It starts tonight when Lincoln invades Omaha with The Killigans, Floating Opera, Tangelo, and Icarian Bird all on one bill for $5. It's part of starcityscene.com's Scenefest 3. Tomorrow night it's back to the basics, with The Third Men (ex-Sons of...), Left is West (Des Moines) and Mal Madrigal. Both shows are at O'Leaver's. And that's about it for the weekend. Note to O'Leaver's management -- update your friggin' online calendar!

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--

Column 23: Crouching Bono, Hidden User Fees
For most, the Qwest Center's dream is still out of reach.

What are you doing Dec. 15?

I know what I won't be doing. I didn't get tickets to the U2 concert.

I know what you're thinking: Surely, a rock music lover such as myself -- a critic no less -- with the obvious means generated from money earned by slaving over deadlines at The Reader shoulda/woulda/coulda glommed onto a pair of highly coveted floor seats located only a few rows from where a glistening Bono and The Edge will be showering sweat onto adoring fans who will rub the golden liquid into their skins in hopes that it will somehow merge with their very essence -- an unholy baptism into the church or rock and roll. Perhaps the fine folks at the Qwest Center, acknowledging my obvious importance as a local music scribe, slipped me a pair of laminated backstage passes so I could really "get to know" the band and share my eye-opening life-changing experiences with you, the reader.

But no. No tickets to the concert do I have. The day they were offered via a lottery system at the Qwest box office and online via Ticketbastard I was busy doing other things. It dawned on me later that morning that tickets had gone on sale only a couple hours earlier, but I knew it was too late, that the damn thing was going to sell out in minutes, which it did.

And you know what, I didn't care. It's not that I'm not a U2 fan. I practically wore the groove flat on my copy of Under a Blood Red Sky back in the '80s, back when U2 was still the angry young men from Ireland with 'a message." I stuck with them through their mainstream high-water mark of The Joshua Tree all the way through their inevitable mainstream downfall with '97's Pop.

Then I forgot about them, even though they came back with a vengeance with '00's All That You Can Leave Behind. By then, U2's music had become television commercial fodder, the perfect vehicle for selling product across X and Y generations. That idea would reach a zenith last year when their single, "Vertigo," became better known as "that song from the Apple commercial."

The irony is that just about everyone I know who's involved in the local music scene isn't going, either. They couldn't afford it or weren't "lucky" enough to snag a pair or simply weren't interested.

Meanwhile, folks who haven't been to a rock concert in years, who turned off music long ago for talk radio, whose only reference to Bright Eyes comes from "The Planet of the Apes," were crowing with great hubris over their good fortune. Their tales of ticket acquisition were burnished with pride -- how they waited in line for hours to land a lucky lottery number. How they concocted an arcane system involving five different networked computers laser-pointed at ticketmaster.com. How they knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who got them front-row balcony seats at face value. Oh yeah, they were going to U2 all right.

And it's not too late for you, too. E-bay's got a set of four center stage seats available right now for a buy-now price of only $1,999. Go get 'em, tiger.

Just as that U2 dust settled, along comes the next "big show" -- Paul McCartney, arguably the least talented and certainly least interesting of the Fab Four, will be dragging his badly dyed hair to the Qwest Center Oct. 30. Tickets went on sale Monday, and reportedly sold out in 14 minutes. Something tells me the lucky ticket holders will be the same people who will be watching Bono do his Vegas schtick this winter.

So two years after its completion, the dream of the Qwest Center has become a reality, at least for those wealthy enough -- or lucky enough -- to get tickets. For the rest of us, well, there's always Sokol Underground. And to be honest with you, I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be on Dec. 15.

Never underestimate the power of a good band name… or a bad one. I honestly believe about half of this band's fanbase was derived from its name alone. …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead -- or simply Trail of Dead -- sounds bad-ass right out of the box. It sounds cool when you say it: "Dude, you going to Trail of Dead tonight?" Sounds like you're going to see a death metal band instead of, well, an indie jangle-pop band. Their T-shirt sales must be massive.

I'll probably go to Trail of Dead tonight. My main motivation is seeing opening band Criteria, who are bound to unveil some of the new material from their soon-to-be released Saddle Creek CD. Don't know if they're playing before or after The Sword (probably before), so I recommend you get their early. Show starts at 8 and tix are $15. I'm surprised it isn't sold out yet, quite frankly.

If you don't feel like venturing downtown, mathy art-noise power trio Fromanhole is playing at O'Leavers' tonight after a somewhat lengthy hiatus. Also on the bill is St. Paul's V9R9D and local band Life After Lazer Disc.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--

Hella is the Sacramento duo of guitarist Spencer Seim and drummer Zach Hill. What? Another guitar-and-drum outfit like The White Stripes or The Black Keys? Not quite. Hella's just-released 2-CD package on Suicide Squeeze splits the writing chores in half, with Hill responsible for the Church Gone Wild disc and Seim responsible for Chirpin Hard. Add it up and it's almost two hours of jittery, hard-to-decipher prog noise. How they'll pull it off live is anyone's guess. -TSM

How did I manage to make a choice among the three shows going on last night -- The Stay Awake at The Niner, Aqueduct/Golden Republic at O'Leaver's and M. Ward at Sokol Underground?

The Niner was immediately disqualified because, well, it's the Niner. Bad sound and nowhere to sit on a typical Saturday (the only night they have live music) makes for no fun. And it's always more fun to be at a venue where you know someone there, and I don't. Looks like I'll have to wait to see The Stay Awake, again. I was told that M. Ward had sold 200 advanced tickets, which means it probably was sold out. Sokol Underground on a sold-out evening can be a blast if the act is high-energy. M.Ward is anything but. I've seen him a couple times before and wasn't in the mood for a night of solo acoustic confessionals (which is a nice way of saying I think he's boring live). I wouldn't be surprised if his buddy Oberst took the stage for a guest vocal. If anyone was there, please let us know how it went.

So the decision was actually pretty easy. O'Leaver's bands at least played upbeat rock. When I arrived at around 11 I ran into about a half-dozen people, all of whom asked why I wasn't down at The Underground. Seems the 70 paid had the same idea as me. Last night's show was the last on the Aqueduct/Golden Republic tour, with the bands returning to Denver and Lawrence respectively afterward. It made for a nice bon voyage, and probably explained the somewhat sloppy, if not happy-go-lucky, performances. Aqueduct was more laid back than when they opened for United State of Electronica a few months ago. Upbeat and tuneful, they played somewhat standard indie rock fare. The crowd favorites, unfortunately, were covers of Geto Boys' "Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangsta" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" -- lots of drunk people with their fists in the air.

This was my first exposure to Golden Republic, and they came off as sort of a poor man's Spoon, which is probably exactly what they weren't going for. Lead singer Ben Grimes vocally does a spot-on Britt Daniel, and some of the songs even had Spoon-like "ewws." Dance-y indie rock appears to be in vogue these days. Their best song was the set closer highlighted by a long repeated riff, one of the few times I got into what they were doing.

Tonight is Q & Not U and The Apes at Sokol Underground. If I get my column written, I might drop in.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--

Column 22: Deja Vu All Over Again
Last Saturday's show at The Brothers turned back the clock, for one night.

Before I get to the review of last week's historic show at The Brother's, let me stress that it's impossible to underestimate the impact that Linoma bands Frontier Trust and Mercy Rule have had on today's Nebraska indie music scene.

Those of you who weren't around in the mid-'90s or weren't paying attention probably will never understand this. Along with bands like Mousetrap, Simon Joyner and Ritual Device, Mercy Rule and Frontier Trust were doing the impossible -- they were making music in their own unique voice and performing it all over the country. The idea that you could be in a band that wasn't aping the current radio trend and be successful was revolutionary. These bands have been sited countless times by the Saddle Creek Records artists as not only influential, but inspirational.

I always thought both Mercy Rule and Frontier Trust could make it to the next level, but especially Mercy Rule. The trio's music combined Jon Taylor's guitar angst with Ron Albertson's hard-fisted drumming and offset it with Heidi Ore's throaty, girlie voice singing lyrics that were personal but not confessional. Their songs were anthems to individuality -- love songs with hope that any schmuck could understand and identify with, but without a sticky layer of sentimentality or treacle. The fact that national label Relativity screwed them didn't stop Mercy Rule from putting out a career-topping LP, The Flat Black Chronicles, on Lincoln's Caulfield Records. After that they could move on, comforted by the fact that they created a masterwork that stands as an icon to late-'90s Nebraska music.

I saw a lot of familiar faces from the past that night at The Brothers, all looking a little older, a little wiser, and a little heavier. Frontier Trust was really Half Trust, featuring only frontman Gary Dean Davis and guitarist Bill Thornton. No bass player, and drummer Double Joe Kobjerowski shacked up somewhere in Portland (though he apparently called in and heard part of the set via a held-up cell phone).

Gary didn't sound or look any different than he did a decade ago -- he still has that same off-pitch bellow which he yells into a microphone gripped like he's strangling a bunny, screaming right in its frightened, furry face stories about politics, unemployment, girls, swimming holes and race cars. A shaggy Thornton hadn't changed much either, sporting the same walkabout stroll as he peddled his ax with a smile.

Mercy Rule didn't get on stage until 12:30, probably because they had to set up their infamous floor lights. For this gig, it was only Heidi and Jon. As Heidi explained, "Ron is in New York, where he's making money, has a girlfriend and has a band." That was met with plenty of whoops and laughter. The time machine has been good to Heidi and Jon. Heidi looks like she just walked off the stage at Hairy Mary's circa 1994; Jon's put on a few pounds but carries it like a rugged farm dad in a crewcut and nerd glasses. Heidi never sounded better, and Jon was in his usual maniacal form, his guitar slung to his knees, bent over, chopping like a steam locomotive pushrod in full throttle.

Seeing them on stage again was a thrill for everyone there. Oh sure, it was great to see Gary and Bill playing the old favorites, but Mercy Rule... well, it may never happen again.

Their set lasted well past closing time, and before everyone left, Gary hustled as many copies of the new split as he could (It's also available at The Antiquarium, Drastic Plastic and probably Homer's). The Frontier Trust song, "Arlington," is vintage tractor punk, while Mercy Rule's single, "Don't Let It Go," is a treasure -- among the better songs from their oeuvre, pure pop-punk with huge, chiming guitars, a great mid-song break featuring Jon and Ron, and Heidi belting out the line "Never let it walk out the door / Never let it leave your life." A fitting message for what will likely be the last song they'll ever release.

A couple wee shows tonight. The Locust brings the noise to Sokol Underground tonight with Lincoln phenom The Show Is the Rainbow and Luminoso Lashikar. That show's $8 and starts at 9. Meanwhile, Mars Black is playing a tune-up show in prep for his upcoming opening slot on the Bright Eyes/Faint tour. Also on the bill: Jamaaz, Breathless, Surreal, Buck Bowen and Humanity's Last at the soon-to-be-closed Ranch Bowl. $6' 8:30. That's all for now...

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--

No feature tomorrow, and this week's column will be a rehash of The Brothers' show review I posted Sunday. And it also looks like a quiet week for shows, which means I'll be focusing on CD reviews for the rest of the week. Anyway, here's some Internet stuff for your perusal:

-- I just discovered a rather negative review of Todd Grant's Duffy's show earlier this month (read it here). Looks like our friends at the Daily Nebraskan aren't fans.

-- Glancing at the SLAMOmaha calendar, looks like the folks in Shelterbelt are on a tour of some of the hardest hardcore polka cities in the country -- Ames tonight, Cedar Falls tomorrow, Waukesha and Madison Thursday, Oshkosh Friday, Green Bay Saturday, Des Moines Sunday. Grab a brat for me, boys.

-- They're loving ol' Conor down under. Here's a review of the April 5 Prince of Wales show. "We love you Conor!"

-- Pitchfork dismembered the new Mars Black CD, giving it a 2.5 out of 10 (here). Ouch.

-- And critical mentor Robert Christgau's latest Consumer Guide went online at the Village Voice (here). He can't get enough of those Rhymesayers artists.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--

It seems only fitting that The Brothers was the venue for last night's Mercy Rule/Frontier Trust split 7-inch release show. Tre and his wife are the last bastions of the '90s punk-rock scene in Omaha, living reminders of The Capitol Bar and Grill, looking and acting no different than they did back in the day. The Brothers, however, is no Capitol, and has no intention of every being The Capitol. Instead, it's your typical laid-back hang-out lounge, with the best jukebox in town and a permanent odor that's a combination of smoke, sweat, piss, spilled drinks and bathroom cleaner -- i.e., it smells like an old lounge. It's a far cry from a live music venue, and when this show was first announced, with Bill Hoover and Ted Stevens/Mayday opening, I figured it would be uncomfortably crowded, smoky with spotty sound.

In fact, it wasn't that crowded at all. I found some friends hanging out back by the pool table and leaned against it all night, providing a perfect view of the pseudo stage set up in the far back corner beneath the dart board. I got there just in time to see Hoover's last couple songs (I missed Mayday completely). Hoover is sporting a rock band these days, with Lincoln Dickison (The Monroes) on guitar, and they're pretty good. I have no idea what he's going to do with it; if it was a one-off thing or a new project. Afterward, the drumset was dismantled and the area cleared for Frontier Trust, which was really Half Trust, featuring only Gary Dean Davis and Bill Thornton. No bass player, and our man Double Joe shacked up somewhere in Portland (though he apparently called in and heard part of the set via a held-up cell phone).

The weird, funny thing about it was that Gary didn't sound or look any different than he did a decade ago; he still has that same off-pitch bellow which he yells into a microphone gripped like he's strangling a bunny, yelling right in its frightened, furry face words about politics, unemployment, girls, swimming holes and race cars. A slightly shaggy Thornton hadn't changed much either, sporting the same walkabout stroll as he peddled his axe with a smile. It was easily the longest Frontier Trust set I've ever seen (and I've seem more than my share over the years). Davis and Thornton dipped into their full body of work, from all the singles off One Hour, Caufield, and Faye, as well as the full-length (including everyone's favorite, the one about the swimming hole). The crowd ate it up.

Although it goes without saying (but I know there are a few out there who haven't heard Frontier Trust before), Davis' current incarnation, The Monroes, is a natural progression from the Frontier Trust days, just like Frontier Trust was taken from the loins of Pioneer Disaster. That said, if you own a Monroes CD you'd be well-served to pick up the new split, available at Antiquarium, Drastic and probably Homer's.

Mercy Rule didn't get started until 12:30, probably because they had to set up those famous floor lights that became their trademark "stage look" throughout the years. For this gig, it was only Heidi Ore and Jon Taylor. As Heidi explained from the microphone, "Ron is in New York, where he's making money, has a girlfriend and has a band." That comment was met with plenty of whoops and laughter. The time machine has been good to Heidi and Jon. Heidi looks like she just walked off the stage at Harry Mary's circa 1993, Jon's put on a few pounds but carries it with vigor, looking like a farmdad with his crewcut and nerd glasses.

You have to remember why Mercy Rule was so important to everyone in Omaha and Lincoln back in the '90s. Along with Frontier Trust, and a few other bands like mousetrap and Ritual Device, they were doing the impossible; they were putting out music that was uniquely theirs, and doing it on a national label -- Relativity -- and performing it all over the country. I always thought they were going to be the next break-out act from the Midwest because their songs were so powerful, yet personal. The trick to Mercy Rule's music was the combination of guitar angst, Albertson's hard-fisted drumming all offset by Heidi's throaty girlie voice singing lyrics that were personal but not necessarily confessional. They were anthems to individuality, love songs about hope that any schmuck could understand and identify with, without a sticky layer of sentimentality or treacle. The fact that Relativity screwed them didn't stop them from putting out a career-topping LP, The Flat Black Chronicles, on Caulfield. After that, they could move on, comforted in the fact that they created a masterwork that stands as an icon to mid-90s Nebraska music and as good as anything released nationally at the time.

Seeing them on stage again was a thrill for everyone there. Oh sure, it was great to see Gary and Bill playing the old favorites again, but Mercy Rule... well, it may never happen again. Heidi and Jon's lives have moved in a direction where rock and roll is only an interesting tangent, a direction that they've chosen even though they still have the chops and voice to make a go at it again if they wanted to. Heidi never sounded better, and Jon was in his usual maniacal form, his guitar slung to his knees, bent over, chopping like a steam locomotive pushrod in full throttle.

The set lasted until around 1:30. They played songs off Flat Black, God Protects Fools, Providence and the singles. It was fun, though Ron was sorely missed. I never realized just how much he adds to these songs, and now realize why no one could ever replace him. Their track on the split single, "Don't Let It Go," is a real treasure, among the better songs from their oeuvre, pure pop-punk with huge, chiming guitars, a great mid-song break featuring Jon and Ron, and Heidi belting out the line "Never let it walk out the door / Never let it leave your life." A fitting message for what will likely be the last song they'll ever release.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--

I walked around after the Dapose/Precious Metal set and asked as many people as I knew what they thought of it. The reactions were somewhat mixed. Most people didn't get it, certainly not the ones that never heard this style of music before. One guy told me it was the worst thing he'd heard so far this year, but that guy likes bands that resemble the Black Crowes, so what does he know? I asked one guy that I know is a real metal fan, and he dug it, said it was more "black metal" than "death metal." Another guy told me the music conjured the vision of a snake that had just been run over by a car, spastically flipping and turning onto itself, writhing in pain until it flopped over one last time and stopped.

For me, Precious Metal was unnerving, unsettling and somewhat disturbing, which I suppose is what it was supposed to be. Dapose stood on stage in his red Wolf Eyes T-shirt with downturned, bouncing head and played his electric guitar like it was violin, his fingers making odd contortions, stretching to pull notes from either end of the fret board. Meanwhile, a lap-top computer played prerecorded dark, distorted synths and rhythms that moved at about a million miles an hour -- faster than a machine gun and 100 times as loud, the beats rattled my chest and made me feel slightly nauseous. Above it all, Dapose would lean into the microphone and do a voice-of-doom growl that was indecipherable except for its assumed anger. Who knows, maybe he was singing about how much he loves Panera Bread or the joys of spring.

I asked the soundguy if this is what death metal sounds like. He said it was closer to industrial, which I could understand. Dapose's prerecorded cacophony was almost analytical in its approach, derived by breaking down 4's and triplets to fractions of a beat and stringing the pounding evenly throughout each movement very mechanically, cold and precise. The hyper-sonic guitar lines were strings of minor-key arpeggios and distortion, like an avant guard classical pastiche. About halfway through the set, Dapose played a series of sustained notes that changed the dynamics briefly, like watching the eye of a hurricane slide overhead, knowing the worst part of the storm is always on the back end.

I am the last person you or anyone should ask about death metal. That said, this isn't what I expected. It left me queer-headed and off-balance, like drinking caffeine until your hands shake (and mine were literally shaking afterward). That said, I thought the mix was rough. At times I couldn't hear the guitar, which was too low throughout the entire set, drowned out by the hyper-staccato backing track. The vocals also were lost in the midrange haze. As disarming as the rhythms were, I'd like to hear Dapose play it all again with only his guitar and vocals.

I have to believe that if more people knew that last night's Beep Beep show was the last show the band would be playing in 2005 that more would have shown up instead of the 153 paid. That was the announcement that Chris Hughes made from the stage after their first song, that this was the last time the band would be playing songs off Business Casual, maybe forever, but certainly for '05. With bassist Joel Petersen headed out on the road to play with The Faint and Bright Eyes throughout the summer, and then drummer Mike Sweeney headed out this fall with Criteria, Beep Beep won't be seeing any stage action, instead Hughes and Bemberger will write the next album, which they've already started, and which they say will be better than Business Casual. Cocky words.

Like the rare professional athletes that end their careers at the top of their game, Beep Beep closed out the year at the top of theirs. Anyone who hasn't seen this band since the fall of 2003 is missing something special. The road has honed their sound as tightly as two clenched -- if not somewhat sissy -- fists. Bemberger's stage outfit adds new meaning to the word "fey" -- glittery breast-revealing girl's top, slacks and shiny black Mary Janes (FYI, I could see no visible panty lines). One guy who doesn't understand fashion yelled from the crowd "nice sweater" -- the chump. Add to the wardrobe Bemberger's dinosaur-arms swagger and retarded-guy snarl and you got yourself the most unique stage performer since the New York Dolls. I will miss seeing this band, and now have another reason to look forward to '06.

Tonight: A show of historic proportions at The Brothers: Heidi Ore and Jon Taylor of Mercy Rule along with Gary Dean Davis and Bill Thornton of Frontier Trust performing together again for the first time since probably the mid-'90s. The event is the release of a Mercy Rule/Frontier Trust 7-inch on Speed! Nebraska Records. It's not a reissue, as the songs have never been released before. I don't want to hype this show too much because getting in will be tough enough as is. The openers alone are worth $20 let alone the $5 cover: Ted Stevens a.k.a. Mayday and Bill Hoover. I'm told that Tre will be particularly careful not to go over the room's limit -- which is around 150. That means getting there early -- it'll be a long night of rock.

At the same time, there are two other very hot shows going on tonight: Kite Pilot and The Philharmonic at The 49'r; and the Sarah Benck CD release show with Anonymous American at Mick's. As good as those shows are, I doubt they'll siphon any of the draw from The Brothers.

As mentioned Wednesday, Precious Metal is Dapose from The Faint's one-man death metal project, which you can read about in detail here. He opens tonight's Sokol Underground show featuring Bombardment Society and Beep Beep at 9 p.m., which means you have to get there early. Beep Beep's Jan 28 show sold out, and this one will likely do the same. The only other show in town: According to The Reader, Charlie Burton and the Dorothy Lynch Mob are playing at Trovato's.

A brief reminder that today is tax day. There is nowhere to hide where they can't find you, so just pay up.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--

Column 21: Selling the Ranch

Mike Brannan isn't talking.

When news began buzzing through the music scene last Wednesday that the once legendary Ranch Bowl -- the venue Brannan owns and operates with partner Dan Crowell -- will be closing its doors, Brannan confirmed it, but said nothing more.

Rumors of the venue's demise had begun circulating earlier in the week, and were met with skepticism by those of us who have followed the music scene for any amount of time. We'd been hearing those rumors for years, from before Brannan and Crowell took over in 2003, back when Matt Markel ran the place. And every time the rumors ended up being false.

Like last October, when rumors were flying that Markel was about to somehow sell the joint out from under Brannan and Crowell, that the IRS had raided the bar during a Little Feat concert, and that the duo had been bouncing checks all over town.

Brannan responded that time, saying he had been involved in a very tough negotiation with the Markels, who had attempted a last-minute renegotiation of their purchase deal. That led to lawsuits from both sides, which eventually were settled. Brannan said that it wasn't the IRS but the Nebraska Dept. of Revenue that had made an unannounced house call to the Bowl and levied them for $800. He also said that he and Crowell had some additional property under contract, and that other projects would be coming on line that would be unveiled accordingly. "The Ranch Bowl will now receive considerably more attention from Dan and myself as we consider what to do with it," he had said last October. "We, however, had to resolve the deal with the Markels before we could push ahead with anything else, as that handcuffed us for quite some time."

Five months later and the rumors were back. But this time there were no denials. Brannan confirmed on SLAM Omaha -- the city's music-scene gossip Web board -- that the Ranch Bowl will finally be closed and torn down. A deal had been made to redevelop the site, finalized April 4. All their original renovation plans had been scrapped because they "lacked the local goodwill required for us to make the additional investments required" and that he and Crowell "look forward to putting the first proper mid-sized music venue online in Omaha."

The next day, The Omaha World-Herald made it official, but Brannan didn't add any Technicolor. Instead, the paper pursued the Wal-Mart angle. Seems Brannan and real estate man John Lund have been working together to acquire the Bowl property from Markel, which they will turn around and sell along with a sizable chunk of surrounding property. Instead of dropping big bucks on renovating the Bowl, it had to make more sense for Brannan to cash in and invest in a new venue that doesn't need as much renovation (and doesn't have a bowling alley attached to it). A place like Club Joy on the southwest corner of The Old Market, for instance.

But that's all speculation. When contacted Sunday, Brannan was unwilling to comment about the new venue and its location; he wasn't even willing to say what style of music it will cater to, only saying that there would be an announcement made when the time is right.

He did say that Artery Studios, located in the Ranch Bowl complex, would stay open after the Bowl closes, and that he's looking for somewhere to move the studio once the bulldozers arrive. Though not eager to run a studio, he said he likes the co-op nature of the recording business, and this time he'll be bringing in some new players.

But the real questions remain unanswered. Like why Brannan thinks he'll have better luck with a new venue when he couldn't make it work with an established enterprise like The Ranch Bowl, a club that once boasted shows by acts like The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pavement and Bob Mould.

Or how a city the size of Omaha can support a new 500-capacity venue -- as well as second new live music venue rumored to be announced this month, also located downtown -- when it can't support the ones that are operating now.

All good questions. But Brannan ain't talking.

Most of the interviews used for the Precious Metal story that I just put online (read it here) were actually conducted last October, shortly after The Faint completed a European tour in support of the then just-released Wet from Birth. I had intended to write a feature on The Faint exclusively for Lazy-i (The Faint article for The Reader in support of Wet From Birth had, in fact, already been assigned to a different writer), but didn't want to run it until a week before a talked-about winter Faint show that was to be held at a venue other than Sokol Auditorium. That show never materialized, and neither did the story. Then along came this Precious Metal show, a project that Dapose and I had spent most of the interview talking about along with his background in death metal. I did a brief follow-up interview Sunday, and voila! here we are.

Needless to say, a ton of the original 2,500-word interview wasn't used, including more detail on how Dapose got involved with The Faint and how that band approaches rehearsals as more than just a band practice, but as a way of communicating art, culture and other interests among themselves. It's already formatted as a Q&A, which I'll probably put online in its entirety sometime before the upcoming Faint/Bright Eyes show in May.

Left out of this piece from the follow-up interview is Dapose's description of what you'll be seeing from Precious Metal on Friday night. Though he's among the team responsible for the videos used as part of The Faint's live shows, there won't be any multimedia elements used for Precious Metal. "I never even considered doing a multimedia thing for this project," Dapose said. "I really want it to be about the music -- the performance of man and machine."

So I asked him if he'd be nervous standing up there all alone surrounded by equipment instead of band members. "I suppose so," he said. "It's not a normal thing for any band to have just one person. I guess I feel comfortable with the music. I'm looking at it as if I'm the piano man at a bar, though it'll definitely have a different feel from that." In other words, don't expect to hear Dapose belt out a cover of Billy Joel's "She's Always a Woman." A word of warning -- get to the show by 9 p.m. If the order stands as posted on the One Percent Productions site, Precious Metal will go on first, and Marc and Jim have been rigorous about starting their shows on time this year.

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It's a quiet week as far as shows are concerned. Nothing really worth mentioning until The Mastodon show Thursday, which is followed by Beep Beep on Friday and the Mercy Rule/Frontier Trust reunion show at The Brothers on Saturday. Speaking of the Beep Beep show, look for an interview with The Faint's Dapose, a.k.a. Precious Metal, online here tomorrow morning. Precious Metal will debut as one of the opening acts for Beep Beep, along with Bombardment Society.

Headlinewise, looks like our boy Bright Eyes has been invited to play the Glastonbury festival, along with Kylie Minogue, Coldplay and The White Stripes. He'll be on the "John Peel Stage" for emerging acts, including Ryan Adams and Willie Mason. Read about it here. In other Conor Oberst news, seems he's become the posterchild for the so-called "hipster gay" look, according to this item in Metro Weekly.

That's it for now, other than I've been grooving on the new untitled E.P. by the Pomonas that showed up in my mail this weekend. Someone should sign those guys or at least get them another show at O'Leaver's.

Post 'em here.>

Point of fact: When it rains, it's hot inside O'Leaver's. Crazy hot. Humid. Smoky. Unpleasant. Thank god I only wore a t-shirt. I could have used a pair of shorts, though. The pouring rain and the fact that it was a school night didn't deter fans from coming out -- it was pleasantly crowded -- but not crazy crowded -- just crowded enough to raise the temperature inside the club to sweat-inducing proportions. Apparently it's still too early in the year for O'Leaver's to crank the A/C.

Enough about the weather. I got there just as Kite Pilot began cranking into a set that a featured a couple new ones mixed in with songs from last year's EP, which were met with cheers of recognition and even a few people singing along. Instrumentally, they were on the mark, with drummer Corey Broman behind the set once again. The vocals, however, were more off-key than usual, maybe due to the band's enthusiasm at playing to such a large crowd. Afterward, I watch Broman tear down his drum set -- he was soaked to the skin.

Between sets, people crowded around the open doors, hoping to get a breeze but staying out of the soaker. I began remembering last year's Saddle Creek floods and kept an eye on my car for fear that it might float down the street. Surprisingly, a handful of people left before the six-man version of Okkervil River took the stage at around midnight. Apparently they hadn't read The New York Times article that came out Saturday heralding the band as a return to literate rock, written by Saddle Creek head cheerleader Kelefa Sanneh. They opened with a song I never heard before that fed into "For Real," the pounding opener from their new CD. Frontman Will Sheff looked like a wet, inebriated cat, his wig-like hair eventually sticking to his forehead. Like any good crowd, people kept bringing him shots, which he gulped with gusto. By the time they got to their traditional closer, "Okkervil River Song," Sheff was a slurring mess, while the rest of his crew looked primed ready to tear the place apart.

I figured most of the set would be dedicated to their new CD, but I only recognized a couple songs from the new one, maybe one from Down the River... while most of the set came from Don't Fall in Love... (their defacto a signature album), including "Red," "Kansas City," "Westfall" and "Okkervil Song." Sheff topped the evening off with a solo acoustic number. By the time I got out of there, the rain had stopped.

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The shows ahead for this weekend worth checking out:

-- Tonight: Anonymous American, Five Story Fall, Kyle Harvey at Arthur's, 80th & Dodge. Growing up, Arthur's was the meat market for the older crowd -- that meant scoping-out 30-ish tail, back in the day when 30 seemed so old. Anyway, it's been brought to my attention that this will be the last original live music show for Arthur's. $5, 9:30.

-- Saturday: The Monroes, The Diplomats of Solid Sound, The Spring Hill Mine Disaster at The 49'r. They're calling the showcase "Estrus vs. Speed Nebraska! Episode III: Revenge of the Scythe" and for good reason. Monroes are on Speed! while The Diplomats have a new one coming out on Estrus. No pricing information for this one, but it'll probably be $5 and start around 10. More details here.

-- Saturday: VHS or Beta, Electric Six at Sokol Underground. A night of guitar-fueled disco rock a la Duran Duran. $10, 9 p.m.

-- Saturday: If you're heading east, you might want to check out The Street Urchins with Axes to the Sky and Filthy Few at Mike's Place, 162 W Broadway in beautiful Council Bluffs. I've been told by a couple folks who've played at Mike's that it's actually a pretty decent venue. $5, 9 p.m.

-- Sunday: Okkervil River, Kite Pilot, Fizzle Like a Flood at O'Leaver's. Needless to say, the "show of the weekend," and it's only $5.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--

Column 20: When Donovan Goes a Goatin'
The rock legend gets shunned from the Sokol stage.

So if you're a touring band, do you drop what you're doing and let a guest musician climb up on stage? What if it's psychedelic-rock legend Donovan?

That's the question that indie band The Mountain Goats had to answer last week during their set at Sokol Underground, and heated arguments about what's right and wrong -- and what's good rock 'n' roll etiquette -- have been firing up ever since.

Seems Donovan -- penner of hippy anthem "Mellow Yellow" -- had a day off in Omaha the evening before his March 31 gig with John Mellencamp at the Qwest Center. While chilling in the Old Market at La Buvette, he struck up a conversation with a couple local ladies, who mentioned that they were headed over to Sokol for the Mountain Goats show. Donovan decided to tag along.

Once there, the long-haired legend immediately began making friends, talking to anyone willing to talk to him. A number of folks told me that Donovan was the happy-go-lucky child of the Flower Power generation that you'd expect him to be.

Things turned ugly, however, when Donovan's tour manager, "Stuart," decided it would be a good idea to get him on stage to grace the audience of about 200 with a few of his golden oldies. The idea was proffered to John Darnielle and the Mountain Goats, who had just finished their set. They passed on the idea as they were busy hocking T-shirts from the front of the stage. That sent ol' Stuart -- who I'm told looked and sounded like he just walked off the set of Spinal Tap -- right into orbit, reportedly telling the Goats that they were "f---ing negative, man," and that offering the stage to a fellow traveling musician was part of an unspoken code.

When I heard the story the next day -- April 1 -- I figured it was another Fool's Day scam. But then I heard it from another person, and another, and another -- all livid that The Goats wouldn't let Donovan do his thing.

Were the Goats out of line? My take is that it was their call whether or not to make room for the guest star. Sure, they could have easily moved their T-shirt operations to the back of the room. Sure, it probably would have made for a very special evening. But the Goats didn't feel like sharing the stage, and it was, after all, their show. Would Donovan have offered Darnielle and company the same courtesy the next night at The Qwest Center?

Well, the story doesn't end there. Afterward, Donovan and Stuart were looking for a ride back to the Hilton when along came Anonymous American frontman Matt Whipkey and his van. Whipkey says Donovan, Stuart and the ladies all jumped in and high-tailed it back to the Hilton, where they enjoyed drinks in the lounge with Mellencamp guitarist Andy York. After closing the bar, York suggested everyone go upstairs to continue the party. "Donovan said, 'Yeah, man, you can play us a song,'" Whipkey said.

Before long, Donovan pulled out a harmonica and the three musicians jammed until the wee hours. "He was extremely nice and wanted to talk about songwriting," Whipkey said. "It's the kind of conversation you don't get into with other musicians, and I was more than happy to hear any advice he had to offer."

Whipkey said that playing his songs for Donovan and York stands as one of the highlights of his career. "I was certainly star struck," he said. "Afterward, I went home and looked at my Beatles anthology and there was Donovan with John Lennon and Keith Moon. He certainly has a place in rock history."

Rumors that Criteria signed to Saddle Creek were flying all over the place at Saturday night's Tim Kasher show at O'Leaver's. Criteria frontman Stephen Pedersen all but confirmed the rumor that night, but I still wanted to get the word from Creek itself. It came yesterday when label guy Jason Kulbel confirmed that Saddle Creek Records will indeed be releasing Criteria's next CD, which is already in the can. No firm release date yet, though it'll probably drop sometime in the late summer/early fall. Asked to comment, Pedersen simply said "Criteria is very very very... excited." And why not? Pedersen had said Saturday that being the label was a dream come true. But make no mistake about it, the signing also is a coup for Saddle Creek. It's no secret that labels have been sniffing around the band since they flew out to New York for an industry recon mission more than a year ago. Criteria fills a hard rock void created at Saddle Creek when Cursive went on what some are saying is a permanent hiatus. Rumor has it that the new Criteria album is one of the best things to come out of this town in a long time. We'll have to wait to find out though I'm sure we'll get a sneak preview of the tunes when the band opens for Trail of Dead at Sokol Auditorium April 26.

Now on to this week's "cover story": I just placed online an interview with Okkervil River's Will Sheff (read it here). Will, one of the nicest guys I've ever interviewed, talked about the band's new CD, Black Sheep Boy, and their ongoing struggle to stay financially afloat despite being critics' darlings. Since I first interviewed Sheff in 2002 (read that one here) the band has emerged as a real force in the indie-folk world. I figured they'd become big rock stars, but in fact, Sheff says they've never been poorer, which is a shame.

Some details that didn't make it into the story: Brian Beattie, the guy who produced their benchmark album, Don't Fall in Love with Everyone you Meet, is back behind the knobs for Black Sheep Boy. Beattie charges a one-time fee for recording, which all but eliminates the clock ticking on the studio meter. "You pay up front and you can take as long as you want," Sheff said of Beattie's studio. "And if you don't like it, you fix it. His studio provided a real organic environment. We had some tracks where we all played simultaneously. Some of my favorite albums, like Neil Young's On the Beach, were all tracked live, which provides a lot of grit and humanity to the performances."

Is Black Sheep Boy a concept album? Sheff says he guesses it probably is. "A lot of times concept records don't work," he said. "Pink Floyd's The Wall, for example, really doesn't hold together, while Lou Reed's Berlin feels more complete and evocative, with elements that go in other directions. I didn't want this record to tie together into a nice little package. I let it be messy and unfinished. You can be really familiar with the artistic process, but a lot of it comes from places you don't understand. In my mind, I didn't try to create a story or try to figure out who the Black Sheep Boy is; I thought about how the songs fit together and how the imagery could be woven throughout all the songs."

Fair enough. This is the fourth time Okkervil River's been through Omaha. The first two times were gigs at The Junction, which Sheff said was "crappy." Then they played an impromptu gig at California Taco before finally landing a show at Sokol Underground. "I said to myself 'We finally made it.'" That said, Sheff was concerned that maybe the band took a step backwards with O'Leaver's, that is until I told him that Tim Kasher, The Silos and a host of other great bands have played there recently. "Wow, that's good news," he said "Now I'm psyched." The show is this Sunday. Don't miss it.

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Those of you in Omaha, make sure you get out there and vote. End of public service announcement.

Look for an interview with Okkervil River online right here tomorrow morning. The band's new CD, Black Sheep Boy, goes on sale today. It's a return to the tuneful songwriting that was heard on their first Jagjaguwar release, Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See, and hence, is a must-have.

A few other observations on this warm April morning;

-- I noticed that Kasabian has already sold their hit, "Club Foot," to Pontiac and that it's being used in new commercials, one of which aired last night during The Finals (Congratulations Roy Williams and the Kansas Jayhawks! er, North Carolina Tarhills! I had you going down two rounds ago). I predict we will all quickly get sick of this song now, unfortunately. I also noticed that Kasabian has rolled out a live version of "Club Foot" on video that's receiving airplay on MTV2 (I have a feeling they won't be bringing that gear to Omaha). You add it all up, and the May 29 Sokol Underground show is going to sell out. It's only April, and Kasabian has arguably released the single of the year. Oh yeah, the band is currently selling out all of its UK shows. The new Radiohead?

-- CMT -- that's Country Music Television for all you Yankees -- is showing a "Behind the Music"-style documentary called "Controversy: Johnny Cash vs. Music Row," which is a must see. The hour-long "rockumentary" was broadcast last night and is a scathing criticism of Nashville's treatment of Cash throughout his career but especially during his Rick Ruben years, when the CMA and country radio failed to recognize his American Recordings releases as "country music," though they arguably were some of the most important C&W records released from the mid-'90s on. It's being rebroadcast this Friday at 7 p.m. CT.

-- The first REM/Bright Eyes reviews are in from Australia, including this brief one from theage.com. They like our boy down under.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--

I got there early and dug in for the evening along the railing with my Rolling Rock and I'd be damned if I was going to move a foot all night. It was already crowded at around 10 just as the first band -- a wonky indie outfit called The End of the World -- was about to take the stage. Within an hour the place was at capacity and then some. People crushed ass-to-crotch from my railing to the bar to the back wall, all to see a rare acoustic set by The Good Life's Tim Kasher. All the "cool kids" were there, including about half of Saddle Creek Records' stable). Temple, who I featured last week (here), knew it was going to be packed, and knew very few if any were there to hear his music. Still, why not take advantage of the situation like any other sane up-and-coming singer/songwriter?

The End of the World's music was standard indie rock fare, with a stylish frontman and a backing band that seemed ill-at-ease on stage. Most of their songs were influenced by the usual indie-rock suspects (Pixies, Strokes, My Bloody Valentine) and the vocal lines sounded like they had been improvised during band practice, gliding over the chord changes with little variance. The drummer was barely audible other than his cymbals and his rat-a-tat snare like a kitten running across the roof of a car.

I thought Temple was going to do a mostly solo acoustic set. Instead, the world-enders acted as his backing band. At one point, there were four guys playing guitars on stage. Who knows why. Temple's music, though somewhat ornate and flowery on CD, is relatively simple and doesn't require a lot of guitars. The times when the fewest people played along were the best. By the end of this set, the crowd had grown to maximum largesse and had the proper roar to accompany it. Temple ignored it completely, despite being drowned out during his closer.

Then came Todd Grant and Kasher. I didn't even know that Grant was supposed to play last night, and he sounded like he didn't know, either. Though the two came on stage together, they played separately -- Grant doing a set of six or seven songs, starting with an apology about his inebriated condition. Even in that state and though struggling to get the crowd's attention (a lost cause), there was a heartbreaking quality that burned through his songs, almost as if the alcohol and crowd frustration added a necessary layer to his music's down-and-out pathos. There is something great and tragic about Grant and his songs.

Kasher didn't get behind the microphone until at least 12:30, and he didn't sing a note until about a quarter to one. I think I've mentioned here before that although I've interviewed every band on the Saddle Creek roster -- some of them three or four times -- I really don't know these guys. I don't hang out with them, I don't party with them. They're all nice guys and gals, but I just don't fly in their circles, only occasionally bumping into them at Sokol or O'Leaver's shows. That said, I couldn't tell you if Kasher was loaded or not. He seemed loaded, but his slight slur and slouch could just have been his natural solo-performance posture.

The whole time while Grant was struggling with the crowd, Kasher had sat right off the side and listened. And burned. When he finally got up there, he was in no mood to put up with the noise, which by then had reached soccer-crowd proportions.

I can't remember everything he said or exactly how he said it. It went something like, "There's a good thing going on musically in Omaha these days. But there's also a 'scene' that's grown up around it. And now people are coming to shows to be part of that scene, not to listen to music, and it sucks." Again, I'm paraphrasing here. "I know a lot of you came here to get laid and I'm all for getting laid, but some people actually came here for some music." And "Screw it. Being a musician means playing for yourself, so I'm doing this for myself." Etc, etc...

Then he introduced his first song, saying he'd just finished writing the lyrics that day. That it was a quiet song. That it required a certain quietness from the audience. He began playing the first three chords, and playing them and playing them and playing them, then said something like, "You get the gist of the song? I'm going to keep doing this until I get people's attention." Zero impact. He kept playing the chords for a few more minutes while continuing his rather funny diatribe aimed at the roar in the back of the bar. It was like watching an Andy Kaufman routine, and Kasher was in true Kaufmanesque form. Finally, he quietly played the song, a classically simple Kasher tune with central the lyric "Don't leave me hear hanging on this picket fence."

Then Kasher turned it up a notch, challenging the bar to a fight, saying he had planned on buying everyone a shot if the show went well, but that now he just wanted everyone to shut the f___ up and he didn't care if he pissed anyone off, that he wasn't afraid of getting bruised in the face or a few broken ribs. He's 30 now, he's seen it all, been there/done that. His Kaufman rant turned into a Henry Rollins routine delivered with a smile. At one point, Grant went up behind him and mock hit Kasher in the back with his guitar, telling him to shut up and sing.

By 1 o'clock, Kasher had sung maybe three songs, all very quiet numbers, all held their own in the cloud of bar noise. See, I don't know if the whole thing was a joke or if he was pissed (both emotionally and physically). He'd warmed up as the crowd began to settle down toward the end. When he finished his last song at around 1:20, the crowd had finally died. Kasher had won, sort of.

It was a weird, wild ride, and in retrospect, probably exactly what Kasher had in mind. Or maybe he hadn't. Either way, it was memorable.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--

Hey, what gives -- I don't go to Maria Taylor Wednesday and I skip The Mountain Goats last night? Just catching up on some sleep, kids. Like I said yesterday, anyone who has a couple minutes and the inspiration please give us a brief review of last night's Mountain Goats show here. I do plan on attending a show or two this weekend, but not starting tonight. Tomorrow night is Luke Temple at O'Leaver's with The End of the World and Tim Kasher. Should be a mob scene. Then Sunday night is a five-band show at Sokol Underground with Juliana Theory, Zao, Open Hand, The Takeover UK, & Sinai Beach. Emo band Juliana is now on Epic after being on Tooth & Nail for years. According to AMG, Zao is a Christian band. I've never heard of the others. Is this a Christian punk rock show? Well, it might be appropriate, considering that the pope is apparently on his last leg...

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