Twin Shadow at The Waiting Room, Sept. 8, 2015.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The last time Twin Shadow came through The Waiting Room (almost three years to the date of yesterday’s show — Sept. 10, 2012), the band performed as a trio in front of around 150, playing their urgent dance songs to a darkened, smoke-filled stage.

Last night’s performance at The Waiting Room showed how much the band has grown in three years, though their core sound has changed little. At the center of Twin Shadow is George Lewis, Jr., the songwriter and vocalist and guitarist, surrounded by three musicians who spent most of the time on synths, though two of them picked up guitars for a few harder numbers. Nary a drum was scene as most of the rhythm tracks were pre-programmed, with one player adding a few manually created electronic drum fills, and Lewis himself crashing down on cymbal that towered behind him like a slam dunk.

The music was dense, gorgeous electronic rock that leaned more toward classic FM than New Wave or post-punk. In fact, there were times last night when the music came dangerously close to (Dare I say it?) yacht rock territory. The slower, shoulder-pad ballads sounded like something pulled from a John Hughes or early Tom Cruise film. Other times I was reminded of Escape-era Journey and even, yikes, Toto.

Lewis has a rich, soulful voice that Michael McDonald would nod toward with admiration. We’re talking American Idol-quality tonsils, not the usual warbling indie-rock mewing I’m used to. And the few times he picked up an ax proved that he’s one helluva guitar player. The upbeat dance numbers were Twin Shadow’s sweet spot. Songs like the infectious “Old Love/New Love” off the new album got the zombie-eyed crowd of around 100 bouncing, as did set closer and Twin Shadow staple “Five Minutes” off breakthrough album Confess. Unfortunately, slower ballads outnumbered  dance moments three to one last night.

On the whole, it was a solid 45-minute set — a much better set than the droll half-hour I sat through at SXSW this past April when the band played under a giant scrim that looked like a mosquito tent. And while there were plenty of strobes and smoke last night, the best special effect was still Lewis’ own Ya Mo B There voice.

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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 © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Looking down on Sixth Street from Maggie Mays at South By Southwest 2015.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This will go down as the least impressive, least satisfying year I’ve attended South By Southwest. Sure there were a lot of bands, but not nearly as many as year’s past and even fewer legends. Still, I had fun and didn’t get beat up, and that’s always a good thing.

This year I tried to podcast from Austin. The results are below. I’ll probably never try it again, based solely on the number of hits each stream has gotten. That said, there’s probably no where else online that has snippets of this many performances. Each podcast is only about 10 minutes long and includes bits from every band I saw. Check them out:

Day 1: Performances by White Mystery, Twin Shadow, Dotan and Speedy Ortiz.

Day 2: Performances by PUJOL, Laura Burhenn (Mynabirds), Icky Blossoms, Viet Cong, Krill and Natalie Prass.

Day 3: Performances by Courtney Barnett, Best Coast, LITE, Drivin’ and Cryin’, The Pop Group and Will Butler.

And here are the photos. If you follow me in Instagram or on social media you’ve seen most of these, but here they are again, in living color.

White Mystery at Beerland Patio, March 18, 2015.

Twin Shadow at Iron Castle, March 18, 2015.

Dotan at Cedar Street Courtyard, March 18, 2015.

Speedy Ortiz at Cedar Street Courtyard, March 18, 2015.

Josh Berwenger Band at Stay Gold, March 19, 2015.

PUJOL at Stay Gold March 19, 2015.

Laura Burhenn (Mynabirds) at Stay Gold, March 19, 2015.

Icky Blossoms at Stay Gold, March 19, 2015.

Viet Cong at Cedar Street Courtyard, March 19, 2015.

Krill at the 720 Club, March 19, 2015.

Natalie Prass at Maggie Mae’s, March 19, 2015.

Best Coast at the SXSW Convention Center, March 20, 2015.

Courtney Barnett at the SXSW Convention Center, March 20, 2015.

LITE at The Ginger Man, March 20, 2015.

Drivin’ and Cryin’ at The Ginger Man, March 20, 2015.

The Residents at The Paramount Theater, March 20, 2015.

The Church at Buffalo Billiards, March 20, 2015.

The Pop Group at Maggie Mae’s Rooftop, March 20, 2015.

Will Butler at Maggie Mae’s Rooftop, March 20, 2015.

There may or may not be a formal review of each gig to come. Check back tomorrow. There will be a column in the April issue of The Reader about SXSW. Watch for it.

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Tonight at the Sweatshop Gallery Darren Keen headlines with Calm Fur and Just Jace. $5, 9 p.m. Say goodbye to Darren before he flies back to Gotham City…

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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 © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Twin Shadow at The Waiting Room, Sept. 8, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Before I headed out to see Twin Shadow at The Waiting Room Saturday night, I sat out on the back patio of my Dundee/Memorial Park home and caught Dim Light’s set. No, Cooper and Co. weren’t playing in my back yard; they were playing miles away at Jake’s “Because We Can” outdoor festival in Benson, and never sounded better. While pure volume does wonders for these guys, I wonder how many fish floated to the top of Benson Park’s lagoon overcome by the sonic density of it all, a la circa 1971 Pink Floyd.

I don’t know who was playing Jake’s when I finally got to Benson a half-hour later, but they were just as loud; way louder than they needed to be to entertain the hundred or so milling about behind the chain-link fence at the edge of Military Ave., but not loud enough to seep through the thick walls of The Waiting Room, where Niki and the Dove were opening for Twin Shadow.

I knew virtually nothing about N&TD other than it was a duo (the name gave it away) and they played Euro-synth music direct from Stockholm. There on stage was Niki a.k.a. Malin Dahlström, sounding and looking like a Swedish Carol Kane singing Laura Branigan’s greatest hits. Her voice is sort of a nasal-inflected version of Stevie Nicks meets Kate Bush and is indeed lovely. The Dove is Gustaf Karlöf (how do you pronounce an umlaut?) the bearded ABBA-looking guy behind a rack of synths. While the music consisted mostly of prerecorded synth/rhythm samples, for a couple songs Gustaf pounded out beats on a small drum kit behind the keyboard rack, adding tasty Euro-tribal flair. Though clearly influence by ’80s synth-dance music, the duo were at their best when playing more intricate Eno-esque rhythms, closing out their set with a grand cascade that would have made Ms. Bush proud.

Smoke bellowed out of a fog machine for 10 minutes before Twin Shadow finally took the stage like a second coming of Prince, backed by his own 3-piece version of The Revolution. I’m not sure why I made that comparison, as Twin Shadow a.k.a. George Lewis, sounds nothing like the Purple One. TS’s recent 4AD release Confess is an homage to every ’80s and early ’90s New Wave dance project that you can think of, from General Public to Peter Gabriel. Even the album’s production cues sound purposely dated to fit the era.

But on stage, Twin Shadow was oddly modern-sounding, taking those ’80s-themed love songs and ramping them up with a more intricate, more intense approach; throttling back the synths and pumping up his electric guitar. The set was front-loaded with the best songs off Confess, including personal faves “Five Seconds” and “The One.” The crowd of somewhere around 150 grooved it up in front of the stage, doing the classic ’80s shoulder-shrug dance while George pounded out the chords on his guitar. There was a macho drama to everything he did, more intense than fun but fun nevertheless.

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Unless you subscribe to Jeremy Messersmith’s various social media channels you’re probably unaware that the singer/songwriter who has played at Slowdown Jr. a couple times in the past (including opening for The Mynabirds and the debut of So-So Sailors) is playing a special “Supper Club” house show tomorrow night somewhere in Bellevue. Tickets to the intimate performance are still available from the tour website for $15. Don’t forget to bring a covered dish.

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There’s a sweet review of FYF Fest in The Orange County Register declaring The Faint and Desaparecidos as highlights from the LA festival’s second day. From the review, which went online Sept. 3: “But three bands from Omaha – Cursive, the Faint and Conor Oberst’s recently reunited post-hardcore project Desaparecidos – also were on the  bill, and without a doubt the latter two ruled the day.” The write-up called The Faint’s set “a final dazzling pick-me-up after a hot and particularly dusty weekend,” and went on to declare Desa as Oberst’s best project. “While Oberst’s other projects (Bright Eyes, the Mystic Valley Band) have been hit-or-miss, there was no question – throughout 45 minutes of loudly intoxicating new and old tunes, including a thrilling cover of the Clash’s ‘Spanish Bombs’ – that this is his most affecting outfit.” Whoa! Read the whole thing here. One question that came to mind: No love for Cursive? Come on… By the way, though Desa’s brief tour is over and Conor is now headed out on some solo dates later this month, I’m hearing rumblings that we haven’t heard the last from them…

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.