Column 147: It Still Doesn't Matter
Another list, another opportunity to piss people off.

So there I was Tuesday morning at 5 a.m., wracking my brain to come up with something profound to say about The Reader's annual "list of best bands," something that I didn't already say in last year's column. Then, like a bolt out of the blue, it struck me:

Why not just rerun last year's column?

After all, I'm not delusional or egotistical enough to believe that anyone actually read my column last year (or that anyone's reading it now, for that matter). And what could I possibly say differently from last year that wouldn't apply to this year's list? So like I said:

The core problem with creating a special "music issue" of The Reader that includes a "list" of the 20 "best bands" in the Omaha/Lincoln area is obvious. You're forced to answer the question: "What's the point?" Why place bands in a pecking order based on the (hopefully, though unlikely) well-informed opinion of a group of faceless critics who feel compelled to tell the public what is good and what isn't?

The argument against such a list gets down to one undeniable fact: When it comes to art, competition sucks. It serves no purpose. It makes friends enemies. It creates pride, envy and doubt in the heart of the artists. It discourages as much as it encourages new art, new ideas, risk-taking.

And yet, "best of" lists and the endless string of award shows have become an acknowledged method of recognizing art and music in our culture, even though the determination of what's good and what isn't ultimately rests solely in the eyes and ears of the beholder. You can tell me a thousand times that something is great or something sucks, but in the end, I'll decide for myself (Unless, of course, I'm a sheep).

So why do it? Why make a list of the best and a list of runners-up (and, by default, a list of those that didn't make the lists)? The most obvious reason: Because it's fun. It's controversial. And most importantly, because people love their lists and awards. They need to have their opinions validated, to affirm that they, indeed, have "good taste." So I guess it all comes down to ego, and doesn't ego fuel all art? Perhaps, perhaps…

What I can tell you with extreme confidence is that no matter how Editor Andy and the rest of the staff cut it, the list will piss people off. Hell, I don't even like the list. Where's Mal Madrigal and Outlaw Con Bandana? Where's Brimstone Howl? WHERE THE HELL IS THE MONROES?

Ah, those were the days. I can still hear publisher John Heaston whining about how the list was my idea in the first place and how I had some nerve bagging on it. John, you're right. You're always right. That's why you're the publisher!

Of course, this year Outlaw and Brimstone and even my beloved Monroes made the list. Mal Madrigal continues to be a no-show, but that'll change next year when Steve Bartolomei and his compadres finally get around to releasing that vinyl-only recording that we've been hearing about for, well, almost a year.

I could point out that this year's list is missing a number of bands that I suggested, including McCarthy Trenching, Matt Whipkey, The Third Men, The Family Radio, Cloven Path, The Filter Kings and The Stay Awake. But that would sound like I was complaining, and really, what's there to complain about?

Actually, this year anyone irritated by The Reader's list can wait a few short months for the Omaha Entertainment Awards to have their outrage vindicated. The OEAs depends on a public nomination process, a process that just happens to be going on right now at oea-awards.com (Click on the banner at the top of the page to cast your vote).

If there's one thing that stands out about this year's list it's the plethora of new acts that were either under the radar or simply didn't exist a year ago. Among them, Art in Manila, Coyote Bones, Capgun Coup, Flowers Forever, Spring Gun, The Shanks and Baby Walrus. These are the bands that carry the hopes of Nebraska's music scene into the future, whether they like it or not. A few will be on this list next year and for years to come. A few will be conspicuously absent. And a few will be gone for good. Such is the nature of rock 'n' roll.

Anyway… like I said last year, if you think we got it wrong, don't get mad. Relax. It's all in good fun. You already know that your favorite band is good, whether the idiots at The Reader know it or not. (Sorry, John.)


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Tomorrow's marquee public show is Little Brazil with Go Motion and Malpias at Slowdown. $7, 9 p.m. There's also a hot house party going on that's somewhat private -- I can't give out too many details other than the lineup, which includes the area's best punk bands: The Shanks, The Terminals, The Upsets, and Rick Rhythm and the Revengers. Some details about the show are available here, but you'll have to search out the rest on your own.

And then on Sunday it's Minus the Bear, Helio Sequence and Grand Archives at Slowdown. $15, 9 p.m.

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You know, the great thing about Bright Eyes is that no two shows are alike. Sure, you generally hear the same songs you've heard all the other times, but there's always some slight change, something different that keeps things interesting.

What made last night's show at The Waiting Room one for the ages (other than the fact that it was 1 Percent Productions' 10-year anniversary -- seems like only yesterday that I watched Marc and Jim walk down that aisle…) was Conor's overall demeanor and the addition of guitarist David Rawlings. Oberst hasn't looked this "into" a show in years. Was it the smaller stage? Was it being surrounded by friends and family (his pops was standing just a few feet away)? Was it all the booze? I'll point to TWR's overall vibe -- it's got a big-room feel but still seems remarkably intimate. Really, when was the last time (other than last week's show at The Barley St.) that Oberst has been this close to a crowd? You could tell after the first few songs that he was letting it flow, at one point telling the audience that the play list had been thrown out the window.

Despite the fact that the place was crazy packed, something seemed oddly different right when I walked through the door. What's that smell? Is that fresh air? Did TWR purchase a multi-million dollar air purification system? No. By order of the band, smoking wasn't permitted at the show. I heard a few reasons for it, the most logical being that BE's traveling sound guy suffers from severe asthma. I can see where that wouldn't be a problem with the rest of the tour, as BE is playing mostly in theaters that don't allow smoking. Had they allowed smoking last night, Conor would have been down at the morgue this morning identifying his sound guy's body.

The other possible reason for the smoking ban -- the high-dollar sound equipment that BE hauled in for the show. Outside the venue, I heard a couple gearheads going ga-ga over the microphone set up -- "You know what those things cost?! That's the real reason we're out here smoking!" Well, maybe. There were a lot of microphones on stage, including a couple really fancy mics mounted to the cymbals on the drum set. I'm told the entire performance was recorded, which might have had something to do with it. Towers of equipment were stacked off to the side of stage right -- cables and cabinets and lights, it looked like a construction site. One giant board did nothing but control the sound out of the stage monitors. I'm told a generator had to be brought in to run it all. It looked like enough shit to power a show at The Qwest Center. The result was a damn fine-sounding show, on par with a typical show at TWR (translation: It probably would have sounded just as good had they used the house sound).

I showed up at around 10:30. Simon Joyner already was well into his set. In fact, he was almost finished. Still, I was just in time for one of the evening's highlights. Joyner's band had left the stage and he was joined by Oberst on keyboards for one song -- "Joy Division" off the landmark Joyner album The Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll -- my favorite song from my favorite Joyner album. I was told last night that someone is reissuing Cowardly Traveller on vinyl in the coming months. Seek it out and buy a record player if you don't already have one. Oberst provided some vocal harmonies, then left the stage as the rest of Joyner's band came back for a final tune -- a roaring version of "Medicine Blues" off Skeleton Blues, my second favorite Joyner album. I felt like I was at a Country Joe and the Fish concert circa Woodstock. The crowd ate it up.

Bright Eyes came on at around 11. Forget the white suit for this tour. Instead, he was dressed in a black front-button long-underwear style shirt, his shoulder-length hair recently lopped off in a part-down-the-middle style reminiscent of Matthew Sweet circa 1994 (but done in black, of course).

I've seen Oberst perform maybe 20 times, probably more. Last night's show was a throwback to the old, more laid-back days when he still played clubs. He was more relaxed and in tune with his band than at any large hall/theater shows he's done around here over the past few years -- he actually looked like he was enjoying himself. The set, which lasted around 90 minutes, was heavier than normal, in part because of the band. Rawlings is a bad-ass guitarist who knows how rip up a solo and loosen the restraints on Oberst's more demure numbers, unlike Mogis, who instead generally adds delicate, colorful flourishes on guitar or pedal steel that never get in the way. Rawlings is just fine yanking the attention away from Conor, and that dynamic was a breath of fresh air.

As had been reported earlier, Mogis isn't on this part of the current Bright Eyes tour. The rest of the band consisted of permanent BE member Nate Walcott on keyboards (and keytar), Clay Leverett on drums, and a bass player who I recognized but don't know. Gillian Welch came on stage for a few songs, as did Simon. The first half of the set seemed somewhat scripted. It was the second half that obviously strayed, with Oberst dedicating most every song to someone in the audience. One example was a quick, half-ass take on a song from A Collection of Songs... (was it "Falling Out of Love at This Volume"?) played by request. You're not going to hear that one played live again. The rest of the set was the usual stuff, the best tunes off Cassadaga, Lifted, and Wide Awake, along with a few new songs that sounded like songs off those three albums.

The highlight was the encore. Joining the band in his trademark sweater and glasses was Mike Mogis, playing along on a Tom Petty cover ("Walls") and then joining the onslaught of guitar for the evening's final song, a blistering, angry, violent anti-war rocker that recalled Neil Young at his most metal. Given the choice between Bright Eyes backed with three guitarists and Bright Eyes backed with an orchestra, I'll take the three guitarists every time.

Want more details? Check out all the other reviews of the show online, including:

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Since this entry already is over a 1,100 words, I'm going to wait 'til tomorrow for the column and top-20 list. You dying to read it now? Go out and pick up a copy of The Reader.

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Those of you fortunate enough to have snagged tickets to tonight's Bright Eyes concert at The Waiting Room, here's a sneak preview in the form of a review of Monday night's show at Milwaukee's Pabst Theater from shepherd-express.com (full review here). The writer was less than impressed with Simon Joyner: "Numbingly dull singer-songwriter Simon Joyner has a voice like moss and quickly lost the crowd's attention—which is saying something, since usually Pabst Theater audiences will politely sit through anything. 'Conor, where are you?' one woman in the balcony moaned after Joyner finished singing a particularly bland, flat song." Ouch. On the other hand he was impressed with Capgun Coup after he figured out who they were. "Their name was utterly indecipherable—Captain Goo? Cat Fondue?" Cat Fondue is a frickin' great name for a band, btw. "It's not too much of a surprise that Oberst has taken such a liking to them, since they sound a lot like he used to before he tried to reinvent himself as a serious singer-songwriter: spazzy, poppy, catchy, wonderful." He goes on to describe Capgun as sounding "like a young D.C. punk band doing an entire set of Clean covers." As reported earlier, Dave Rawlings is playing guitar with Bright Eyes on this tour, replacing Mike Mogis, who I'm told is busy in the studio. Sounds like we're in for a set list that's a "career-spanning grab bag, heavy on Oberst's louder, more charged material." Opening tonight is Simon Joyner and Flowers Forever. 9 p.m. and yeah, it's SOLD OUT.

Lazy-i content for the rest of the week is a real jumble. First, I plan on posting a review of tonight's show online tomorrow. Despite doing a ton of work for The Reader this week, I don't have much to show for it. This issue is the paper's annual "music issue" that includes the usual list of the area's top 20 bands (and the next 15). I wrote profiles of about six of them. This week's column talks about the list, but is essentially a rehash of last year's column. I'll probably throw it online tomorrow, along with the list. The Reader's cover story is a focus on Omaha sound guys. The photo was taken on stage at Slowdown last last week. Inside are profiles of at least 10 local sound guys. When I approached Editor Andy Norman with the idea, I originally wanted the profiles to resemble trading cards -- each with an action photo of a soundman at work, followed by key stats and comments. I have no idea how the final product will look. I interviewed seven sound engineers for the story: Jason Churchill, Dan Brennan, Jeremiah McIntyre, Brendan Greene-Walsh, Kevin Hiddleston, Jim Bogensberger and Jay Wilcher. Jeremy Buckley also interviewed a few sound guys in Lincoln. Neva Dinova's Jake Bellows wrote the article's introduction. I won't be posting the profiles here, so you'll have to pick up a copy of The Reader when it hits the stands tomorrow.

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My only show this weekend was the Speed! Nebraska showcase at O'Leaver's Saturday night. And as you might imagine, the house was utterly packed.

In many ways, it was a throwback to a better, simpler time, circa 1990-something, when Mercy Rule and Frontier Trust were among the top punk bands in the Omaha/Lincoln area. Now some 15 years later, here was the same primary talent at it again, doing their thing better than ever. I wonder if they knew they'd still be jumping on stages after all these years…

As you may or may not know (and surprisingly, a few people I talked to before the show, didn't) Domestica is two-thirds of Mercy Rule -- vocalist/bassist Heidi Ore and guitarist/vocalist Jon Taylor -- but instead of Ron Albertson, Boz Hicks is behind the drum set bringing a completely different style of drumming to their sound. Beyond that difference, it's pretty much business as usual. Domestica, as Mercy Rule before it, excels in punk-rock anthems -- loud, soft, loud, as Taylor put it, the only way to go. Listening to the band's new five-song EP, I'm reminded of Mercy Rule circa Providence. Heidi's voice has the same sweet coo, Taylor's guitar has the same guttural growl. The CD is a must-have for any Mercy Rule fan, astutely recorded by engineer Ian Aeillo at ARC Studios in Omaha (the Mogis compound).

Strangely, Domestica's mix Saturday night was muddy and somewhat restrained -- you can always use more Taylor guitar. On the other hand, The Monroes' set was dead-perfect all around, probably the best set I've heard from these guys (and I've seen them at least a dozen times). Yeah, O'Leaver's has a tiny PA, but the room is perfectly suited for certain bands, and The Monroes is definitely one of them. I'm listening to their new "Drillin' Daylight" 7-inch as I type this, recorded by Brooks Hitt at his Hittsville! U.S.A. studio in Havelock -- it's the best-sounding record they've ever released. Great sleeve and pressed on sexy ruby-colored vinyl. What more do you want? And in case you didn't know it, Lincoln Dickison is one of the best guitarists in Omaha. Beyond the music, the other highlight was the ongoing trivia contest, where fans were given Richard Petty Pez dispensers as prizes to questions like "How fast was I going when I got a ticket?" Answer: 47, a rather wimpy speed for a Plymouth. You can do better than that, Gary.

Ideal Cleaners played last to a crowd that only got bigger as the night rolled on. I was pinned against the wall by the door throughout the set, no way to move to the railing. Of the three bands, IC is the most straight-forward, and the most brutal. Their new full-length, Muchacho, is an orgy of pounding punk rock that never loses sight of the melodies. A few songs (like the title track, for instance) remind me of Criteria, while other tracks (like "You've Got the Prettiest Fingers") sport a dirtier, grittier groove. I would compare them to Ladyfinger, except that their music is a bit more accessible and less acidic. Nice stuff. Nice night.

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Musician/soundman/Lazy-i intern Brendan Greene-Walsh passed along some rather grim news last night about Melbourne Australia band Electric Jellyfish, who played at O'Leaver's last week. The gig was part of a cross-country tour that included Chicago, Detroit and then Brooklyn this weekend. They never made it.

Brendan got a call yesterday while driving around town from a reporter from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, asking about Electric Jellyfish. What the reporter told him caused Brendan to pull over to the side of the road. The band was in a fatal accident on the Ohio Turnpike yesterday morning; their 2001 Chevy Tahoe flipped, skidded and smashed into a concrete barrier after trying to avoid a deer in the road. Electric Jellyfish guitarist Hayden Rodney Sweeney, 23, and his wife, Bridget O'Brien, 26, died at the scene. Three other band members were taken to the hospital, but were not seriously injured, according to the Plain-Dealer article, here. Sad, scary stuff.

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Very impressive crowd last night at The Waiting Room for The Family Radio/MC Chris show -- maybe 150? I can't tell you who was the primary draw, but there were a ton of faces there I've never seen before.

The Family Radio came out at around 10 with frontman Nik Fackler in full-on ghost warrior face paint. The four-piece blazed through a half-hour of proggy, indie rock that highlighted Chris Senseney's intricate guitar work and Fackler's sing/scream energy. I liken them to a Soviet version of King Crimson with a smattering of Arcade Fire thrown in for good measure. Since it began a few years ago, the band has constantly evolved, from a laid-back warm-hearted chamber-folk project to an intense, all-out prog-punk theater routine. I don't know if I was more mesmerized by the music, the band or the video of a Final Fantasy game that was projected on the screen behind them. Somehow, it all just seemed to fit. Fackler said last night's gig will be the last one for awhile as he's begun shooting his full-length motion picture, Lovely Still, which will keep him busy through spring.

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The weekend is upon us.

Tonight at The Waiting Room it's former wig-wearing sensation Scout Niblett with Thunder Power!! and Alessi. $8, 9 p.m.

Over at O'Leaver's, it's The Jack and Jim Show, Miracles of God and Brian Poloncic. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday's big show is the big Speed! Nebraska showcase at O'Leaver's featuring The Monroes, Domestica, and Ideal Cleaners. All three bands will be celebrating the release of must-have new material. I guarantee this show will exceed O'Leaver's tiny capacity. Get there early. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Down at Slowdown Jr. it's Coyote Bones with touring bands Coupleskate and Belfrie. $7, 9 p.m.

Sunday at The Waiting Room it's Rogue Wave with Port O'Brien, $10/$12, 9 p.m. Meanwhile, over at O'Leaver's, it's The Stay Awake with Dim Light and Meneguar. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Sounds like there was an impromptu Bright Eyes performance last night, in of all places, The Barley Street Tavern. Matt Whipkey (of The Matt Whipkey Three) was there. He even IM'd me on my cell phone, but by 11:30 I was busy counting sheep. According to Whipkey, it all went down like this:

Bright Eyes' drummer Clay Leverett quickly threw together a country band that included Mike Friedman on pedal steel, Josh Dunwoody (Filter Kings) on upright bass, and Dave Rawlings on electric guitar. The band, which had never played or practiced together before, played and sang country classics for about 90 minutes.

After that wrapped up, most people took off, but that's when Oberst decided to join in on the fun. He played a set of seven or eight new songs, backed by Rawlings, Leverett and Friedman.

"Then he started calling people to the stage," Whipkey said. "Dan McCarthy, then me, then I called Kyle (Harvey) up, Kyle to Justin Dilemma, etc. And we were all backed by Friedman, Rawlings and Dunwoody. Pretty fucking cool."

Whipkey said only about 20 people were in the crowd during the BE set. Oberst sat and listened while Whipkey and the others did their thing. Each performer played two songs. Whipkey did a couple new Whipkey Three tunes, "Free" and "Separation."

Overall, Whipkey said, it was a helluva night. "Great atmosphere. The Barley St. was the perfect place for that." He added that Rawlings may be playing guitar this week in Bright Eyes as Mogis is finishing a big recording project.

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An addendum to yesterday's entry/column on One Percent Productions… Marc Leibowitz and Jim Johnson had a lot to say during our interview Sunday night that I didn't have room for in the story. Among the discussion, would Leibowitz recommend that anyone start up a promotion company today?

"Not in my market. I don't need any more competition," he said, joking. "This is not an easy business. There's a reason why they say bars and restaurants are risky businesses -- because it's true. We learned to make this into a real full-time business. You can have a profitable business doing what is artistically valid. We still bring in bands that we find entertaining. Sure, we joke about shitty bands doing better or selling more records, but that's more jaded than anything else. There is successful quality stuff out there, like Wilco."

Speaking of jaded, have these guys become a little jaded after 10 years of booking shows? "I was I excited to promote this last Built to Spill show as much as the first one," Leibowitz said. "This (job) is cooler than any computer day job or auto body job, but it's still work, it's still demanding and you can still get burned out. Before, we could quit (booking shows) at any time. Now we have a lease and a loan and employees."

Johnson said he was a little more concerned these days about how well shows draw. "I'm more nervous now because it is a full-time job and I don't have a paycheck coming in and I need to make money," he said. "It used to be if you made anything you were happy. It's definitely a job."

Over the years, bars like The 49'r and now O'Leaver's have established a regular clientele. As a result, they've dramatically cut down on live shows because they simply don't need them to draw a crowd. Leibowitz said The Waiting Room probably never would be in that position. "This place couldn't do that," he said. "I can't see the day when this place is packed with 200 people with no show. I don't see it. It's a big place. Our business is providing entertainment."

While they like being in Benson, neither said the location has been an advantage or disadvantage. "I don't think Benson's helped any," Johnson said. "I think we could have done this in any decent location."

"The coolest club in Chapel Hill was in a strip mall in suburbia," Leibowitz said. "We could have been anywhere. Benson's been good to us. As far as not having a parking lot, we've had no parking complaints."

Part of what drove the duo to begin booking shows in the first place was their love for indie music. Has indie seen better days? "When we started doing this we thought indie music was more viable than club owners thought it was," Leibowitz said. "The Ranch Bowl wasn't doing it. Ten years later, some of this indie music isn't as viable. There are still some really successful bands and great music, but it's sort of a dying genre. Some of the labels have adapted in terms of the music. I don't know how much The Arcade Fire and Superchunk have in common, but that's what Merge has done. The success of our company is seeing if we can pick the next genre, the next big thing."

With all the bands they could have asked to perform at their 10-year anniversary, why Bright Eyes? "Why not?" Leibowitz said. "It's the most successful artist out of Omaha that we ever worked with us. We did shows with him in every venue in the city, except for here. He came in and said he liked it. It's an honor to have him playing.

One Percent first booked Bright Eyes in 1997, as an opener for Built to Spill at Sokol Underground. "I remember he played with his back to crowd in the dark," Leibowitz said. "He brought in one of those three-fold blinds and played behind it.

"Almost all those guys -- The Faint, Bright Eyes, Cursive -- all are as cool to us now as at their first shows. That's why they're a success."

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Perhaps I should be known as Pinhead, as I erroneously reported yesterday that Pinback was last night. It's tonight, at Slowdown, with Frightened Rabbit. $15, 9 p.m. Thanks to everyone for pointing out the error.

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When I sat down to consider how to cover One Percent Production's 10-year anniversary, I initially drew a blank. I've already written the penultimate history of the company four years ago (You can read that here). Since then, I've written various columns about One Percent (including this one). And earlier this year I wrote a cover-length feature about The Waiting Room (here). What was left to discuss? Well it just so happens that in the last few weeks a few people have compared One Percent, and Marc Leibowitz in particular, to Matt Markel (who I wrote about earlier this year, here). Actually, every band that's had a run-in with Markel complained about that Ranch Bowl story, saying I treated him with kid gloves. Maybe I did. I certainly brought up his business dealings and let Markel defend himself. But at the end of the day, I'm not sure what Markel ever did wrong other than try to run a successful business. Did he treat some bands like shit? I have no doubt that he did. On the other hand, I'm not sure what those bands expected. Is Leibowitz the new Markel? Is that really such a bad thing?

There's a lot more to our interview, and I may lay it on you tomorrow, if I have time.

Tonight, two shows worth mentioning: At PS Collective, it's the Hyannis CD release show with Shiver Shiver and Beaucoup. $2, 8 p.m. At The Waiting Room, it's The Show Is the Rainbow with Baby Walrus and Talkin' Mountain. 9 p.m., $7.

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Very little to report today other than reiterating yesterday's post about tonight's show at The Waiting Room -- Adam Franklin of Swervedriver. Local heroes Kyle Harvey and Reagan Roeder are opening. Tickets are $10; show starts at 9 p.m. You should go.

And this: I've spent the last day or so listening to the new Springsteen album, Magic. I didn't want to like it. After the schmaltz that was The Rising, I figured "The Boss" had seen his better days. Then I saw that Rolling Stone gave the new album five stars, which is unheard of (I assume part of the rating has to do with politics at Rolling Stone and leveraging their position to get an interview with Springsteen -- just the opposite of what new bands have to deal with at the once-important music magazine. The cover of Stone is gold, but it's only going to happen if your music rates with Joe Levy. Springsteen, on the other hand, could give a shit, and it's Stone that needs him to give the publication credibility in an era when they're putting shit like Zac Efron on the cover). While five stars is unwarranted, I like this album more than I care to admit. It has a cohesive quality that I haven't heard from a new album in a long time. Someone I spoke with compared it to Darkness... It's not nearly as bleak or introspective. It also isn't as bubbly and back-slapping as Born in the USA or as cheesy as Born to Run. Yeah, you can hear when he's trying to sound like his older stuff (He should have let "Livin' in the Future" be a B-side somewhere), but even moreso I hear a modern-day Dylan influence, a return to simple songwriting. Definitely rates a "Yes."

Tomorrow's column: Happy Birthday One Percent...

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Based on the Omahype review (here) sounds like I missed a very special show by The Good Life -- Help Wanted Nights front-to-back in its entirety, that'll never happen again. Instead, I spent the evening staring at Touchdown Jesus from the endzone of The House That Knute Built, watching as The Fighting Irish got their asses handed to them by BC. No, I'm not a Notre Dame fan, but Teresa is. Sounds like I also missed a good Wilco show, too. Ah well, what can you do?

Tomorrow is Adam Franklin of shoegazer/dreampop band Swervedriver at The Waiting Room and to prep for the show, Dave Leibowitz has put together an episode of his Dark Stuff podcast featuring an interview with Franklin along with plenty of his music. Check it out here, then go to One Percent Productions website and buy a ticket to the show. Leibowitz says Swervedriver is one of the best bands of all time. I own not a single Swervedriver album (though I have my share of My Bloody Valentine and Chapterhouse CDs), so Leibs' podcast was indeed a good primer to catch up on the band's sound. Check it out.

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That new Radiohead? -- not bad. Actually, pretty good, though like I said before, it's getting close to '90s-era U2 territory, not that that's necessarily a bad thing. So now I'm hearing Nine Inch Nails may be doing the same thing with Trent's next release. I've heard people complain that this devalues music. I've heard them say that it's nothing more than a publicity stunt that will come back and bite the band on the ass when the "real CD" comes out in December. I've heard from a lot of people how they didn't pay a pence for the download because they don't like Radiohead. I've heard people complain that the bit rate was too low.

Me, I think it was a brilliant idea. I think we'll never know how much money they actually pulled in through their website. I think the CD sales in December will, in fact, be rather limp -- I won't be buying the CD, though I'm inching closer to buying that vinyl box set. I think Radiohead will win over some new fans (all those people who didn't pay a pence). I think they'll have one of the more successful tours next year, but it was going to be successful with or without this online event. I'm a little less hopeful about the future of record labels than I was before. And record stores, well, they're just going to have to figure out a way to adapt in this new world. Maybe David Matysiak is right, maybe the CD is dead and maybe we'll see a new interest in vinyl -- but only purchased as a keepsake or a collectable, never as a dominant audio medium, never again. There's no question in my mind that technology will evolve in the next few years where downloading CD-sized files will be quick and easy. All this talk about "the CD being the ultimate back-up" will go away as technology will allow for easy online storage of entire music collections (Your iPod died and your hard-drive crashed? Really? Just go to where your files are stored online and upload your whole music collection again, and only in a few hours). And people will still pay for music, somehow…

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The Omaha Entertainment Awards are up and running again for 2007, and I once again have been asked to be a member of "the academy," in spite of my comments about it last year. Now is the time that you can influence the outcome by voting for your favorite band online. Believe it or not, it makes a difference. If you don't have an opinion in areas like "best visual artist" or all the acting categories, then just skip 'em and go on to the subjects you know about. Or just fill in the music section. Whatever, it only takes five minutes, go here and vote.

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So what are you doing this weekend?

Maybe going to see Minipop tonight at The Waiting Room, opening for White Rabbits? Well, why not. $8, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night is The Good Life at Slowdown with Georgie James and Zookeeper. $10, 9 p.m. This is must-see stuff, so see it.

Me, I'll be out of town most of the weekend, so drop by the webboard and let me know how it went.

Just posted, a rather long interview with Tim Kasher of The Good Life, where Tim talks about his screenplay called Help Wanted Nights, the script that the CD of the same name is sort of based on. In fact, most of the story is about the script (if you want to read a review of the album, go here) as well as life in Los Angeles, the movie industry, the Good Life and Cursive. Read the story/interview here.

Will this script ever be produced? After this interview, I'm convinced it will be, eventually. But it could take a long time, maybe even years. By then, Kasher already may have had a different script produced -- he wrote three before he wrote Help Wanted Nights, and finished a new one over the summer. Anyway, go read the story, then come back and read the rest of this blog entry… we'll wait.

Dum-de-dum-de-dum *looks down at his watch*….

Ah, you're done. Thanks for coming back. In my opinion, Kasher should shoot some exteriors in California and then come back to Omaha and shoot the entire film in O'Leaver's -- that's the lounge that was in my mind's eye while reading the script.

Moving on…

You might have noticed that I added a strikethrough in yesterday's column. It was pointed out to me by a reader and by Team Love executive Matt Maginn that I erred in saying that you can't download Tilly and the Wall's Wild Like Children in its entirety at team-love.com anymore. You can, just like you can download some of the other Team Love releases -- not all, but most. Well, a few, anyway. I screwed up by going to the site, looking at the releases pages and not finding any links to download the tracks. They're there, you just have to search for them (and don't bother going to the "downloads" page). Apologies to Team Love for my screw-up, and thanks to those who pointed it out. Now go to team-love.com and start downloading!

Tonight at The Orpheum Theater -- Wilco. Unbelievably, as of noon, the show was still not sold out (according to the One Percent Productions website). Get your tickets now ($29). Andrew Bird opens the show at 8 p.m.

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I'm listening to the new Radiohead as I type this, specifically track "Bodysnatchers." Is it me or is Radiohead turning into U2?

The numbers are in for last weekend's Lincoln Calling festival and they're pretty good, but still missed organizer Jeremy Buckley's target of 1,500 paid patrons. Buckley estimated total attendance for all four days at 1,250. "In hindsight, I think 1,500 was a pretty high hope," he said, "that would have been 100 per show regardless of the show."

He said no show drew fewer than 40 people. The top attendance was for Maria Taylor, Head of Femur and The Balance -- all drew around 130 per show. On the other hand, Box Awesome's opening night DJ show and The Song Remains the Same drew about 40, while the early-evening Zoo shows drew only 50, as did the Domestica/Capgun Coup show at Duffy's.

So, will there be a 5th Annual Lincoln Calling next year? "So far, that's the plan," Buckley said. Here are the numbers by venue:

Duffy's
Thursday (Domestica/Capgun Coup) - 50
Friday (The Song Remains the Same) - 40
Saturday (Ideal Cleaners/Gito Gito Hustler) - 80
Sunday (Head of Femur) - 130

Zoo Bar
Thursday - (early-Tijuana Gigolos/Cory Kibler) - 50; late (Cornerstone Dub) - 70
Friday - (early - Charlie Burton) - 50 (late - Matt Whipkey) - 75
Saturday - (Killigans) - 90

Knickerbockers
Thursday (Maria Taylor) - 135
Friday - (The Balance) - 130
Saturday - (Eagle*Seagull/Little Brazil) - 100

Box Awesome
Thursday (DJ night) - 40
Friday - (Bear Country/Flowers Forever) - 100
Saturday - (Somosphere/Flobots) - 100

* * *

Tomorrow, Tim Kasher talks about Help Wanted Nights. See you then.

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That's right, if you're wondering why you didn't get any mail today, now you know. I'm running a bit behind, and just have time to tell you to head down to Slowdown Jr. tonight. In addition to Head of Femur and the return of Son, Ambulance, you'll also get a gander at Joe Knapp's other project, Cherry Papers. All for a mere $7. Such a deal. Starts at 9.

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Well, Regina Spektor was upstairs at Sokol (sorry OWH, but you got it wrong…again), and it was sold out. Where did all these people come from? Where can one hear Regina Spektor on the radio? In Omaha, the answer is nowhere. I figured she might be played on one of the many women-directed light-rock stations that litter the FM dial, but Teresa, who listens to those stations faithfully, has never heard Regina on any of them. The question came up with a couple of people who were working the show -- one said that Spektor had been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, and that her mom was a huge fan. And I've seen the video for "Fidelity" a few times on MTV2's Subterranean, which is the only bit of sanity left on MTV these days. So, CBS Sunday Morning and MTV2 are the reasons behind Regina Spektor's sell-out of Sokol Auditorium? No…no. I'm sure there's a better reason...

We strolled in at 9 p.m. after watching our Yankees blow it due to a plague of bugs invading Cleveland, we got a beer and walked to the back of the crowd and just then, the houselights dimmed and out came Spektor carrying a microphone. She opened the show singing an a cappella number, tapping her mic in rhythm -- a touching intro. Too bad it got marred by some chick talking in full-voice to her friends, completely ignoring what was going on on stage. The chick, who desperately was trying to look like Britney Spears, just kept right on yacking throughout the whole show. If it were any other rock concert, it wouldn't have mattered because the noise level would have drowned out her big, gaping cake hole. But this was a Regina Spektor show, which featured only Regina and a grand piano. It was the kind of concert that would have been terrific held in The Orpheum or The Scottish Rite or, best of all, The Holland Center. Not in the cow barn we call Sokol Auditorium stuffed with 1,400-plus eager young fans and one Britney wannabe pacing the back of the room, barking like an obnoxious poodle. When she wasn't yelling to her friends, she was yelling into a cell phone. The crowd kept turning around, a few yelled "shut up" but this one wasn't going to stop for anyone. Had I paid $20 for tickets, I would have been pissed. Instead, I moved to the side of the auditorium by the merch area, away from Britney and the masses.

Regina Spektor is an amazing singer/songwriter, there's no arguing it. She writes flamboyant, theatrical songs that sound like modern-day Russian lullabies -- beautiful and charming. Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes of watching her sit behind a piano, it gets rather boring. At one point she got up and played guitar, but for the most part, it was pretty dull. I can imagine her playing larger rooms, arenas where big screens are on either side of the stage, showing live video of the performance -- that would certainly be more interesting, but not much, not really.

* * *

So what's going on tonight? Well, there's that free concert down at Slowdown (Tilly and the Wall, Baby Walrus, and Bear Country) starting at 9. I have a feeling there could be a long line of kids fashionably dressed in Urban Outfitter gear waiting to get into that gig.

Instead, I'll likely be at O'Leaver's for Ketchup & Mustard Gas, Theodore and Bad Folk. According to a post on Slam Omaha, K&MG is "Andy of Cap Gun Coup, Dustin of Paria and Mark of Dance Me Pregnant." Sounds good to me. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Also tonight, down at The Saddle Creek Bar, Denver indie band Light Travels Faster with Birds and Batteries. $5, 9 p.m.

And don't forget Lincoln Calling.

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So where is that Regina Spektor show tonight? The redesigned Sokol website, along with Regina's own site and Ticketmaster say it's upstairs at Sokol Auditorium. The Omaha World Herald, however, says it's down in Sokol Underground. Any other time I'd just ask One Percent Productions, but they're not putting on this show. I guess I'll find out when I arrive. Spektor has a cute, quirky piano-driven sound reminiscent of Tori Amos but without Amos' bullshit melodrama and pretension. There's an honesty to Spektor's music that Amos could never have. I wouldn't be surprised if this one was moved downstairs. Spektor might be a Subterranean darling, but she's unknown around these parts. As of noon today, this show is SOLD OUT, 8 p.m.

Elsewhere tonight, The Waiting Room is hosting twang-mistress singer/songwriter Pieta Brown with Minneapolis folkies The Pines and Omaha's own Paper Owls. $10, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night is the big Urban Outfitters "Grand Opening Celebration" down at Slowdown with Tilly and the Wall, Baby Walrus and Bear Country all for free and starting at 9 p.m. O'Leaver's is hosting a show by two bands I've never heard of -- Theodore and Bad Folk. $5, 9:30 p.m. O'Leaver's shows sadly are becoming rarer and rarer these days.

Sunday at O'Leaver's it's The Lepers with Ferocious Eagle ($5, 9:30 p.m.), while The Waiting Room is hosting Jake Bellows and Friends -- who could these "friends" be? $7, 9 p.m.

Of course, don't forget Lincoln Calling, going on all weekend. Check out the Lincoln Calling website for all the latest schedules.

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First, in Lincoln Calling news, I'm told that Saturday's late-night music offering at Box Awesome isn't Goo, it's Derek Pressnall's Flowers Forever DJ extravaganza. I haven't been to Goo yet, so I don't know what it entails. Goo obviously is thematic, and I'm told Pressnall and his posse painstakingly select the material to match specific Goo themes, and I'm sure there's even more to it than that. Regardless, Jeremy Buckley contacted me asking if I could clarify that Saturday ain't Goo, so there you go. That said, "Booty Goo" is tonight at Slowdown, and Lincoln Calling also launches this evening.

Also today is the "soft" opening of Urban Outfitters down at the Slowdown compound. Looking out my office window, I didn't see any banners or balloons or clowns giving out free Pepsi. I guess we'll see the big stuff on Saturday for the official "Grand Opening," which will feature DJs Brent Crampton and Derek Pressnall spinning at the store from noon to 4 p.m. (and, no, that ain't Goo, either), then a free concert at Slowdown at 8 p.m. featuring Tilly and the Wall, Baby Walrus and Bear Country. And Urban will be donating 10 percent of their sales from their opening weekend to the Nebraska AIDS project. Right on.

The real event is the store itself, which almost didn't happen at all. The OWH printed a story on the store in yesterday's issue (here) where they describe it as some sort of industrial high-design concept. It sounds cool, but at the end of the day, Urban Outfitters is the home of the $28 T-shirt (that can go up as high as $48), hoodies that range from $34 to $198, and jeans that range from $49 to $220. The catalog is online here.

I think it's probably a good fit for the Slowdown project, though American Apparel is sort of the new "cool" shop for kids these days. The fact that they're selling a lot of Saddle Creek merch is smart. When it wasn't looking like UO was going to open down at Slowdown, I suggested to the Creek guys that they open their own shop that featured clothing and music from their warehouse and Ink Tank -- after all, plenty of people will make pilgrimages to Slowdown if only because it's operated by Saddle Creek. They didn't like the idea, saying that Sub Pop tried a similar thing and it bombed. Now it appears they have the best of both worlds.

With UO opening, there are only three pieces of the Slowdown puzzle yet to be placed. First, that Blue Line coffee shop/bistro. I'm told that it's slated to open "this fall" -- well, it's fall now, folks, and it ain't open. I suspect you won't see it until this winter (or later).

Then there's the empty restaurant space originally dedicated to Yia Yia's. If I were the Creek guys, I wouldn't let go of that idea -- just like they didn't let go of Urban Outfitters. Yia Yia's is a perfect fit, whether Yia Yia's agrees or not. Finally, there's those vacant artist living spaces/galleries that run along Webster St. Yet another great idea, if they can only find some artists with enough jack to move in.

And speaking of artists… Coyote Bones is putting on a special performance tonight at 6 p.m. at The Bemis, followed by something called "Slide Jam," where 16 regional artists will present five minutes of their art one-after-another. David Matysiak and The Family Radio's Nik Fackler will be among them, with Nik playing guitar for both shows -- not your typical night out.

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The burning question I had about Lincoln Calling that isn't addressed in the column below deals with motivation. I've seen most of the bands on the schedule before, or will likely be able to see them sometime soon at an Omaha venue. Why would someone like me want to drive Lincoln to see them during the festival? Event organizer Jeremy Buckley said that he's not really targeting "someone like me." Sure, he'd love to see all the usual music goers at the shows this weekend, but he's really after the folks who -- for whatever reason -- rarely go to shows (but always want to). Buckley said that the typical Maria Taylor or Capgun Coup show doesn't get covered in all the media the way Lincoln Calling does. The event raises public awareness and gets people to get off their lazy asses and head out to the venues.

Can Buckley reach his goal of drawing 1,500 patrons this year? Let's look at the event from a day-by-day perspective:

Thursday: Duffy's show looks like a sell-out -- you can't beat Domestica, and there's a lot of buzz about Team Love's Capgun Coup. Knickerbockers could sell out, too -- Buckley says there's a lot of Saddle Creek fans in Lincoln who have been waiting for a show like this.

Friday is the wild card. Will people go to Duffy's to see Zeppelin tribute band extraordinaire The Song Remains the Same? Buckley's concerned. He said Duffy's patrons have a history of shunning "tribute or cover bands." He insists that The Balance (a band I haven't seen before) has a large fanbase and will draw at least a couple hundred people to Knicks. The show at Box Awesome would do very well in Omaha -- people come out for Flowers Forever and Bear Country. But as Buckley said, in the past Omaha stalwarts like Little Brazil have drawn as few as 30 people in Lincoln. The sleeper event could be the Lincoln version of Goo. Buckley said he talked Derek Pressnall into hosting the event since he'll be playing earlier that evening anyway. Goo is huge in Omaha, and Buckley said he knows a lot of people who make the pilgrimage to Omaha for the "dance party" whenever it's held at Slowdown (there's one going on Thursday night, actually). This could be the biggest night of the festival.

Saturday's highlight (for me, anyway) is Eagle*Seagull and Little Brazil at Knicks. That said, I would probably pass on this show since E*S plays here almost monthly, as does LB. Buckley points to the Killigans show at the Zoo as a lock. The cold, hard fact is that all these shows will be competing with Nebraska V. Missouri, a game with an 8:15 kick-off that will run well past 11.

Finally, Sunday's back for Lincoln Calling, but only out of convenience. Head of Femur was slated to play Duffy's anyway. Buckley asked the band if they'd want the extra promotion that comes with Lincoln Calling. Why not?

So, to pull off 1,500, Buckley will have to do at least 500 on Thursday, 500 on Friday, 300 on Saturday and 200 on Sunday -- a tall order indeed.

Tonight at The Waiting Room, Sound of Urchin with Life After Laserdisque. $8, 9 p.m.

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One thing I didn't have room for in last week's column about David Matysiak and the Bemis (here) was that David planned to christen the new Bemis recording studio with his old friends The Black Lips while they are in town for tonight's show at The Waiting Room. From what I saw a week ago, the session would merely be a test of how well the room sounds, as there was a lot of work left to do, including constructing a window through the wall that separates the actual recording studio from the mixing room. Still, not a bad way to get the studio off the ground. Matysiak and the rest of Coyote Bones opens for Black Lips tonight, along with The Selmanaires. $10, 9 p.m. -- and still not sold out, as of lunchtime. Maybe it's not sold out because everyone's going downtown to Sokol Auditorium for One Percent Production's very special Mandy Moore concert, which also features Ben Lee and Chris Stills. Just $23, 8 p.m.

It's amusing to go to the One Percent website these days and notice that every date on their online calendar is filled. I don't remember that ever happening before. Business must indeed be booming.

Tomorrow, look here for this week's column, an interview with Jeremy Buckley, the instigator behind the annual Lincoln Calling music festival, which kicks off this Thursday.

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My weekend plans were stymied by a bad hotdog acquired at a Fort Calhoun high school football game Friday night. I'm not kidding. Always be wary of hand-consumed food prepared at crowded gatherings in farm communities, brought to you from a "back room" by your former typing teacher. I didn't see much hand-washing going on by the food-prep kids, most of whom looked like VICA volunteers. I should have known better.

A couple headlines to start off your week, specifically reviews of Bright Eyes' performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl Saturday night. The Los Angeles Times review (read it here) makes it sound like the orchestra didn't add much to the festivities: "Mostly, however, he (Oberst) remained unengaged with the talented troupe behind him. He turned around at one point and shouted, 'You still awake up there?' Then after they had departed, he made a comment about their 'lemon-sucking faces.'" Huh? The Orange County Register review was even more critical (read it here): "Saturday's hit-and-miss stab had as much to do with Oberst's players as himself. Keysman Nate Walcott, for instance, had the task of arranging this material, primarily from the group's latest disc... More than Oberst, Walcott deserves credit for both the marvelous moments and the misfires, while the less-than-dynamic, sometimes lead-footed band should shoulder some of the blame for the spotty bits." While playing with the LA Philharmonic is something of an achievement for Bright Eyes (or for any pop band, for that matter), it's time that Conor gets rid of all the choirs and orchestras and dual drummers and gets back to fronting a plain ol' folk-rock band.

I've been listening to the new Cave Singers disc off and on for about a month now. Not reading the one sheet, I thought the lead singer was a woman doing a Stevie Nicks impersonation. In fact, it's a guy doing a Stevie Nicks impersonation. The Seattle trio is sort of Matador's answer to Two Gallants, but with a more varied folk-rock style (and shorter songs). Black Mountain is Stephen McBean's primary experimental psychedelic freak-out indie rock project (he came through here last year as Pink Mountaintops, remember?). The music is sort of Black Sabbath meets Syd-era Pink Floyd. Their last album -- their groovy debut on Jagjaguwar -- came out two years ago, which means it's time for something new, which I assume we'll be treated to tonight at The Waiting Room. $8, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, just down the street at PS Collective, Kansas City duo Far Beyond Frail plays their style of Lillith Fair female-fronted adult contemporary pop. Opening is Omaha keyboard-and-drums duo Shiver Shiver. $5, 9 p.m.

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First, there's an interesting story on Bright Eyes' trip to Anchorage in this week's Anchorage Press (read it here), where Oberst compares the level of desolation between Alaska and Nebraska. "We come from a pretty desolate place too." Well, not that desolate, Conor. Wonder when Bright Eyes is going to play Hawaii (maybe they already have).

Moving on to the weekend...

Tonight at Slowdown, it's the return of Two Gallants, who were just there in August. Opener Blitzen Trapper sounds like a psychedelic indie alt country freak-out, at least on their recordings. $8, 9 p.m., with Songs for Moms.

Meanwhile, over at The Waiting Room, the Box Elders open for Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs. Dave and them thar McIntyre boys are always entertaining. $8, 9 p.m., also with Ric Rhythm and the Revengers.

Tomorrow night it's Merge band Oakley Hall at The Waiting Room with The 1900's and Omaha's own The Third Men. Oakley Hall plays twangy indie rock influenced by bands like Wilco. $8, 9 p.m. (scenester alert).

Meanwhile, over at The Saddle Creek Bar, Israeli experimental noise rock band Lebanon (myspace here) plays with Prize Country. $5, 9 p.m., while Kyle Harvey and Scott Severin play at The Barley St. 9 p.m./free.

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The original plan was to feature both David Matysiak's residency at the Bemis AND his record label, Coco Art, but there wasn't enough room for both.

Coco Art is an interesting story by itself. Essentially a co-op label, Matysiak said the idea was to create a way to get his and his friends' bands heard by a larger audience, kinda like how another label around here got started a decade ago.

Originally launched with Coyote Bones, Flowers Forever (who are now on Team Love) and Dereck Higgins, the label recently added Hyannis and Baby Walrus, and will be releasing the debut by The Family Radio, Ghost Blood Stories, in the near future.

It's a strong stable, but Matysiak says he can't imagine making any money off the venture, nor was that ever his intention. "It would be nice (to make some cash), but I would just reinvest it right back into the label, anyway," he said. "If we had money, we would press the new Baby Walrus record on vinyl. But not having money shouldn't limit or stop us. We're trying to put out records and do shows and other cool things. If we can sell a few records, that's great, but the main focus is getting people to hear our music."

Nice, but it sounds like his long-term vision is for Coco Art to become a true vinyl label. "CDs are dead, people need to get used to it," Matysiak said. "Vinyl will be there, and digital will be there, too, to download. But if you want to hold it, you'll hold vinyl. CD is an extinct format."

If that's true, than why bother putting the Coyote Bones' Gentleman on the Rocks out on CD? "It was a question of money," Matysiak said. "We have a publicist, we bought a van, we toured a bunch of times, we made shirts, we've gone as far as we could with the money we had. It came down to 'Do we buy a van or put our record out on vinyl?' We wanted to hit the road and make enough money to get the vinyl out as soon as we could. The CD artwork was made for vinyl. It had to be shrunk for the CD, and I hate it. "

Matysiak was so sure that Gentleman on the Rocks would eventually come out on vinyl that he had 500 copies of the CD burned without the jewel cases so that they can be given away with the vinyl. "We will give you the CD if you buy the vinyl," he said. "You'll have both, and also get the nice handmade artwork. And the vinyl will be there forever whether you play it or not."

I think Matysiak's approach of giving a CD with the vinyl (or giving the vinyl with the CD, depending on how you look at it) is better than what Merge and Saddle Creek are doing with their digital download program -- where vinyl buyers get free downloads of the albums to use in their iPods. But it's also more expensive.

Now, the column:

* * *

Speaking of Matysiak, he's playing a solo set at Mick's tonight with Jamie Weime. 9 p.m., $5. Go!

* * *

Bright Eyes made yet another appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night. If you missed it, I'm sure it's available somewhere in the Interweb. The band performed "Four Winds," with Leno introducing them holding a vinyl copy of Cassadaga (and commenting how he liked the fact that it was a record). Missing from the band was violinist Anton Patzner. Without him and his distinctive violin intro, the song sounded only half there. That violin line is central to the song, which made me wonder why they chose to perform it without him. Overall, a nice if not uneventful performance that looked and sounded great in HD.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room, geek dance band The Mathematicians perform with opening band, the amazing Satchel Grande (worth the price of admission by themselves) and Microphone Jones. $7, 9 p.m. Also, completely unbeknownst to me, The Donnas are playing at Sokol Underground. I once saw them play a somewhat boring set at Emo's in Austin years and years ago. 8:30, $17.

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The Reader is asking more and more these days for feature-length CD reviews as a prelude to upcoming shows. Such was the case with Two Gallants, who I just interviewed about a month ago (here) when they played Slowdown. Well, they're coming back to Slowdown this Friday, this time to support their new self-titled album:

Tomorrow, this week's column featuring David Matysiak and the Bemis music residency project, and some words about the Coco Art collective.

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First and foremost -- it was the smokiest show I've been to since the ol' Smokel Underground days. It was the first show where my eyes hurt from the smoke afterward, as smokey as the famous Sokol Built to Spill show from seven or eight years ago. Smokier than The Brothers and O'Leaver's combined. It was weirdly smokey.

Part of the reason was the size of the crowd. One of the folks who runs The Waiting Room insisted that it wasn't sold out, yet it was the biggest crowd I've seen there, ever. You could not approach the stage. I ended up sandwiched against the wall behind the soundboard for the evening. It was especially crowded during Outlaw Con Bandana's set, probably because people were milling around instead of crowding the stage room. Outlaw put on the best performance that I've ever heard from them. Playing as a trio, Brendan Hagberg sounded like a cross between John Hiatt and Vic Chestnutt ripping through a set of short, moving Woody-esque folk songs. Gorgeous stuff.

The Good Life followed shortly after. I don't have a lot of time to go into detail, other than to say that Help Wanted Nights works as well live as it does on CD. After listening to it for the past few weeks, I have to conclude that it may be the best thing Kasher has done since Domestica (I know, I said that about Happy Hollow, but this is better than that). Roger Lewis' usual rat-a-tat-tatting was replaced with good, solid, throaty drum action (drums always sound good at TWR). The set was a mix of new stuff and old, as you'd expect. He also threw in a cover of Tom Petty's "You Got Lucky," which seemed out of place and out of sync. That said, I guarantee if he plays it on tour that every reviewer will go out of his/her way to mention it. That's one of the problems with covers...

Tonight at The Waiting Room, it's Gore Gore Girls with The Goddamn Rights and The Matt Whipkey Three. $8, 9 p.m.

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For those of you who may have missed it, Crawdaddy did an interesting feature on Capgun Coup last week that talks about Omaha's houseparty culture (Read it here). Writer Brenda Paro talks about Hotel Frank, formerly known as Gunboat and The Jerk Store. A good read.

Tonight it's The Good Life at The Waiting Room. The band will be playing songs off their new album, Help Wanted Nights. Will Kasher and Co. do as they've done in the past and perform the entire album in sequence? Find out tonight. As of this writing, the show had yet to sell out. $8, 9 p.m., with Outlaw Con Bandana and Thunder Power!!!

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Well, it looked like the same 60 people were on hand last night at The Waiting Room that were at The Howard St. Tavern 14 years ago. I have to admit I was a little bummed at the turnout, but after all, there were a lot of shows going on last night. Actually, that's no excuse. The real reason why this show didn't draw is because people 'round these parts just don't get/understand/like this style of music. It has nothing to do with the quality of the band, it has to everything to do with the style of music they play -- straight-on '80s-flavored post-ambient bleak-rock a la Joy Division. For Against (in one form or another) have been playing this style of music for more than 20 years, and have always drawn the same few but loyal fans. The average age last night had to be in the 30s, though there were a few youngsters there, including For Against's new drummer, Spring Gun's Nick Buller, who was nothing less than stellar, having only practiced with the band three times (ever) before taking the stage. Buller is a powerhouse, with the huge, booming chops that this style of music needs -- nay, demands -- to be effective. Buller, who's young enough to be Runnings' or Dingman's son, was flawless, as if he'd been playing with the band since the '80s. This music is quite a contrast to the Explosions in the Sky-style post-rock that Spring Gun is known for. It is, in fact, much more intricate and unforgiving -- there is no second drummer (as in Spring Gun) to smooth over the rough spots, just Butler sitting alone on the riser giving one of the most impressive performances from a drummer I've seen this year. Hope he has his passport in order, because it sounds like he'll be joining the band for its upcoming shows to Spain this year and a European tour early next year.

It's a good thing he had it all going last night, as Runnings and Dingman were in prime form. I spoke to a few folks who have seen For Against over the years -- they told me it was the best this band sounded since the original line-up days in the late '80s. Runnings' voice has not aged, it has the same high, childlike tone heard on those early recordings, the perfect, almost ironic counterpoint to the band's bleak, lonely, lost music. Runnings of course played his upside-down bass for lefties and doubled on keyboards, while Dingman soared on electric guitar (including a 12-string Ovation), occasionally kneeling in front of his amp, praying to the god of feedback.

For Against played favorites from the reissued early discs, including "Echelons," "December," "Autocrat," and Euro dance hit "Amen Yves." But other highlights included a number of new songs that carry on the same For Against style but with a heavier, more chopped guitar sound. I'm looking forward to that new disc in early '08.

By the end of the set, the crowd had moved in front of the stage, and the scene looked like a rock show. After their set, people yelled out requests, begging for an encore and getting it -- one song because that's all they had prepared. That'll have to change as they get ready for Europe and crowds that won't take no for an answer. Here's hoping they blow up across the water, and people here begin to wonder why they can't get another For Against show. Maybe in another 14 years.

Opening band Pharmacy Spirits also put on a good show. I wondered why I had never heard of them before, until someone explained that the band is two-thirds of Lincoln's Bad Sects (with a different bass player). It was the guitarist/frontman who made it work, showing off some impressive skills on the ol' ax. Sounds like they have a new album coming out soon as well.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room, it's Qui, featuring David Yow of The Jesus Lizard and Scratch Acid. Will Yow show off his trademark gonzo stage antics? Pay your $10 and find out. In fact, get there early for The Stay Awake and The Lepers.

If you're not up for the crazy shit, head on down to Slowdown Jr. for Pedro the Lion's David Bazan, with The Winston Jazz Routine. $10, 8 p.m.

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All critics get accused of playing favorites once in a while. Who can blame people for thinking that? But the fact is, there are subtle ways you can tell when a critic is trying to avoid panning a band. Here are a few telltale comments to look for in a review that indicate that the critic is "being nice":

-- "These guys really showed a lot of potential…"
-- "The band looked confident on stage…"
-- "Their drummer never sounded better…"
-- "You'd never know that this was only their eighth gig…"
-- "The lead singer really knows how to please a crowd…"
--"They certainly brought their fans tonight…"

The trick is to sidestep any real description of how the music actually sounds -- that is, if you don't want to lie. These days, I avoid all of this simply by not writing about bands that suck, unless they're national acts, which deserve whatever they get. That said, sometimes it can't be avoided, and that's when you piss people off. A band may tell you "Seriously, I want to know what you think," right up to the point where you tell them what you really think. When this happens, I usually follow it with something like, 'Look, it doesn't matter what I think anyway as long as you're doing what you want to do' or 'I'm really not very knowledgeable about the type of music you guys play' or 'Regardless of what I think, I've talked to a half-dozen people here who loved it.' And so on…

I lead with this lengthy preamble because I went to see Honey & Darling last night and I know Sara, the cute little lead singer, from her work with One Percent Productions. Anyone who's met her will tell you she's just too sweet to say anything negative about. Well, I'm not "being nice" when I say Sara and her sideman (I don't know his name) have "it," whatever "it" is. She's got a great voice, knows her way around a guitar and writes terrific songs with interesting chord progressions and lyrics that are obviously personal and genuine. I'd compare her to a clean version of Girly Sound-era Liz Phair or early Suzanne Vega. She's as good or better than most of the stuff I've heard on K Records for the past couple years. Keep in mind this was only her second performance in front of a crowd, and there were a few problems (She blew a guitar solo; she could work on her stage presence). The important thing is her songs, which stand on their own, played only with a couple guitars. As the guy standing next to me said, "Imagine how she'd sound with a full band." That'll have to wait as Sara continues to search for a drummer and bass player. Stay tuned.

Also playing last night was Alina Simone, the "out of town" performer who played at The Waiting Room just a few months ago. It was typical singer/songwriter stuff, accompanied by a drummer, but with an edge, thanks to her soaring voice and edgy guitarwork (She played a guitar-stick-like device for part of her set that was pretty cool). Unfortunately, there were only 30 or so people on hand to hear it. She's coming back later this year, opening for McCarthy Trenching, where I'm sure the crowd will be a bit larger.

Tonight in the Old Market, Kite Pilot plays with Satchel Grande and Steve Rabine at a free concert held on 12th St. between Howard and Harney. I'm told Kite Pilot will be performing a cover of a Protoculture song, which by itself makes it worth the hassle of trying to find a place to park. Show starts at 6.

Tomorrow night is the big For Against show at The Waiting Room (read about them here). It's the first time these guys have played in Omaha for more than a decade. Still no idea who will be playing drums for this gig, but it should be special, as the band will perform both old and new material. Opening the show is Pharmacy Spirits. $7, 9 p.m.

Also tomorrow night, indie pop-masters The Brunettes play at Slowdown Jr. with Ferraby Lionheart. $10, 9 p.m. Over at O'Leaver's it's a four-band punk rock bill with Dim Lights (I'm told they have a shoe-gazer appeal), Across Tundras, The Shanks (someone call the cops!) and Mosquito Bandito. $5, 9:30.

Finally, Sunday at Slowdown Jr., it's the return of David Bazan of Pedro the Lion fame, with The Winston Jazz Routine. I saw Bazan do a set at The Saddle Creek earlier this year and it was spectacular. $10, 8 p.m. Meanwhile, over at The Waiting Room, The Stay Awake and The Lepers open for Qui. $10, 9 p.m.

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St. Vincent's Annie Clark performed alone last night at Slowdown with just her electric guitars, her duo microphones, her cabinet of sampled beats and noises, and no, it wasn't as stellar as her July show at The Waiting Room when she was backed by a real band, but it was still pretty durn good, and at times, downright great. Is she the next Polly Jean Harvey? No, she's too clean for that, too nice, too cute, too sweet. Still, she knows how to play that guitar, how to grind out the noise when she wants to create a ghostly pop sound while keeping afloat the delicate melodies heard on Marry Me, which might be the best female-voiced indie album of '07.

I was less enthusiastic about The National, but that's probably because I wasn't in the mood for their brooding, dense sound. Though all six members were busy doing what they do, I wondered how they'd sound as a four piece, with their music stripped to the bare essentials. After the first few songs, you pretty much got the gist of what they were about. Missing was the dynamic depth heard on their records, as everything came at you at the same speed and intensity. The sold-out crowd, however, loved it.

* * *

I was told last night that first week sales for the new Good Life album exceeded the first week for Album of the Year, and that the CD even entered the Billboard charts -- an achievement. So what's my take on the album? Well, since you asked:

* * *

Any band that writes a song called "Tony Wilson" is all right in my book. Such is the case with Honey & Darling, who opens tonight for Jake Bellows and Alina Simone at The Waiting Room. H&D's music is sweet and sassy and a little sad, and if you go to a lot of Sokol Underground shows, you very well may recognize the wee frontwoman as the person who either took your money or handed you that flyer after the show. Check out their quaint acoustic ditties at their MySpace page. $7, 9 p.m.

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What was your favorite show at O'Leaver's? Join in on the discussion on the webboard (here), where I've already added my two cents. I think there'll be a lot of this kind of reminiscing and hand-holding going on -- maybe even a few tears shed -- as we celebrate O'Leaver's birthday on Saturday.

But before we begin the debauchery, there's tonight's entertainment, not at O'Leaver's, but at The Waiting Room, where STNNNG plays with Ladyfinger and Red Eyed Legends. (I was a bit surprised that Ladyfinger wasn't on the O'Leaver's schedule tomorrow (Chris Machmuller, after all, is a bartender there), but the band will sadly be out of town on tour.). STNNNG puts on a, well, "stunning" show. $7, 9 p.m.

There will be some pre-festival entertainment going on at O'Leaver's tonight, where Reagan and the Ray Guns perform with She Swings, She Sways, $5, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, of course, is O'Leaver's anniversary show. I wouldn't be surprised if they delay the start time to compensate for the rescheduled start of the Nebraska v. Nevada game. Bands are now slated to start at 2:30, cost is $8. The line-up, again: Ric Rhythm & the Revengers, Dance Me Pregnant, The Third Men, Sarah Benck and The Robbers, Coyote Bones, Life After Laserdisque, Ted Stevens, McCarthy Trenching, Neva Dinova and Little Brazil. Mello tells me there will be burgers and Italian sausages and so forth available if you plan on eating something with your booze. I forgot to mention in yesterday's write-up that DJ's Double Trouble w/ MC Candlepants will be spinning it inside after the bands finish at 11.

Also Saturday night, Harvey Sid Fisher plays at The Waiting Room with Miracles of God, Alex McManus and Simon Joyner. The stars should align as the king of rock astrology, Harvey Sid Fisher, plays his sing-songy Sesame Street-style ballads dedicated to the 12 signs of the zodiac, which became a staple on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as well as the Midwest indie music circuit. Fisher brings the stars to life with lyrics that even doped-up followers of astrology will understand. For example: "Talkin 'bout the Taurus, talkin' bout the bully bull bull..." Moo. $7, 9 p.m.

Sunday it's all about the hair of the dog with three hot shows. (Hey, we all have Monday off, remember?).

At The Waiting Room, Kyle Harvey opens for Anders Parker. $8, 9 p.m.

At O'Leaver's, it's Outlaw Con Bandana with Or Does It Explode and Darren Hanlon. 9:30, $5.

Monday at Slowdown, it's Brooklyn 4-piece Dirty Projectors with Yacht and FTL Drive. $8, 9 p.m.

Cold Call...

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One aspect of O'Leaver's business plan that I kept out of the story due to lack of space -- O'Leaver's always has had a policy of giving bands free beer all night. Mello and Conway said they just figured it was standard policy at any venue (They're wrong, of course). The only time that policy has become a financial risk is when Bloodcow plays at O'Leaver's. "Every time they play, they cash a keg," Mello said. "They had 49 pints one night between the four or five of them." Conway said that's about $250 in lost beer sales -- serious money for a place like O'Leaver's. On the other hand, there are nights when bands don't drink at all because they have to drive to Denver or Minneapolis right after the show, so it all evens out in the end. Probably.

The birthday bash Saturday should be a real hoot. Performing out on the tarmac next to the volleyball courts (in this order) are Ric Rhythm & the Revengers, Dance Me Pregnant, The Third Men, Sarah Benck and The Robbers, Coyote Bones, Life After Laserdisque, Ted Stevens, McCarthy Trenching, Neva Dinova and Little Brazil. Food shall be available. Rumplemintz shall flow like wine. The event already has been thrown one curve ball with the Nebraska game being rescheduled to start at 1 p.m. That could really screw things up for the first couple of bands. But we're talking Nevada here. The game should be decided in the first quarter, right?

Tonight, Peoria band The Forecast returns to O'Leaver's for the fourth or fifth time -- they must really love the place. Landing on the Moon opens for a show that's as good as a preview of Saturday's action as anything. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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The fine folks at Speed! Nebraska sent out their summer/fall update last week. It's an aggressive schedule that rivals the output of any other Nebraska label. Among the releases:

--The Third Men's long-awaited debut, Boost, is slated for release next month. I've been hearing about it for what seems like forever. I'm sure we'll be getting a sneak peak at some of the new songs when The Third Men perform at O'Leaver's anniversary show Saturday afternoon.

--The Monroes' new 7-inch "Drillin' Daylight" is happening in September or early October (on red vinyl, no less). It was recorded at the world-famous Hitt studios in beautiful Havelock.

--Ideal Cleaners' new long-player, Muchacho, is slated for a mid-September release.

--Bombardment Society is finishing up tracks for Pistons, which will be out in early fall.

--Last but not least, Domestica have been recording at ARC Studios (that's the Mogis compound) for a Speed! release with a street date TBD.

In addition, rumor has it that Speed! Nebraska will have new apparel available in the near future. Half my rock-shirt wardrobe is taken up by Speed! Nebraska gear (including very rare D is for Dragster and Mercy Rule T-shirts that we all know would fetch hundreds on e-bay). Check out speednebraska.com for more info.

* * *

You may have noticed that the Reviews Matrix was finally updated Monday night. While logging 70-some discs into the table, I got an idea for a new blog feature called "Cold Call," wherein I randomly pick a CD off the stack every day and review it. I figure, at the pace of a review a day, I'll get through all the CDs on the Matrix sometime in 2010. If the disc is a real stinker, there may only be a "No" rating and a summary of what they were trying for. Some reviews will be more detailed. Look for the first one (probably) tomorrow.

Hopefully, I'll get some help burrowing through the stack of discs from my trusty intern, Brendan Greene-Walsh, who owes me a shit-ton of reviews (Where the f*** are they, Brendan?). Here are some leftover Brendan reviews that I've been sitting on:

This week's column (online tomorrow) is a brief history of O'Leaver's in celebration of five years of vice and debauchery. See you then.

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Time only to tell you that Dave Goldberg and the McIntyre brothers' band, Box Elders, are opening tonight along with Dim Light for touring post-punk band Times New Viking at The Waiting Room. $7, 9 p.m. Go!

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What's not to love about Benson these days? Friday night I parked my car along Maple St., strolled down and chatted with the guys that run The Waiting Room who were outside getting some fresh air, then walked down to Mick's (passing Espana along the way, which was jumping with some sort of event) to catch The Matt Whipkey Three before high-tailing it at 11:30 to The Barley St. Tavern for Dereck Higgins' set. The only thing missing from Benson/Maple St. is a place you can duck into (or that has a window that opens to the sidewalk) that sells pizza by the slice (like they have on 6th St. in Austin). That would be pure Nirvana and a no-brainer business for some ingenious entrepreneur.

Back to our story. I can say with all certainty that the line-up surrounding Matt Whipkey Friday night was clearly the best since The Movies. The trio format forces Whipkey to strip the arrangements to the bare essentials and refocus melodies in a way that edits out the excesses of Anonymous American while going beyond the simple acoustic strumming heard in his solo sets. It's more subtle, more direct, more dynamic. As a result, the rocking parts rock more, the ballad-y moments are more ballad-y. With Benck adding backing vocal touches and Zip's perfect, simple drumming, this could be the configuration that pushes Whipkey to the next level if he can pen some memorable songs and get all of them out on the road.

My take after stepping inside The Barley St. for the first time: O'Leaver's has a rival for the crown of dumpiest, smelliest music venue in Omaha. That said, the bar does have a vibe (and odor) all its own. The music room is located in a separate chamber behind the bar. Like O'Leaver's, there's an overall rec-room appeal to Barley St., with assorted junk tacked to the walls and a capacity that I would guess-timate at around 40. Also like O'Leaver's, there's no question that the people who first built the tavern never intended to host live music there, but somehow it works, and works fairly well. It was SRO Friday night for Dereck Higgins and his band that included Gary Foster on drums and Bill Eustice on bass. Like Whipkey, the trio configuration really complimented Higgins' performance and breathed new life into a set that featured a number of songs off his last two CDs. A tiny crowd of groovy hippies danced in front of the faux stage throughout the set, while Higgins introduced songs with lines like, "We're going to space on this next one." Charming and appropriate. Barley St. obviously doesn't need much in the form of a PA to pump out rock music with the crowd mere feet from the performers (and with Foster's crisp, cracking, precise drumming style). With the right booking, the club could become an important venue for acoustic and just-getting-started touring indie bands that are too small even for O'Leaver's.

Onto Saturday... We walked up to Dundee Days late Saturday afternoon, past the fenced-in staging area where Oxygen was busy playing their version of alternative rock. We intended to at least pick up a hamburger or Italian sausage in the beer garden, but noticed that one of the burly security guys was taking money. I wasn't going to spend $3 for the opportunity to spend another $5 for a cheeseburger (Subway, here we come). I'm curious at how an event sponsored by my neighborhood association and the surrounding local businesses can charge a cover when it's being held on the streets that are maintained by my hard-earned tax dollars. Why wasn't admission free?

It also costs $3 to get into Dario Days, but that event was held on private property and wasn't funded by any association money. Dario was putting this on all by himself, and one assumes the $3 per head was being used to pay the bands.

When we got to Dario's there was maybe 30 people sitting behind tables in the pseudo beer garden parking lot. A variety of Belgian beers was being served at $5 to $7 per draw. At first this sounded like an extreme rip-off, considering the cups were so small. I realized after drinking two of them, however, that this beer was a lot more potent than my Rolling Rock, and a lot tastier. Foreign Elfest -- another in an endless series of drum-and-electric guitar duos -- came on at around 7 and played a set of rather minimal indie rock. A few of the melodies were sort of pretty, though the mix was too muddy to understand anything being sung. Considering the simplicity of the songs' chords, I wondered why the lead guy didn't just play an acoustic instead of his electric guitar. I blame The White Stripes for this ongoing disdain for bass players. Bands like the Stripes, Black Keys and Two Gallants can pull it off because their guitar players are performing aural gymnastics. Most other duos, however, don't have that luxury and the result is a sound that's half-finished.

After Elfest, Jake Bellows performed a surprise solo set (Dave Goldberg joined in on drums for a few numbers). Jake's forlorn, king-of-the-road laid-back style perfectly augmented the down-low feel of the whole event and made me wonder what's going on with that Neva Dinova disc. We left and grabbed our sandwiches at Subway. When we got back, Jake was still playing. Quite a long set. It was starting to get dark when Outlaw Con Bandana came on -- they were playing entirely in silhouette, back-lit by fluorescent lights blaring from the open garage door behind them. The only lighting in the crowd were the floods from the beer trailer and a single flood light mounted on the side of the Blue Line building. Outlaw -- performing as a trio with no drummer -- did their usual set of woody, Folkway's style old-time music made all the more haunting by the lack of light. By the time we left at around 9:30, the entire beer garden area was filled -- a sizable crowd, but nothing like the rowdy nightmare taking place outside Trovato's that we avoided on our way home.

Tonight at Slowdown Jr., Omaha touring band Go! Motion (see live review) plays with Louisville rockers People Noise. $6, 9 p.m.

Lots of shows going on this weekend. Here's what's on my radar:

Tonight at The Barley St. Tavern in Benson, it's legendary Omaha bassist/singer/songwriter/guitarist Dereck Higgins (The Family Radio, ex-Digital Sex) with Space Age Polymers. I've never been to the Barley St., which is located at 2735 No. 62nd St. (just south of The Waiting Room). 9 p.m., FREE.

Just down the street at Mick's it's The Whipkey Three, featuring Matt Whipkey, Sarah Benck and Scott "Zip" Zimmerman. Sarah Benck opens the show, starting a 9 p.m. $5.

Tomorrow's big event is Dundee Days, specifically the stage located next to The Blue Line, sponsored by Dario's. The line-up as of right now is Box Elders, Bear Country, Foreign Elfest, Outlaw Con Bandana and The Lepers. The show begins at 5 p.m. and admission will probably run around $3. Expect plenty of Belgian beer available on tap. At around the same time, Dundee Days also will be hosting a long list of bands on a stage across from Trovato's.

Tomorrow night, Scott Severin and The Milton Burlesque headlines at The Waiting Room with Oliver Future & The Black Squirrels. $7, 9 p.m.

Sunday night is Magnolia Electric Co. at The Waiting Room with Golden Boots and No Blood Orphan. Expect to hear a broad selection of songs from Jason Molina's career, as well as tracks off the new Sojourner box set. $8, 9 p.m.

Also Sunday night, Baby Walrus is playing at O'Leaver's with Maps and Atlases, and Nurses. $5, 9 p.m. The new Baby Walrus CD is a real head trip and deserves further study by everyone reading this.

* * *

This week's column is a rehash of last week's review of Song Remains the Same at The Waiting Room, along with some commentary regarding cover bands, etc. No idea when these guys are playing again, but I'll likely be in the audience…

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The interviews for the Matt Markel/Ranch Bowl story (which I placed online this morning, here) were conducted on two separate occasions -- once in June 2006, and a second time last week. The No. 1 question that people ask when I tell them that I talked to Markel: How's he doing? People know about his stroke, but few have actually spoken with him in a long time. My personal non-medical assessment is that Markel was much more alert and fluent last week than he was a year ago, when his speech was still choppy and hesitant. The improvement, Markel said, was the result of speech therapy, which he received at Lakeside, along with other therapy as part of his recovery. He said Lakeside is only a temporary home, and that he eventually will be returning to his house.

The story covers Markel's history with The Ranch Bowl, from its purchase through its glory years, the radio station, the studio, and finally his stroke and the venue's eventual sale to Mike Brannan and Dan Crowell. The plan was for Wayne Brekke to pick up the story from there, with interviews with Brannan and Crowell, but Wayne didn't have any luck getting in touch with them. That being the case, you can get a glimpse at what happened next by reading this interview with Brannan from back in 2002, and this follow-up column I wrote few years later, when it was announced that the property had been sold for development by Wal-Mart. Did Brannan ever really intend to fix the place up and make it into a first-class venue? We may never know, though I've always had my doubts.

It's fun to speculate what would have happened if someone else had bought The Ranch Bowl. Would it still be open today? Depending on the owners, probably. Had Brannan actually followed-through on his original intentions, I think it would have been a huge success. The location was absolutely prime. And now it's going to be just another Wal-Mart, a store that I refuse to shop at. What a waste, what a shame.

FYI... the photo used at the top of my story was taken from behind the Ranch Bowl property looking east. You can sort of make out where the sand volleyball courts used to be (to the left).

* * *

An update on yesterday's item regarding Dundee (Dario) Days, I'm now told that Capgun Coup will not be performing at the outdoor event. I'll pass on more details as I get them.

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Just placed online, an interview with Magnolia Electric Co.'s Jason Molina (read it here). It's brief. The reason: The publicist sent me a link to Molina's Pitchfork interview, which couldn't have been more comprehensive. I read it and thought, 'What more is there to ask?' So my few questions, delivered via e-mail, focus on Molina's Nebraska connections, Mike Mogis and Roy Orbison. Check it out, and check out the show this Sunday at The Waiting Room with No Blood Orphan.

Here's an early head's up about an impressive outdoor show this Saturday as part of Dundee Days. The gig, which will be performed in the parking lot next to Blue Line Coffee, has a line-up that includes:

Box Elders
Bear Country
Foreign Elfest
Capgun Coup
Outlaw Con Bandana
The Lepers

I'm told Dario's is one of the event's sponsors, so expect a beer garden with a good selection of Belgian brews. When does it begin and what's it cost? I don't know. The band lineup has been posted on the Foreign Elfest myspace page. In fact, that's the only place online that I've seen this show mentioned. If it takes place at the same time as Dundee Days' always-lame rock show, there could be some sound-quality issues, as Dundee Days' stage is super-loud (and located right across from Trovato's). I'll post more when I find out more.

Speaking of shows, tonight at The Waiting Room the always-entertaining Filter Kings are taking the stage, along with glam punkers The Designer Drugs, The Deformities and The Goddamn Rights. $7, 9 p.m.

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I'm not avoiding blog updates, I'm just buried under writing assignments, all of which will appear on this site throughout the rest of the week. The main event is a story focused on The Ranch Bowl -- specifically the Matt Markel years -- based on an interview with Markel that took place last Thursday, the same day Markel went out to the site and watched his old club get torn down. It's part of a cover story in this week's issue of The Reader, but I'll have my portion online here Thursday. Also this week (tomorrow, to be exact), a brief interview with Magnolia Electric Co.'s Jason Molina. This week's column is a rehash of last week's The Song Remains the Same live review, with some additional comments about the virtues of cover bands. Look for it Friday.

A couple noteworthy shows are going on tonight. Down at Slowdown Jr., it's Capgun Coup with Or, the Whale. By now, we all know about Capgun. Or, the Whale plays music in the same vein as Okkervil River, a band that seems to be riding a well-deserved wave of hype based on their new album. $6, 8 p.m. Meanwhile, over at The Waiting Room, Hydra Head recording artist Pelicans (from Chicago) plays with Clouds and Your Black Star. $10, 9 p.m.

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I thinking of going to this Yardbirds show down at Lewis & Clark landing (also featuring Matt Whipkey and Anonymous American and two other opening bands). Here's what I could dig up on how the event works: Admission to the show is free, however, fans are encouraged to donate a few dollars to the Omaha Food Bank. Volunteers will be on-hand during each show to collect donations. Gates will open at 4 p.m. and music begins at 5:15 p.m. Vendors will be available to sell food and beverages (outside food, drink or pets are not allowed). You are allowed to bring lawn chairs or blankets. Visitors can park in a limited number of free spaces or take a retro Metro Area Transit bus from downtown city parking garages to the landing. You can also park and ride for free at the Gallup Campus located 1.25 miles north of the concert site. The "landing" is located directly next to Rick's Cafe Boatyard and across from the Heartland of America park.

Also tonight, an evening of artsy indie noise rock with Fromanhole (myspace) at O'Leaver's with Minneapolis band Self Evident (myspace) and Life After Laserdisque. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Thunder Power!!! plays at The Saddle Creek Bar with New Jersey indie band Fairmont (myspace) and Sight Unsound. $5, 9 p.m.

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Non-Led Zeppelin fans, please skip to the * * *

I'm not someone who is prone to hyperbole (that means "extravagant exaggeration" for all you word-power wonks out there). In fact, I'm often accused of going the other way -- of being too negative, too nit-picky. That said, last night's performance by The Song Remains the Same was a freak-of-nature quality thing of extreme beauty. I say this having literally been raised by Led Zeppelin -- John Paul Jones used to help me pick out my clothes for school in the morning while John Bonham made me waffles and Robert Plant helped me brush my teeth. Jimmy Page was the lazy dad who always ran downstairs with a newspaper in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other while struggling to put on his suit jacket as he kissed my mother goodbye.

You get the picture. I know Led Zeppelin. It's just about all I listened to in high school. That said, The Song Remains the Same is the next best thing to being there. Consisting of drummer Javier Ochoa, bassist Bunny Geist, guitarist Corey Weber and singer Jason Pollard, the band is a dead-on sonic replica of Led Zeppelin -- in fact, a few people who've seen Zeppelin in person said they might be even better. Believe me, I've seen more than my share of lousy covers of "Rock 'n' Roll" over the years. These guys are eerily good, almost too good for their own careers, unless their goal in life is to be in the best Zeppelin tribute band in the world.

It's all there. They know every lick of every song, but are smart enough to avoid trying to duplicate it. In other words, they capture the essence of Zeppelin instead of providing an exact replica. Still, any Zeppelin fan would marvel at what I heard at The Waiting Room last night. Ochoa's muscular style and technical process is impeccable, as evidenced by their cover of "When the Levee Breaks" and Bonham solo tool "Moby Dick." Geist's bass playing made me rethink John Paul Jones' role in the band -- absolutely integral (The only thing missing was a keyboard).

Which brings me to Weber and Pollard. Weber is no Jimmy Page, but there can be only one Jimmy Page, and Weber knows it. He doesn't do a note-for-note dupe of Jimmy's solos, instead he makes his solos work enough to push the songs forward. More importantly, he nails the Page riffs that defined the band's sound. Unbelievable guitar tone. Powerful. Accurate. Groovy.

Finally, Pollard. The story I was told last night is that he was discovered by Geist singing karaoke at Grandmother's. Pollard is a freak. He even physically resembles Plant (with a little Kenny G thrown in). I promise if you see this band you will marvel at his vocal prowess. He has the full range of a Robert Plant at age 20. He knows every nuance, every vocal riff, every little touch that any Zeppelin fan would recognize. You expect him to disappoint you during the high notes on the classic songs off I and II, but he never does. It left me shaking my head with my mouth wide open. He even does some the telltale gestures that we all know from hours of live Zeppelin footage that we've all seen in the movie the band is named after. The pointing hand, the side slouch, the mic-chord wrist whip. He prances, he preens.

Look, I'm not overselling here. People around me, people I talked to afterward, were agog. Yes, they're that good. In fact, I'm certain they could tour the country doing this if Pollard's voice could handle singing like that every night (and I don't know how it could).

You could criticize them for their stage presence -- Weber was wearing an untucked western-cut shirt, Bunny wore a Thin Lizzy T-shirt. On the other hand, if they wore ruffled velvet suits or if Pollard was shirtless and wearing a vest, it might push the whole thing into campy/kitsch territory… that is, until they started playing. Once you heard them, you wouldn't care what they were wearing.

Wisely, they selected mostly songs from the early albums (Pollard said II is his favorite). The high point was "The Ocean," the low point was "Dazed and Confused" (but even that sounded respectable). Between sets (that's right, they did two long sets), Weber asked for requests and I said anything off III, but specifically "Tangerine." They didn't have that one ready, but instead did "Out on the Tiles." Awesome.

Yes, I know I'm going on and on about a tribute/cover band. I don't care. I haven't had that much fun at a show in long, long time.

* * *

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming, already in progress. But wait, before we do, I can't forget The Third Men, who played a set of covers before TSRTS with new drummer Matt Bowen. Pretty awesome stuff. I've heard a number of these songs performed by them before, specifically Wings' "Jet" and Richard and Linda Thompson's "Wall of Death." Both better than ever. The set also included some Bowie, Soft Boys, The Necessaries, Status Quo and The Knack, among others.

OK, on to tonight's marquee shows: First, Eagle*Seagull and Kite Pilot at Slowdown Jr. E*S's new stuff is top-drawer indie dance rock that's irresistibly catchy. It'll be interesting to see how well it goes over with the Slowdown crowd. This will be one of the last times you'll get to see Kite Pilot with guitarist/vocalist Austin Britton before he heads back to the left coast. $5, 9 p.m.

or

The Terminals and The Shanks at The 49'r. You could argue that these bands play too often, except for the fact that you never know what'll happen at one of their shows. Terminals are always easing in new material. This being at The Niner, I suspect that someone will probably get hurt during The Shanks' set (and boy, will it hurt so good). Shanks will be hawking a new 5-song limited edition (only 50) CD EP, unpleasantly titled Urine Heaven. I assume (and you know what happens when you assume) that it's out-takes from same sessions that produced their new "Big Feelin" 7-inch, which is a violent and abrasive joyride. Translated: A must have.

Over at O'Leaver's, it's Noah's Ark Was a Spaceship w/ The King Hen. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Finally, over at The Saddle Creek Bar (they've been busy lately), it's The Screens, Paper Owls, Seymore Saves Saves The World, and Shiver Shiver. $5, 9 p.m.

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Cloven Path return to O'Leaver's (their roost, their stomping grounds) for a show tonight with Nymph and Demon Attack. It could (will) get messy. $5, 9:30 p.m. Meanwhile, over at The Waiting Room, it's the unveiling of the The Third Men, V 2.0 with Matt Bowen (ex-Magic Kiss, ex-The Faint) on drums. We won't get a chance to see how Matt does with Third Men music, however, since the band will be playing a set consisting entirely of covers (exactly which covers, I don't know). It's part of an evening of cover bands at TWR that features The Song Remains the Same -- a Zeppelin tribute band -- in the headlining position. To say I'm well-versed in all things Zeppelin is an understatement, so I'll be approaching their set with a critical ear (if I go). There was originally supposed to be a Van Halen tribute band on the bill tonight as well, but I'm told they weren't ready for prime time. $7, 9 p.m. Finally, over at the Saddle Creek Bar, Oklahoma City singer songwriter Ali Harter takes the stage with fellow Oklahomans The Non. Harter has a vocal and songwriting style that's sometimes reminiscent of Feist (her myspace). The Non plays indie rock instrumentals (or so I assumed based on their myspace page). Both bands will also be playing at The Zoo Bar in Lincoln tomorrow night. $5, 9 p.m.

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This week's column is a conglomeration of a number of blog entries from last week centered around Sunday's Memorial Park Concert, with a few new touches added. The point: the Memorial Park Concerts could become an important series that not only brings the city together for a music event but could also attract out-of-towners, if only more thought went into the event itself.

Just about every online indie publication (and Saddle Creek Records) has reported that Bright Eyes has canceled its upcoming European dates (Aug. 15-19, including V Fest) due to "illness." What kind of illness, no one is saying. The fine folks over at Omahype reported that Bright Eyes' core member Nate Walcott performed with Dave Rawlings last night at The Waiting Room (and something tells me he'll be playing with Gillian again tonight in Lincoln). Is this a classic case of Amy Winehouse-style "exhaustion"?

Tonight, Lawrence indie band Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk (myspace) plays at The Saddle Creek Bar with Bears. $5, 9 p.m. .

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I dropped in on the Memorial Park concert yesterday at around 4 p.m. and already the storm clouds were beginning to form in the west. The brutal heat had been somewhat abated by the overcast skies, but it was still muggy and uncomfortable. On stage was Pomoroy, a band no better or worse than Plain White T's; they just happened to have gone unnoticed with their bleatings. It was by far the loudest concert I've ever heard in the park -- painfully loud, earplug loud. Maybe it was so loud because there were no warm bodies to muffle the noise. The place looked empty. I talked to a cop at the top of the hill, who estimated the crowd at just over 1,000 and at its zenith up to that point in the afternoon. He said they'd all been informed of the oncoming storm, and expected it to hit at around 6 p.m., but even then it looked like it could start raining at any moment. I rode back home and battened down the hatches. By 5:30 our house had lost power and we fumbled around in the dark until 2:30 in the morning before the lights came back on. Apparently after the initial storm passed, the show went on, or at least that's what I assumed based on the muffled echoes of the band heard from my house at around 7 p.m. I figured they'd cancel the show, but I suppose the city was going to pay The T's whether anyone was there to see them or not, so why not make them play anyway?

The moral to this story: Don't host concerts in the park in the middle of August when the heat index is over 100. Why not have these concerts in early October or late spring when it's cooler outside? There must be a reason...

Sad news from Europe: Tony Wilson, the father of Factory Records and the Hacienda in Manchester died of a heart attack Friday. Wilson was a visionary who signed such bands as Joy Division, Durutti Column, Section 25, A Certain Ratio, New Order and Happy Mondays. In some ways, Saddle Creek Records seems to be paralleling Factory Records, right down to the opening of Slowdown. A BBC report on Wilson, complete with interviews, is on YouTube here: Pt. 1 and Pt. 2.

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The draw for The Rentals at Slowdown last night was disappointing, or as it was described by one of the venue owners, the place was half empty… or half-full, depending on how you looked at it. The management decided to close the balcony in an effort to make the crowd look larger and more compact. "You don't like seeing bands play to an empty room, do you?" I don't mind, as long as I'm not sitting on the floor, which was where I sat most of the evening between bands because there were no seats available (except up in that closed balcony area). I guess sitting on the floor makes it more like a "real concert experience" circa the 1970s and the days of festival seating. I suppose.

Goldenboy came on at 8:30 playing a somewhat vanilla set of adult-alternative rock. I wish I could tell you more about their sound, but the band left virtually no mark on my memory other than the fact that all the members wore hats. Apparently a number of people came to the show to see Coldplay…er, Copeland, judging by people walking around with Copeland T-shirts. Frontman Aaron Marsh mostly played keyboards, sometimes switched to acoustic guitar, and had a voice reminiscent of Bryan (not Ryan) Adams. They played the kind of unadventurous smooth-indie rock that compliments bland TV shows like Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs. Bands like The Fray come to mind. Kudos to their drummer, who was a fill-in guy playing only his second show with the band. He was phenomenal. I can only imagine how their full-time drummer must sound in comparison.

Finally, there was The Rentals, all seven of them tumbling out onto the stage, taking their various positions that they'd switch throughout the evening. It wasn't until they started roaring into their hits that it dawned on me what a flat, monotone voice Matt Sharp actually has. Think about it. Those songs off their first album had a natural charm to them because they seemed to be sung by a droning nerd. Actually, come to think of it, that's also the charm of Weezer's first album, too (There's not a lot of vocal range on "Undone (The Sweater Song)"). The monotone drone is less noticeable and actually somewhat likable on The Rentals recordings, but live, Sharp just sounds like he can't sing. To dress it up, he backs himself with three women, two of which really can sing, especially original Rentals member Rachel Haden, whose vocals glowed above everyone else's. Not surprisingly, the new material off their EP sounded better than the old stuff reinvented (which, at times, was unrecognizable). Sharp has said in a number of interviews (including one with me) that crowd response on this tour has been rousing, with people dancing and pogo-ing and singing along with the hits. Last night's audience, on the other hand, while respectful, hardly moved despite Sharp's aerobic efforts (along with viola/vocalist youngster Laura Chipman) to get them into the set. It just wasn't happening.

A brief note about Slowdown's sound system: This was the first national band that I've seen on their big stage, and as expected, the sound was impressive. It's the first concert I've been to that was really loud without hurting my ears (In fact, hearing protection wasn't needed). Sightlines are impeccable. As Teresa said afterward, this is the place to go to see a band you really like.

Tonight's recap is below (or here). I'm still leaning toward The Stay Awake/Bombardment Society at The Saddle Creek Bar. Whatever you do, try to stay cool.

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If you combine all the OWH press and TV airtime dedicated to covering the Omaha music scene over the past 10 years it wouldn't equal the amount of ink spilled and airtime squandered by local media this past week toward American Idol auditions at the Qwest Center. Looking for yet another angle to cover the whore-ish event, today's OWH put together this comparison of "Indies to Idols," looking at things like hair styles, drinks and songwriting. Funny. Somehow during their comparison they left out what motivates the Idols and the Indies. But I guess that wouldn't be very funny, would it? So are people taking this whole Idol thing too seriously? Probably not. It is, after all, the highest rated show on television and has launched a handful of untalented mega-stars.

Moving on…

It's a busy weekend of shows, starting tonight with The Rentals, Copeland and Goldenboy at Slowdown. Rentals mastermind Matt Sharp (who was genuinely concerned about the Idol auditions -- he thought Slowdown was located right across the street from the entrance to the Qwest Center and was worried that lines of people would be clogging up the works.) said their set will blend songs off the first two Rentals albums along with tracks from the new EP. Last time I checked, the show wasn't sold out. $18, 8 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Waiting Room, it's the twangified rock of Forty Twenty with Lonesome Lloyd and the Hard Acres. You could go to The Rentals show and still catch the tail end of this one. I've never seen Forty Twenty, but from what I hear from the guys who run TWR, they put on a helluva show. $7, 9 p.m.

Electric Needle Room and The Fucken Snakes are hosting an "American Idol Rejects Show" at Shea Riley's tonight. The hook: People who don't make it onto the show (which will be everyone who auditions) will get in for $2 instead of $5. It's a cute idea, unfortunately, the kind of people who would audition for AI would never go to a show at Shea Riley's or any other club that hosts original live music.

Also tonight down at The Saddle Creek Bar it's Christians & Lions, One for the Team, Foreign Elfest and Johnny Nobody. $5, 9 p.m.

Saturday night is just as packed show-wise. I will likely be down at The Saddle Creek Bar for The Big Al Band -- that's right, Al Hatfield, the guy behind the Killing Diva film has put together a two-piece metal act that's debuting Saturday night. Opening is maybe the city's best noise rock band, The Stay Awake (featuring Steve Micek), Panang (who are these guys?) and maybe the city's best loud noise band, Bombardment Society. That's a power-packed punch for just $5. Starts at 9 p.m.

Over at PS Collective, Paper Owls is hosting a CD Release Party for their new EP, Leaves, Trees & Galaxies. Six dollars will get you into the all-ages event along with a free copy of the CD. Opening is Pictures of Lily. 9 p.m.

Also Saturday night, metal animals Bloodcow play at O'Leaver's ($5, 9:30 p.m.) and Chicago-based indie band Lacona plays at Slowdown Jr. with High Places and Soft Circle. $7, 8 p.m.

Finally, there's Sunday and the concert in the park. Uh, who's idea was it to book the Plain White T's?

Going back in time, all the way to the '70s, there were rock bands whose claim to fame wasn't the bread-and-butter power chord extravaganzas that they hoped would make them famous, but instead, insipid acoustic heart-on-your-sleeve ballads that would plague their live shows for the rest of their careers.

The first one that comes to mind: "Beth" by KISS, a Grammy Award winning song that even your mother could enjoy. Forget the fact that it was sandwiched between crotch-kick rock ballads like "Detroit Rock City" "Flaming Youth" and "Do You Love Me." "Beth" was the song that KISS was famous for, at least by the Johnny Lunchbucket crowd that could give a shit about heavy metal.

"Only Women Bleed," by Alice Cooper, "Stairway to Heaven" by Zeppelin, moving into the modern era, "More than Words" by Extreme, "Name" and "Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls, the painfully awful "Time of Our Lives" by Green Day, the list goes on and on. All million sellers, all not indicative of the band's usual pumped-up sound. In the worse case scenario, people would spend $50 to see these bands, thinking they were going to get a night of warm, doe-eyed guitar strumming but instead got a bleeding earful of their lousy rock antics. They patiently waited to hear that one acoustic hit and then bulleted for the doors.

Methinks that's the case with Plain White T's. It dawned on me the other day that this was a band that had a No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Hey There Delilah" -- the top dowloaded song on iTunes -- and I never heard it before. Remember the days when you absolutely could not escape a No.1 Hit Record? Everyone had either bought it or quickly sickened of hearing it played in heavy rotation on every radio station in the city.

No more. What station plays the Plain White T's hit single? Not the plethora of retro stations. Not The Z. Not the urban stations. The River? Maybe. It wouldn't surprise me. Surely someone is playing it on the radio somewhere. Right? Right?

Further research was needed on my part, and it involved Napster. Turns out the Plain White T's hit is another one of those acoustic ballads we were just talking about. The band, according to Allmusic.com, is characterized as a "Pop Punk" or "Emo" in the style of Jimmy Eat World, Saves the Day and Jets to Brazil. Their sound actually runs closer to Avril Lavigne. So, translated: 10,000 hot, sweaty, angry people impatiently waiting to hear the hit song, and they'll have to suffer to the end to get it.

Did I say 10,000? Let's take into account all the factors here:

-- A band that's virtually unknown except for its one hit song, who before the single exploded would have been hard-pressed to draw in a sizable crowd at Sokol Underground.

-- A forecast heat index of around 110 during the concert's zenith.

-- A 1 p.m. start time, with a wrap-up of around 6 p.m. (no fireworks).

-- A strong opening line-up that includes Little Brazil, McCarthy Trenching, Sarah Benck and Matt Whipkey -- all fine performers that are unknown beyond the 300 or so people who listen to local indie bands.

It all adds up to a draw of, what, maybe 2,000? Look, if the weather's good, two guys farting into a paper bag on stage will draw 2,000 people to Memorial Park for a free concert. Families are starving for something to do these days. Two years ago, 311 was a natural draw, pulling in more than 20,000 people. Last year's Bright Eyes show had a curiosity factor for those who've heard of the band but never actually heard their music. Oberst is a local boy, by god, and deserves our support whether the music sucks or not. Maybe 10,000 were there (though I doubt it was that high). Now here's the Plain White T's -- no local connection whatsoever, and yes, a No. 1 hit, but it's not played on radio or TV. Ultimately, decisions must be made. Who wants to push a stroller to the park in 100-degree heat and humidity for a band they've (luckily) never heard before?

I will be there long enough to gauge the size and tenure of the crowd, then I'm heading back home. Look for me as you traverse the throngs of humanity back to your car. I'll be the guy sitting on his porch with a shotgun cradled in his lap, yelling warm, neighborly phrases like, "Don't put that THERE! Pick it up! Now!" or "Leave it alone. Just. Leave. It. Alone."

Look for weekend updates. I'll try to review the Rentals show tomorrow...

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Before we get to this weeks column, a brief comment about last night's show:

Funny how the only remaining band from Saddle Creek Records that can raise welts on your backside by its sheer ball-bleeding power has been all but forgotten by its own label whenever it plays live on a local stage. Or so it seems.

Ladyfinger (forget about that friggin' NE, everyone else has) played at The Waiting Room last night to the same bunch of hard-rock enthusiasts that they play to every time they hit a local stage. If you've been to a rock show at TWR, O'Leaver's or Sokol Underground (and I don't mean one of those brain-dead local metal shows where guys dress up in bondage costumes and act like out-of-work professional wrestlers) in the past six months (or for that matter, The Brothers) you've seen this crowd before. It's a knowledgeable-though-inebriated bunch that is as well-versed in Slayer as they are in The Germs or The Replacements or the last Arcade Fire CD. They don't look like the guy that sold you your last set of tires, they look like the guy that mounted and balanced them, the guy sweltering out in the off-limits area of the garage that the sales guy said not to bother. Don't let their just-got-off-work-parking-cars appearance fool you, they know good music, and they love Ladyfinger, just as they should.

While those guys were standing in front of TWR's enormous stage last night like an angry pack of Dobermans poised in front of an air-conditioning vent after a hard day of guard duty in the local scrap yard, the folks at Ladyfinger's label were somewhere else, probably enjoying $8 cocktails down at their glass-and-waxed concrete bunker. Too busy to make that 10-minute drive up to Benson to see a band they eagerly signed a year ago, whose debut shriveled to a dry husk on their marketing vine. Who knows if there's ever been a post mortem for Heavy Hands or some sort of focus group meeting that tried to figure out what went wrong. The sales numbers are a mystery to everyone but the band, the accountants, and the warehouse guys who pass by the unopened cases of the CD every day while picking orders of Jenny Lewis and Maria Taylor discs. Early rumors were that it didn't just tank, it sunk to the very bottom of the ocean weighed down with enormous boat-anchor chains. The Creek online store posted a free promo for the first 100 buyers of the disc online -- that promo stayed there for months, who knows if it was just an oversight (though Creek Webmaster Jadon Ulrich isn't only one of the most talented artists and designers in the area, he's also one of the most diligent web guys around -- it's unlikely that he'd forget to take the promo down after the first 100 crawled out of the warehouse).

Ladyfinger certainly did their share of touring, so why didn't the CD make it into the CMJ top-20? These thoughts crossed my mind last night as I watched the band rip through one track after another from the CD in their usual threatening, monotonous pace. Listening to Ladyfinger is like driving a muscle car with only one gear -- once you get it started you can press down on the gas pedal as much as you want, but it ain't going any faster no matter how loud the engine revs. It's relentless and ruthlessly unyeilding in its white heat noise, always on the verge of throwing a rod. There's plenty of good material on Heavy Hands that has gone unheard by the record-buying public, and that still could be heard if somehow someone figured out a way to pump life back into the marketing stream. A mini tour by the band at the end of the month won't be enough. Looks like we'll have to wait until the follow-up gets recorded and released by Saddle Creek -- that's right, Creek is still very much behind this band, based on the interview I did with Nansel and Kulbel for the Slowdown opening. A better question might be is Ladyfinger still very much behind Creek? Even if they only sold 500 copies of Heavy Hands, they both could do much worse.

* * *

More Matt Sharp. By the way, I asked Sharp if he really had a chance to get back with Weezer as all the online press seems to indicate. He said the window of opportunity was only open for a brief moment in time, maybe two weeks. Rivers had a wild idea that the reunion would be good for everyone involved. But just as quickly as the window opened, it closed again.

Tonight at The Waiting Room, Noah's Ark was a Spaceship with Perry H. Matthews & Bazooka Shootout. $7, 9 p.m.

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Just posted, an interview with Matt Sharp of The Rentals (read it here). Matt talks about how juggling between Weezer and The Rentals drove him to a solo career, the reinvention of The Rentals, and the band's new EP, The Last Little Life. Sharp was such a good interview that I got enough to do an entire column beyond this feature, which will go online tomorrow.

Four, count 'em four shows are (probably) going on tonight, each worthy of your presence.

At The Waiting Room, Ladyfinger and Ideal Cleaners open for Philly band Mountain High, yet another rock band that sports two drummers. Ladyfinger is said to be unveiling some new songs and a new cover, while Ideal Cleaners is always strong. This being a Wednesday night, I'm afraid that Mountain High could get Omaha'd after these two fine bands. $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, down at Slowdown Jr., it's another two-drummer band, Spring Gun, opening for Page Francis and Bishop Allen. $8, 8 p.m.

Over at O'Leaver's, The Terminals are opening for Ames Iowa grooversters Radio Moscow (Alive Records). $5, 9:30 p.m.

Finally, according to the SlamOmaha music calendar, No Blood Orphan is opening for Penang at The 49'r tonight. I was unable to confirm this show at either the Niner's or NBO's myspace pages. Go at your own risk.

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CNN just reported that the Van Halen reunion tour is on again, featuring David Lee Roth, Eddie and Alex Van Halen. They've ditched Michael Anthony, which is sheer madness. I don't think people realize how much Anthony contributes to the band's overall sound through his harmonies. They'll find out when they hear Eddie's son Wolfgang croaking along to "Jamie's Cryin'." Despite that, I will be in attendance at this show if it comes to the Qwest Center. Whoops. Looks like Reuters has the story now, here.

Other than that, nothing to report. The Waiting Room is hosting a show this evening with a band called The Steed that I've never heard of. Paper Owls is opening, but they also have their CD release show this weekend at PS Collective. Also on the bill is Ric Rhythm and the Revengers. $7, 9 p.m.

This week you'll get a double-dip of The Rentals' Matt Sharp -- a feature story about the band online tomorrow, followed by a column of leftover interview material on Thursday. The show is this Friday night at Slowdown, by the way. Get an early head start by checking out Dave Liebowitz's The Dark Stuff podcast. The special edition is dedicated to The Rentals and includes an interview with Matt Sharp along with lots of music. A great listen, indeed. You can listen to it here.

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I recently quit doing site updates during the weekend, but based on the extreme length of this entry, I might have to start up again. Below is a recap of last weekend's live shows I attended. Busy, busy, busy…

Friday night

Pulling into the Sokol lot, it was just like old times. I hadn't been down there in probably six months, maybe a year. Not with all the other venues going full-bore these days. The Waiting Room has been eating up all the good One Percent shows. And now Slowdown is taking whatever's left on the plate. (O'Leaver's has been delegated to being a drunk shack used to house half-crazy alcohol-fueled local shows that go all-but-unheard by an audience numb and deaf after multiple shots of whatever the bartender feels like pouring that evening -- further building on its already legendary status).

Sokol Underground has become the prime site for all the crank-fueled metal shows and half-ass Jesus-loves-you Christian rock spectacles -- a shadow of what it was just a year ago, but that's not One Percent's fault or anyone's fault for that matter. One Percent has to protect its own, which in this case, is The Waiting Room, a club that, even after the opening of Slowdown, continues to shoulder itself ahead as the main event of Omaha rock clubs.

But I digress…

It'd been a long while since I stepped foot in Sokol -- I missed that dark, musty tomb. I pulled right into the parking lot at around 10:30 -- a bad sign in the old days that still is. If there's space in the lot, that means there's probably no one inside. There was, however, plenty of the usual riff-raff outside enjoying a smoke along with the evening's weather. While walking toward the entrance, up zoomed Denver Dalley in a chopped dune buggy, the chrome exhaust pipe sticking out the back like a giant shiny erection. Smokers gawked from the doorway. I haven't seen a dune buggy in years, and figured the DMV had long made them illegal, but Denver said otherwise, and if it wasn't street legal he'd have been busted long before making it to the Sokol lot.

Anyway… inside Sokol it was business as usual, as if I had just been down there the night before. The crowd of (what looked like) around 70 was mulling around after a set by The Shanks. Next up was Dance Me Pregnant, a gutter punk band that also includes members of The Shanks. Within a few minutes, the band cranked into their first song. Jeff, the hulking frontman (I don't know his last name, though I've talked to him a number of times at O'Leaver's) was onstage screaming, wrapping himself in microphone chord. Behind the drum kit was super-drummer Corey Broman, who later that evening would be performing at The Waiting Room as part of Art in Manila. But first, he'd have to get through this set, and that wouldn't be easy.

On stage, Jeff carries himself with the same demented panache as a late-'70s So. Cal punker -- guys like The Dickies, The Germs, The Weirdos, maybe even Fear, half-bent dudes who looked like they were about to explode from eating handfuls of amphetamines, snarling at an audience hungry for abuse. Early in the set, Jeff had apparently smashed one of Sokol's microphones, telling the crowd, "You know who's paying for that? I am." He made it through the rest of the set without destroying a second mic, but not without doing himself and someone in the crowd bodily harm.

I don't know exactly what happened. One moment Jeff was on stage bellowing out another trash-punk song, the next he was on the floor in front of the stage, lost in the crowd, before boomeranging back up on stage again, complaining about being kicked in the nuts.

He focused his attention on one guy -- just a shadow with a pony tail from where I stood leaning against one of Sokol's famous always-in-the-way poles. Then (and I can't remember if the band was playing or not), Jeff dived from the stage and (apparently) kicked the guy in the chest or face, breaking a bottle and then falling onto the floor. By the time he got back on stage, blood was rolling down his right forearm from elbow-to-wrist. The scuffle continued on the floor before the guy was either ejected or left (though I thought I saw him walking around in the back moments later). The show continued with Jeff reveling in his own blood, a perfect stage prop.

I've always thought The Shanks and Dance Me Pregnant could both become this town's feature spectacle punk bands if they wanted to. With each passing show, they get closer and closer to that level of unrestrained violence, that unpredictable chaos that characterized punk bands in the '70s, bands that I never got to see in action other than on grainy, poorly lit, porn-quality video tape. For some reason, I have a sense of nostalgia for that time and those bands, and look to Jeff and his band of drunken, angry cronies to bring it all back to life. Someone asked me if the Shanks/DMP spectacle is all premeditated or rehearsed. I think the intent is there, but what happens when these guys take the stage is always unknown to them, and us.

Jeff was back to his lively, happy self afterward, back behind the merch table, where I bought a copy of the new Shanks 7-inch. His face was bruised, and his clothes and skin were still covered in blood, blood that he'd wiped from his gashed forearm and rubbed all over his face while on stage (the gashes and bruises to his forehead, I was told, were self-inflicted and involved crushing a beer can with his face).

Headliner Cloven Path wasn't going to be outdone in the blood department. Moments after the trio's second song -- after the guitarist had taken off his shirt -- the guy standing next to me yelled, "Jesus, look at his chest!" Blood, again, was everywhere, but these cuts were self-inflicted. Cloven Path doesn't need the theatrics, not with their hot new lead singer dressed in short-shorts and biker boots. It'd been six months since I last saw this band, before they got "SinKat" (according to their Myspace page) to handle the vocals -- a much-needed addition if only to have something to look at other than the two bleach-white guys' naked bellies. Take aways from the performance: 1) SinKat sings like a young Debra Harry, a spooky-sweet, almost atonal voice that's a good fit for the band's metal-meets-club-beat sound. 2) It's time to throttle down on the programming. Their drummer handles himself just fine without electronic embellishments. 3) As much as I like trios, these guys still need a bass player -- the programmed bass just doesn't cut it. Too bad SinKat can't handle a bass -- how sexy would that be? Set highlights included a cover of a Cure song ("The Hanging Garden," I think) and the over-the-top closer that got the crowd into a frenzy.

Saturday night

Having had my fill of assault-punk at Sokol the night before, I skipped The Shanks at O'Leaver's and headed over to The Waiting Room for Spring Gun and Eagle*Seagull.

I realize that most bands are in a constant state of evolution, but Spring Gun takes it to the extreme. When I saw them at The Saddle Creek Bar in May, they were a wall-of-sound four-piece heavy on power and light on melody. Saturday night they grew into a 6-piece, sporting three guitars (one guy doubles on keyboards), a bass and two drummers -- enormous sound. But even more impressive was how the lead singer has grown into his frontman role, really capturing the essence of the songs' melodies, belting them out over the din. It left me wondering where I put that copy of their new album, which I didn't remember sounding this good. The guy next to me -- a local music power broker -- said if he had a record label, he'd put out these guys' CD -- he called them Nebraska's version of The Sea and Cake. Not bad, though these guys have an even bigger sound. Somehow, Spring Gun has emerged as one of the more important indie rock bands on the Omaha/Lincoln music landscape. There is an enormous buzz about these guys right now. Check them out when they open for Bishop Allen Wednesday night at Slowdown Jr.

Eagle*Seagull played last and gave their usual superb performance. Their set consisted almost entirely of new material, which I've seen them play three or four times now, and which they announced would be coming out early next year as The Year of the How-to Book (though they didn't say what label was releasing the CD). Two songs always stand out and I don't know the name of either, though one might be called, "We Came to Dance" and the other, "You're the Reason Why." If I had a label I'd put out this record just for its sheer commercial potential, but these days even that doesn't matter if no one discovers the music in the first place (just ask Little Brazil). Yes, Eagle*Seagull could be the next big thing out of Nebraska, but in this era when there are a thousand indie bands releasing new CDs every week, they're going to have to find some way to get their music noticed. Touring, it seems, just ain't enough any more.

Sunday Night

Briefly, I rolled down to Slowdown at about 9:45, a few songs into Two Gallants' set. Nice crowd, though not a sell-out. The band obviously didn't need to worry how they'd be received opening for Against Me! in Omaha. A large portion of the crowd was clearly there to see them, and the duo didn't disappoint. I like their electric stuff, though I would have liked to have heard the acoustic stuff from their new EP.

I took off right after they finished, at around 10:15. I would have stayed longer, but I had a deadline the following morning (for a Rentals article, that will be online Wednesday) (Actually, if I didn't have a deadline, I probably would have high-tailed it over to O'Leaver's for The 4th of July).

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Tonight at The Waiting Room it's Malpais (formerly known as An Iris Pattern) featuring Omaha's own urban legend, Greg Loftis. Malpais opens for The Cliks. $7, 9 p.m.

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