Lotsa shows this weekend, mostly at Sokol Underground. Tonight it's a hip-hop offering with Atmosphere, Grayskul and P.O.S. -- Atmosphere, I'm told, is at the epicenter of the underground hip-hop movement, part of the Rhymesayers Entertainment crew. Personal critical mentor Robert Christgau gave their just released Headshots: Se7en a "B Plus," saying "Slug is so excited to discover how much rhyme he has in him that his creative optimism revs Ant's subtle tracks. He's not inventing alt-rap. But he might as well be." $15, 9 p.m.

If you're in Lincoln, Scenefest 3 is going on at Duffy's featuring For Against -- that band alone is worth the drive down.

Not such an easy decision tomorrow night with three quality shows worth checking out. The top of the list is M. Ward at Sokol Underground with DeVotchKa and Norfolk & Western. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some "special guests" showing up for this one. $10, 9 p.m. Meanwhile at O'Leaver's, Kansas City's The Golden Republic is playing with Aqueduct, who were just here with United State of Electronica last month. More people danced for USE, but Aqueduct was the better band (see review). $5, 9:30 (cheap!). Then there's the sleeper show: The Coast of Nebraska and The Stay Awake at The 49'r. The Stay Awake, featuring renowned musician/soundman Steve Micek (Mariannes), has been rather elusive throughout its career, and I wouldn't be surprised if something weird happens and this show gets canceled or moved or something. SomedayNever says this show is $3 and will get going around 9:30 (I doubt it, try 10:30).

Oh yeah, for all you tree-huggers out there, Earth Day festivities are going on noon to 6 in Elmwood, with Anchondo, Anonymous Americans (sic), Michael Murphy, Nifty 250, and Surcos slated to perform. Pick up a free tree while you're there.

Sunday is Q and Not U, The Apes, Food For Animals, & Manhunter at Sokol Underground. I originally wanted to write a feature on The Apes for The Reader but they nixed it. The Apes are a D.C. garage punk band that toured with The Liars back when The Liars were good. They recorded a couple CDs on Frenchkiss before moving to Birdman. $8, 9 p.m.

Those of you who don't read the Omaha World-Herald every morning may not know that Saddle Creek announced that it's looking to build Slowdown -- their bar/music hall/office megaplex -- downtown as part of the so-called north-downtown development project. The article (you have to register to read it) doesn't give hardly any details that we didn't already know. Creek manager Jason Kulbel acknowledged that he was excited by the "possibility" of being part of the revitalization project, and the article said that if "all goes as planned, Slowdown could be open sometime in 2006." Then Kulbel added, "It's not a done deal by any means."

The north downtown location has been rumored practically since the day after the Metcalf Park neighborhood association ran the Creek crew out of their neighborhood. One rumor had it being located near 14th and Webster on a piece of land that's dissected by a rail spur. A more recent rumor has it located further west, near 19th and Cuming. My guess is no location has been set in stone and that the City just wants some sort of commitment from Creek, and are willing to give away land to get it. The whole downtown development project, unveiled earlier this week, seems pretty iffy to me -- especially the new baseball stadium, which would leave a lot of people scratching their heads over why we're keeping the mammoth Rosenblatt Stadium empty 48 weeks out of the year...

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