It's kind of a quiet weekend show-wise, at least compared to the past few weeks.

The feature event is tonight at The Waiting Room -- Omaha twang-punk masters The Filter Kings with The Mercury's. The Filter Kings is Lee Meyerpeter (Bad Luck Charm, ex-Cactus Nerve Thang) and his team of highly trained cowboy-hat-wearing knife fighters ripping apart alt-country-punk and reassembling it in their own image. I enjoy this band immensely, especially when they play at The Waiting Room (where they should be the house band (I'll keep saying it until it happens)). The only thing that would make their performance better would be if two drunks had a broken-bottle fight in front of the stage while Lee and Co. provided the sound track. In fact, if these guys ever release a CD, there's the perfect premise for their first rock video. $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at O'Leaver's, trippy Virginia space-rock band Gifts from Enola sneaks into town. They call themselves "experimental" on their Myspace page. Their recordings sound more proggy/shoe-gazer than experimental to me. Opening is Paper Owls, and something tells me they're going to give a sneak preview of their new album, which they'll be celebrating with a CD-release show Aug. 11 at PS Collective. Also on the bill, The Slats. Waitaminit, SLAM Omaha says not the Slats but I Hear Sirens are playing tonight. The Slats' Myspace page, however, shows them at O'Leaver's. Find out who's right by showing up at 9:30 and doling out $5.

And don't forget Film Streams grand opening tonight. I was talking Wednesday to one of the guys who works there about the choice of screening the Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) on opening night. He pointed out that it made sense if only for the fact that opening night will bring in people who otherwise wouldn't sit through a 3-plus-hour black-and-white Japanese film with subtitles. And if you're lucky Alexander Payne will provide a half-hour spoken introduction. Two showings, 5 and 9 p.m. Also playing (in the small theater) is La Vie en Rose (see yesterday's review) at 4, 7, and 9 p.m. Film Streams also is having an open house tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free popcorn!

Saturday night is all O'Leaver's, with Donnely, Sleep Said the Monster & Shiver Shiver. No idea who Donnely is and can't find anything on the 'net about them. SStM play laid-back indie pop. Shiver Shiver is the duo of keyboardist/vocalist Jordan Elsberry and drummer/vocalist Chase Thornburg. A friend of mine pointed me toward their Myspace site a few weeks ago and I dug what I heard. Their demos remind me of early Squeeze or laid-back Ben Folds. $5, 9 p.m.

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