by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s another ho-hum Husker weekend, but there’s one touring indie show tonight…

Tonight at The Admiral Explosions in the Sky headlines. There was a time in the 2000s when ambient indie all-instrumental bands were the thing. Who remembers Tristeza, who folded in 2010, and The Album Leaf, who are still going strong? Explosions in the Sky were part of that movement, releasing How Strange, Innocence in 2000 and really peaking in 2003 with The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place that included their most popular track, “Your Hand in Mine,” which has more than 66 million plays on Spotify.  The band got lucky and broke through to a large audience after writing the soundtrack to 2004 film Friday Night Lights. 

Like The Album Leaf, Explosions in the Sky never really went away. and can count themselves among other top touring instrumental-only indie acts like Sigur Ros, Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Caspian. The song formula for these acts is all very similar – each song starts out quiet as a whisper and slowly builds for seven or eight minutes into a crashing, orgasmic conclusion. Expect to hear this formula on repeat tonight.

Explosions is touring their latest album, End, released just last week on Temporary Residence Records.  Opening is Glow, who is virtually invisible on the internet. Tickets are $40 ($50.15 with fees). 8 p.m. 

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According to their website, The Astro Theater amphitheater in La Vista opens (with little fanfare) tonight with C&W artist Casey Donahew and then tomorrow is hosting The Goo Goo Dolls and Fitz and the Tantrums. The facility was supposed to opened weeks ago, but was delayed, presumably due to construction issues. Some shows were moved to other venues. I see no indication that shows tonight and tomorrow are being moved, so I guess this is it. Congratulations!

These are reserved seated shows, so, for example, for that Goo Goo Dolls show tomorrow, if you wanted to sit up front, tickets wouild run you a cool $145 plus fees. Whereas a ticket in the back section is $44 plus fees, according to the Ticketmaster website that’s handling tix sales. Fitz opens at 7:30.

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Finally, Saturday night at The Sydney in Benson industrial-ambient act Lunacy headlines. They describe themselves as “a dystopian shadow figure located in Rural Pennsylvania, which is a character set in the empty corroded future that focuses on themes of loneliness, emptiness and mental illness. A character that often fits the description of late ‘80s and early ’90s post-apocalyptic films.” Fun! Llora opens at 9 p.,m. $10. 

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

The long wait is over this Saturday as The Admiral — f.k.a. Sokol Auditorium — finally opens its doors, and for Bright Eyes no less. This, after months of “construction delays” have forced at least a dozen shows to be rescheduled or moved to other venues. I have to believe the 1% guys (and the Mammoth folks and other investors) are relieved to finally be open for business.

So, strange story about Saturday night’s Bright Eyes show — earlier this week I announced that it was sold out, because it was marked “sold out” on the 1% website and on the etix site. Then suddenly a day or so ago, it’s no longer sold out. No idea what the deal was.

I also noticed that both Saturday and Sunday nights are “Masks required unless eating or drinking” shows, as well as No Vax No Entry. Maybe it was on there before and I didn’t notice it. So if you’re going this weekend, be vaxed or get tested and be able to prove it, and bring your mask (though for the life of me, I have no idea how they’ll enforce the mask mandate — just wear one anyway). Tickets are $45 or $75 for “Premiere Balcony” seats. I’m told the balcony is completely renovated, and the original plans were to have a separate bar in the balcony. Hurray for the Riff Raff kicks things off at 8 p.m.

OK, so what about tonight (Friday)?

Digital Leather is playing tonight at The Sydney as part of Drag Night at The Sydney. There’s two listings for this show — one says it’s an amateur drag night (Hit ‘em w/yr catwalk), and the other is DL’s listing (+ drag night), which says they go on at 11. $5. Grab your wig and heels and come on down.

Also tonight, the Slowdown is back at it after harvesting (millions?) of CWS dollars the past couple weekends. Well, the tents are gone and the bands are back. Tonight it’s LA alt-rock band Liily with Catcher and our very own Infinite Video. $18, 8 p.m.

Over at The Berkley, 1901 Leavenworth St., new local four-piece Indian Caves (Dan Krueger, Joe Ranne, Kyle Moeller and Leslie Wells) headlines tonight with Saltwater Sanctuary and ol’ favorites Midwest Dilemma (acoustic). $5. 8 p.m.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) there’s a sort of “secret show” at fabulous O’Leaver’s. The listing says Secret Serenade w/Cookie Mug. No idea who these bands really are, but the show is free so the only thing you’re risking is your time. Plus, it’s nearly impossible to have anything but a good time at O’Leaver’s. Show starts at 9 p.m.

Finally, Pageturners Lounge is hosing a folk-poet quartet called The Snarlin Yarns Saturday night. Opening is one of Omaha’s best kept music secrets, Mike Schlesinger. This is a free show and it starts at 8 p.m.

And that’s all I got for this long July 4 weekend. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a bang-up time.

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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

Where did the week go? Sorry about the lack of updates, but I was supposed to be on vacation over my birthday (thanks for the birthday wishes via Facebook), but Delta Airlines had other plans and I never made it out of Omaha. And since last weekend, things have been pretty quiet show-wise.

News-wise, the June 23 Neko Case show slated for The Admiral has been moved to The Waiting Room, again because of “construction delays.” Ticket sales must have been slow, as TWR only has about 1/3 the capacity of the Admiral. Should make for an intimate gig (incidentally, Case is requiring patrons wear masks in the club).

Still no official word on when The Admiral will have its grand opening. The June 13 Tech N9n3 show at The Admiral has been rescheduled, while the June 15 Chvrches Admiral show has been moved to The Bourbon in Lincoln. The next shows slated for Admiral — the July 2 and 3 Bright Eyes concerts.

Today, via The Admiral Facebook page: “We are getting so close! The water main break is all cleaned up, the paint is drying, shipments are arriving, barware, sound, & lighting are getting unboxed, inspections are happening…. and we have loads of dusting to do! It’s almost time!!!” Fingers crossed.

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Which brings us to the weekend, much of it to be spent at The Sydney in Benson.

Tonight at The Syd it’s a triple post-punk bill headlined by double-bass madmen Violenteer, with Mere Shadows and Hussies. For whatever reason, The Sydney doesn’t list ticket prices, so I can’t tell you what it’ll cost at the door (but it’s probably around $10). I can tell you it starts at 9 p.m.

Saturday night, indie punk Jeff Rosenstock (Arrogant Sons of Bitches, Bomb the Music Industry!) headlines at The Slowdown. His latest, Ska Dream, was released last year on Polyvinyl, though he’s most well known for his 2018 album, POST-. His set list from last Monday’s show in Seattle (thankfully) implies he may be playing mostly songs off 2020’s No Dream. NNAMDI and Catbite open at 8 p.m. $20 (main room!).

Then Sunday night it’s back to The Sydney for headliner PAGOTO (members of L.A. Witch) with the inimitable Solid Goldberg and Omaha’s top Spanish-language punk band, Las Cruxes. $10, 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 © 2022 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Well, looks like supply chain or labor shortage or who knows what else is continuing to hamper the work being done at The Admiral — the venue formerly known as Sokol Auditorium (read about the project here). The Admiral today posted on social media that the May 28 Belle & Sebastian concert, which I’d hoped would be my introduction to the new venue, has been moved to The Slowdown.

No doubt the only people more bummed by the move than me are One Percent and Mammoth Productions, who run the venue. It begs the question what other shows will be moved in the coming weeks/months? The next big “indie” show slated for the Admiral is CHVRCHES June 15, just a couple weeks beyond that B&S date, and then Neko Case June 23, and then Bright Eyes Weekend July 2-3.

But… just this morning it was announced that Sunny Day Real Estate and Appleseed Cast have been scheduled perform at The Admiral Sept. 14…

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Local indie band Uh Oh last week dropped a new video for the track “Copperhead” from their LP Good Morning. Check it:

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We’re getting closer to the release of the next Little Brazil masterpiece, Just Leave, out June 3 on Max Trax Records. Pre-order here. The band dropped the title track via Bandcamp. Check it:

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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

It’s hard to think about it with Douglas County boasting a COVID-19 positive-test rate of 36%, but summer is coming and this ever-lasting pandemic will eventually be behind us. The folks who put on the Maha Music Festival believe that, enough so that yesterday they announced their 14th annual festival will take place July 29 and July 30 at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village.

It’s a return to two days — or one night and one day, as the Friday night fest will run from 5 to 11 p.m. The Saturday show will go from 2 p.m. to midnight. It’s still too early to say if this will be a limited engagement as it was last year. That depends on the COVID numbers (I would assume). I thought last year’s limited 6,400 sell out with Japanese Breakfast, Thundercat and Khruangbin was a sweet spot capacity for that location.

No word on bands/acts — that’ll come in March. Also, this will be a music-only event. Maha took over Big Omaha a few years ago and hasn’t hosted another Big Omaha event since COVID arrived. More info to come, like ticket prices and such.

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The other big announcement this morning is that Bright Eyes has booked two nights at The Admiral (the newly refurbished Sokol Auditorium) July 2 and 3. The concerts aren’t so much in support of their last album, 2020’s Down in the Weeds. Where the World Once Was, as much as the reissue of nine Bright Eyes albums, in chronological order, in groups of three, beginning this spring. But that’s not all.

There will also be nine companion EPs released. From the event Facebook post: “Or as Oberst puts it, ‘the supplemental reading’ for the primary reissues: One six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album. ‘My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way.’ Plus one cover that felt ‘of the era’ in which that particular albums was made – a song that meant something to the band at the time. To help the EPs come alive in the fullest way, Bright Eyes called in lots of old friends, like Phoebe Bridgers, M. Ward, and Welch and Rawlings, as well as new ones like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee. It was the band’s way of reframing, rediscovering, and renewing the past. It was also a hilarious amount of work. ‘I thought it was a cool concept,’ Oberst says. ‘Then I realized its nine records, six songs a piece, so that’s like 54 different songs you have to record!’“

The project is not listed on the Dead Oceans website (Dead Ocean released Bright Eyes’ last album), but there’s a Dead Oceans logo at the end of the rerelease promo running on the Bright Eyes Twitter page, so…

As for the Bright Eyes concerts, no openers listed, tickets range from $40 to $75 though they’re not available yet.

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In other concert news, The Slowdown announced today they’ve booked Guided By Voices for July 9.

Speaking of The Slowdown, Toronto indie trio Wild Rivers headlines in the big room there tonight. The band has a new album coming out Friday called Sidelines on Nettwerk, produced by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Sharon van Etten). Stylistically, this fits right in with acts like Oh Pep, Waxahatchee and the Haim sisters — very well-produced summer-night indie pop. LA singer/songwriter Corey Harper opens at 8 p.m. $23.

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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 © 2021 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.