Say Anything delivered everything I expected from them at Friday night’s sold out show at Slowdown. The six-piece band played an hour-and-a-half long set of songs from 2004’s “…Is a Real Boy” and last fall’s “In Defense of the Genre.” Frontman Max Bemis has a gift for performing, and he asserted that Friday’s show was the first in a while that the band had been close to the audience. Whether true or not, Bemis made the most of the short distance between band and fan, wandering to the edge of the stage to let fans sing along or shake his hand.
What impressed me more was the quality of the two opening acts. When I spoke to Landing on the Moon drummer Oliver Morgan last week, he told me the band was preparing extra hard because every mistake would come through on Slowdown’s sound system. Honestly, I have no way of knowing if that was true or not because all three bands on the bill — Omaha natives Malpais rounded out the night’s trio — played phenomenally. Malpais had a few equipment problems, such as cords coming unplugged and mic stands being uncooperative, but they definitely made the most of their half an hour and delivered a solid set, especially considering that a cold was ravaging the members. Having listened to the band’s EP after the show, I realized that in its unhealthy state it was far from its best, but Malpais’ performance still set the table for the rest of the evening.
Likewise, Landing on the Moon raced through its set. They sounded good, and by the time the headliners hit the stage, the crowd had already been on its feet, energetically fist-pumping for a good hour-plus. All told, this was easily the best show I’ve seen in 2008, and probably the best I’ve seen for some time before this year, too.
I wasn’t sure I’d actually make it to this one. I was touring the downtown scene with some coworkers/friends. But 12:30 came about and we were starved for some music, so we headed to the Zoo bar in hopes of catching some Son of 76. My favorite song of theirs is “Water,” but I’ve learned my lesson about shouting out requests after the band started and me missing the song. I was prepared to hear whatever they played.
They mentioned they had time for one more song and asked if anyone wanted to hear “Water,” so I yelled “YES!” And they played it. I got lucky. I got even luckier when they played another super-bluesy dance ballad. As my friend Brenton said while we watched the last song: “This is what the Lincoln music scene should be about.”
In the hour before I came to the show, I sat with my old roommate at Jack’s Bar. I’d bought a pitcher thinking he might help me drink it. He didn’t, and I had to take it down quicker than I would’ve usually. That spelled the beginning of the end for me, but I still managed to stay out until 2 a.m. Instead of carousing with friends, I took the opportunity to take some pictures to see if I could. Not really.
Black Hundreds started the show with its usual psychedelic rock meets an almost Clap Your Hands Say Yeah vocal. The drummer and bassist switch instruments between songs for a cool merry-go-round kind of feel. Jake’s pretty good on the guitar and I’m starting to think I like the messy-ish way the songs are loose yet structured.
I hadn’t seen the Forbidden Tigers before, but they were loads of fun. Two of the guys were from Brimstone Howl, so they had experience on their side, and the music wasn’t too far away from what BH does, which is some kind of surfer blues garage rock combo. The band as a whole was incredibly energetic and when they all came to the vocals to sing on a few of the songs it was so easy to tell that they were having a ball. I hope to see these guys again soon, but only if I can see BH in Lincoln first.
The Show is the Rainbow was his usual incredible self. His intelligence comes through in his stage banter and making the ridiculous look normal. The crowd was pretty big for a Sunday, not beside the fact that the Journal Star made Darren (TSITR) its cover photo for the Ground Zero. Because of that he dedicated the show to Liz Stinson (wrote the article) and Jim Schroeder, who said some nice things to Liz that printed.
His show seemed a little longer than the last one but no less entertaining. It would be great to see what people in other towns (or countries) think of his stuff.
I was working this show (bartending), so I only got to pay partial attention a lot of the time; good crowd, though. There was a beer tasting prior to the music and the opening of a month-long art exhibit by local Ben Swift (of The Killigans) for entertainment and those facets definitely helped the draw. There were probably more than 70 people total at any given time.
Volcano Insurance was a jazzy trio with Luke Polipknick kind of orchestrating and a couple friends that come down sometimes from Minneapolis. It’s great to see local younger musicians branch out into genres of music outside of some derivative of rock ‘n’ roll.
Ideal Cleaners was up next, and I thought they were the only other band on the bill as the show had been advertised that. I knew they might play a half hour and it looked like they’d be starting around 10:30, so I wondered what would become of the crowd with a show that’s over at 11 p.m. But singer Dan Jenkins mentioned that after them Bloodcow was going to play. IC rocked it but didn’t play my favorite song off the new album (”Go Go Big Business”) and their set was pretty short.
All I knew about Bloodcow before their set was that they had a penchant for drinking a lot quickly. I remember reading something an Omaha writer wrote about O’Leavers, a small Omaha bar that gives all the bands keg beer for free. Apparently the five (I think) members of Bloodcow drank some 96 beers one night when they played. They drank a lot and quickly this time too, not 96, but probably a six pack a piece in the 90 minutes they were there. Impressive. The music was not my usual fare, but good for what it was, harder, faster, thrashier rock than what we were hearing earlier.
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