Lewsberg’s tour takes them to Lawrence, Kansas, in October.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A number of tour announcements are hitting the wire today, and the question isn’t whether these bands are coming to Omaha, but rather which city you’re willing to travel to.

For example, one of my favorite bands, Lewsberg (12XU Records), announced their U.S. Tour this morning. Should I go to Chicago or Lawrence, Kansas, to see them? I’m opting for Lawrence, where they’re playing a tiny 100-capacity school house Oct. 7 (they’re also playing Gonerfest!).

Then there’s Slowdive, who this morning announced their U.S. Tour. I’m not a huge Slowdive fan but I know a lot of people who are. Will those folks be headed to Denver, St. Paul or Chicago to see them? 

Early next month I’m headed to Minneapolis to see Blondshell at 7th St. Entry. And so on.

It’s not a bash on Omaha (though it kind of is), it’s just a reality we’re in as so many touring indie bands continue to route around our fair city. The addition of grand new music venues like Steelhouse Omaha and The Astro are of little to no help as their focus is booking acts that will sell between 2,500 and 3,000 tickets — which in this market means bands whose heydays were 20, 30 or 40 years ago. That’s where the money is. (More on The Astro in my column in The Reader next month). 

A band like Slowdive, which is playing two nights at Webster Hall in NYC (very likely sell outs), would be a nice fit for Omaha’s larger venues, but how would they draw here? It’s a risk for the promoter, no dobut. We also have plenty of smaller venues perfect for smaller indie tours like Lewsberg. But no one’s booking them, or the bands no longer have Omaha on their radar like they did a decade or so ago when we were in the center of the indie music world.

Traveling to shows is nothing new, but more than ever, it’s become a necessity if you’re an indie music fan. Not such a big deal if you’ve got the money and time to travel — heck, it’s even an escape. But if you’re in college without the means to get to shows, it can be a real bummer. At least they’ve got Maha to look forward to…

Anyway, since Lazy-i’s mission is to cover indie music, in addition to covering local and national tours coming through Omaha, I’ll announce noteworthy indie tours coming to nearby cities and info about the venues (when I have it).

For example: Slowdive tour’s nearest pass to Omaha:

Tue. Oct. 3 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre
Wed. Oct. 4 – St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre

Lewsberg’s nearest pass to Omaha:

10/7 – Lawrence KS, The White Schoolhouse

10/9 – Chicago, Sleeping Village w/ CB Radio Gorgeous

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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I couldn’t pull myself away from the new Slowdive video this morning long enough to watch Josh Hoyer’s losing performance on The Voice last night.

I see no reason to go on a lengthy diatribe about how much I dislike performance competition teevee shows like The Voice. If you’re reading this, you’re (probably) someone who already values art over performance, creativity over mimicry, genuine-ness over shtick. The Voice is what the huddled masses mistake for art; pretty faces and their pretty bleetings mired in the muck desperately reaching for fame.

Why did Hoyer bother going on The Voice? As he implied in his audition video, he had nothing else to lose. He’s tired of scraping for tips to support his family while he struggles to get his music career on a sustainable trajectory. A show like The Voice puts him in front of millions of people who otherwise never would have heard him. If even a fraction of a fraction of that audience decided to go to the internet and find out more about Josh, well then, it was worth the effort (right?).

I’ve heard various stories about what the producers of these kinds of talent shows make participants sign away prior to letting them go on stage (and even more the further they go). If those stories are true, then losing last night may have been the best thing to happen to Hoyer. His talent lies as a bandleader, a songwriter, a musician, and yes, as a vocalist, but it’s the combination that sets him apart.

Regardless, now is the time to fan the ember lit by last night’s national exposure, and maybe, just maybe, a flame will arise. So, congratulations on the effort, Josh, now back to work, which won’t be too hard considering he’s playing tonight in Kufstein, Austria, on a European tour that winds down in Brussels April 1 (a tour he presumably booked well before The Voice aired).

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Can you imagine how an undiscovered Bob Dylan or Chrissie Hynde or Neil Young or Conor Oberst would fare on The Voice?

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Speaking of quality television, last night NET public television broadcast a report about Hear Nebraska on “Nebraska Stories” (right after Antique Roadshow). Titled “Hear Nebraska’s Music Man” the 8-minute clip captures a day in the life of last year’s Good Living Tour along with our intrepid hero, Andy Norman (i.e., the Music Man) and Hear Nebraska co-founder Angie Norman while they hustle (along with a sizable crew) to make everything work in remote locales like Imperial and Lyons.

It’s a great piece. Check out the clip below.

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Maha is getting ready for the big reveal Thursday night. The media already has been informed (and told to embargo until the official announcement). It’s an impressive line-up and a bit of a change in direction from last year’s festival…

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Tonight Philly rock band Creepoid (Graveface Records), whose sound has been described as “somewhere between Blonde Redhead, Sonic Youth and Asobi Seksu,” headlines at fabulous O’Leaver’s. Psych-rock band Ecstatic Vision (Relapse Records) opens along with our very own David Nance. $7, 9 p.m.

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Here’s that Slowdive video I mentioned… enjoy.

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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 © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.