backs to the audience, their guitars jammed into amps, bending the necks, torturing the frets, while Gerycz slowly walked a beat back in, pulling it forward then giving a clinic as to what a human can do with a drum set as the band crashed back in like a 50-foot wave. Mind blown.

David Nance Group at The Waiting Room, Nov. 13, 2018.

Almost as mind blowing was opener David Nance Group. I’ve seen Nance at least a half dozen times and this was another memorable set highlighted by a cover of Richard & Linda Thompson’s “Down Where the Drunkards Roll” completely Nance-ified by his and sideman Jim Schroeder’s feedback-fueled guitar work. The rest of the set focused on the best off the band’s latest album, Peaced and Slightly Pulverized, with raging versions of “In Her Kingdom,” “When I Saw You Last Night,” “Amethyst” and “Poison.”

In a change from the usual set style, Nance and his band seamlessly transitioned from one song to the next by Nance pulling off one feedback wave and blending in a riff that crossed over into whatever was next. Transcendent.

Someone recently asked me what Omaha bands are most likely to break into the next level of national notoriety. David Nance Group was my first response, followed by Thick Paint. Interestingly, bassist Sarah Bohling has now played in both projects.

Nap Eyes at The Waiting Room, Nov. 13, 2018.

Between bands Nova Scotia act Nap Eyes played a set that reminded me of a cross between Kurt Vile, The Feelies and Velvet Underground, with frontman Nigel Chapman giving us his best Lou Reed vocals. I halfway expected to hear a cover of “Sunday Morning,” one of VU’s sleepier numbers that would have fit right in with the rest of their set.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Well Aimed Arrows at O’Leaver’s Nov. 10, 2018.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Catching up on this past weekend…

Saturday night I swung by O’Leaver’s to see the return of Well Aimed Arrows. The band hasn’t played on stage in a couple years, and life being what it is, experienced a line-up change — to a trio, consisting of frontman/drummer Koly Walters, guitarist Clayton Petersen and bassist Brian Byrd.

The new stripped down version didn’t sound a whole heckuva lot different than the old version, with Walters’ flat basso vox providing the perfect counter to the band’s simple, jangular post-rock arrangements. I’ve said before they remind me of ’80s-era indie bands like Pylon, Wire and early R.E.M., if not in sound than in spirit.

Rumor has it they’re working on their next record, we’ll (likely) be seeing more of these guys in the near future. If you get a chance, do yourself a favor…

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Tonight’s Cloud Nothings show at The Waiting Room is as stacked a line-up as you’re going to find on a Tuesday night.

You read about Cloud Nothings yesterday here. Based on this Daily Trojan review, expect tonight’s performance to be heavy and loud, focused on songs off the new album augmented by a few oldies.

You might remember that opening band Nap Eyes played with Fleet Foxes last year at an outdoor Benson show. Their latest, I’m Bad Now (2018, Jagjaguwar), reminded me of The Feelies, thanks in part to lead vocalist Nigel Chapman’s drab, nasal delivery that matches Feelies’ Glenn Mercer; though energy-wise Nap Eyes is much more laid-back.

Opening the show at 8 p.m. is our very own David Nance Group who is smack dab in the middle of a tour. You’ll want to get to The Waiting Room early to catch these guys. This show has a “nice price” of just $15. See you there.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Digital Leather at The Sydney, April 6, 2018.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

For Friday night’s show at The Sydney, Digital Leather was configured as a trio with Shawn Foree in front playing synth and bass, Greg Elsasser on synths and long-time DL drummer Jeff Lambelet. If the plan was to get the crowd dancing, it was a winning combination, maybe the most danceable version of DL I’ve seen live.

Lambelet, one my favorite drummers, is a massive upgrade to the synth beats heard on Headache Heaven, DL’s latest, which sounds like a collection of bedroom-recorded demoes. With Lambelet, and Foree adding bass, along with Elsasser, the songs were fully-realized New Wave-esque dance tracks. Their set was helped along with a dense layer of smoke-machine haze cut through by lazer lights — I haven’t seen this much smoke and lazers since that last Talking Mountain concert.

It’s also worth noting that Friday night’s crowd was one of the largest I’ve seen at The Sydney for a rock show. The audience built up throughout the evening, starting with a gorgeous set by Son, Ambulance.

Son, Ambulance at The Sydney, April 6, 2018.

I’ve always thought Joe Knapp had an interesting voice, a sort of indie version of Elvis Costello, but as he gets older his voice only gets better and more in control. Good thing, too, because he’s fronting one of the best line-ups I’ve heard from Son, Ambulance over the years, including a sweet three-piece horn section and a rock-solid rhythm section swinging on a set of new material that’s begging to be recorded.

Her Flyaway Manner at The Sydney, April 6, 2018.

Lincoln’s Her Flyaway Manner owned the center slot Friday night. The trio headed by vocalist/guitarist Brendan McGinn crushed a set of angular post-punk rock that reminded me of Fugazi and an earlier age of Nebraska punk rock. All said, a terrific night of music brought together by between-set sets from DJ Tyrone Storm that had me tapping my Shazam app.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been in The Sydney, and was surprised to discover they’ve taken out all the back booths, effectively clearing out that music room giving it more space for rock shows and dance nights. Even the high-top tables were gone on Friday…

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Q1 2018 CD reviews continue. Read them all here at The Reader website.

Nap Eyes, I’m Bad Now (2018, Jagjaguwar)

Nap Eyes, I’m Bad Now (Jagjaguwar) — This warm, melodic indie rock comes from an act out of Nova Scotia who played in Omaha last year opening for Fleet Foxes (a show I missed). They remind me of The Feelies, especially because lead vocalist Nigel Chapman’s drab, nasal delivery matches Feelies’ Glenn Mercer, though Nap Eyes lacks Feelies’ driving, relentless rhythms that rise and rise and explode. This just sort of lays there from song to song.

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Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s The Bronx. The band is out supporting their new one, V, out last year on ATO. The record was produced by Rob Schnapf (Beck, FIDLAR, Elliott Smith) and has a very pro sheen to it. Still rocks hard. No Parents and No Thanks open. 8 p.m. $17.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.