January 23rd, 2008

A word of praise for Tam O’Shanter’s

By Alex on January 23rd, 2008

I ate at Tam O’Shanter’s for the first time last night, drawn by the fact they lay claim to the best burger in Lincoln, a title it earned in 2006 when the Journal Star had a city-wide contest to find the best burgers. Having tried their cheeseburger, I’m inclined to agree.

I ordered the regular cheeseburger and added sauteed onions for an extra 75 cents. I was really surprised at how many onions they piled on the burger, which was perfectly grilled — tender, juicy, cooked through and charred just enough to give it a from-the-grill flavor. All told, the burger, which came with a generous pile of curly fries, cost about $8 and definitely filled me for the night.

If you’re looking for somewhere near campus to hang out, Tam’s food is outstanding, and the whole pub, which also had some game tables in the bar end, was quiet enough to carry on a decent conversation.

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January 21st, 2008

Breaking my own rules

By Jeremy on January 21st, 2008

I’ve long been a bit anti-Douglas Theaters for reasons that don’t have much to do with actually watching movies. I’m a fan of what the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center is trying to accomplish by bringing important lesser known films to Lincoln, and most of what the major studios bring to the silver screen is too diluted for my tastes anyway.

But a friend sent me the YouTube link to the first “Cloverfield” trailer a while back and ever since I’ve been intrigued by what the movie might be able to accomplish. Because of that, I felt somewhat OK with giving up my boycott of The Grand, a place I hadn’t been since it opened.

It was pretty much what I expected, and what I remembered from my days of youth spent watching fare like “American Beauty” and “Memento,” (two films worth watching in a theater. I was thirsty, and at $3.75, a mere three quarters more than a small soda, I was inclined to pick a size of soda that I couldn’t possibly finish in the 84 minutes the movie took up. In fact, I probably drank about a small soda’s worth of liquid from the cup.

The first preview was for “Step Up 2: The Streets” and I was worried I was in for a long night. The concept riled up memories from my days of visiting Fark.com everyday and reading headlines like “Hollywood out of ideas, remaking ‘Dukes of Hazzard.’” We placed the over under on how many phones we would hear going off during the movie and I’m happy to report we were over, by four.

And while the movie was entertaining to watch, I still became frustrated with how seemingly generic story lines designed to bring in as many demographics of moviegoer as possible. There’s the fear factor to get the guys in the theater, but do any of us care about the love story past the fact that Beth is pretty smokin’? For the most part I can see that as the only way to get the female demographic in the theater as most girls I talked to had no interest in going to what promised to be a scary movie.

In any case, the movie was decent and I’d say it’s worth watching if only to question America’s addiction with documenting everything.

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January 21st, 2008

Pink Floyd laser show, Jan. 19 at Morrill Hall

By Alex on January 21st, 2008

I’ve been here for almost four years now and still had never managed to make it to a planetarium show of any kind. I rectified that Saturday with a trip to Morrill for a “Dark Side of the Moon” laser show. I’d heard my parents talk fondly about going to shows like this when they were in college, and I can understand why now. The show cost $4 ($5 for non-students) and lasted about an hour, which passed more quickly than I ever thought it would. When my parents talk about the ’60s and ’70s going by in a blur, I think I understand how. They went to a lot of laser light shows.

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January 21st, 2008

4th of July, Coyote Bones, Baby Walrus, Eagle Seagull, Jan. 18 at Box Awesome

By Alex on January 21st, 2008

This was the first show I’d been to at the Box since it reopened, and I was really impressed. It seemed to me that the old Chatterbox was kind of the out-of-the-way, forgotten venue of downtown Lincoln, but judging by the turnout for this show, that’s no longer the case.

I especially like the new layout with the stage toward the back. It also makes for more quality places to watch from because the crowd can spread out instead of back. Even though I was at the back wall by the end of the night, I was still only about 30 feet from stage and had a clean view.

The place was pretty crowded when I first got there toward the end of 4th of July’s set, and it only got more crowded as the night progressed. This was the second time in about a year that I’d seen 4th of July, and both times I’ve been impressed with their music, and I’d definitely recommend checking them out if they’re playing in town as a headliner.
Coyote Bones’ showmanship was what impressed me most about them. I’d never heard their music before, not that it would have helped me if I had since they said several songs were brand new, so their ability to hold my attention hinged on being animated on stage. Stage banter seemed to come naturally to them, and they looked like they were having a lot of fun. It’s been my experience that bands that are enjoying themselves play to audiences who are enjoying themselves.

Baby Walrus’ set was probably the highlight of the night for me. That’s not to take away from Eagle Seagull’s performance, which I’d been looking forward to all last week, but this Omaha three-piece’s blend of blues and rock got me into the music the show had to offer, rather than the atmosphere. In my case, it’s rare for a band I’ve never heard before to knock me off my feet, and Friday was one of those rare - and terrific - instances.

Finally, Eagle Seagull hit the stage and were great, as per usual. ES didn’t play anything I hadn’t heard before, but the set list was a nice mix of old songs and songs from the band’s forthcoming CD. I really liked getting to hear “Hello Never” live. The band doesn’t play it live much, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

All in all, Friday’s show lived up to the anticipation I’d been experiencing all week. After a stressful week of school and work, it was great to just cut loose and surround myself with good music and a terrific crowd.

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January 14th, 2008

Son of 76, Jan. 10 at the Zoo

By Jeremy on January 14th, 2008

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.”

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January 14th, 2008

The Show is the Rainbow w/ Forbidden Tigers and Black Hundreds, Jan. 6 at Box Awesome

By Jeremy on January 14th, 2008

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.

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January 14th, 2008

Volcano Insurance w/ Ideal Cleaners and Bloodcow Jan. 4 at Box Awesome

By Jeremy on January 14th, 2008

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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January 13th, 2008

Trilogies a great way to ring in the New Year

By Alex on January 13th, 2008

Dec. 31 marked my first New Year’s Eve as a legal-aged adult. Despite the privileges that come with being 21, the idea of going out that night never really sat well with me, partly because I can go out any time and partly because the DUI rates in my hometown skyrocket around the holidays, and getting killed by a drunken motorist is definitely not how I wanted to start 2008.

So I stayed home with my parents, their new TV, several bottles of dry champagne and all three “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. It was great. We rolled into 2008 as Capt. Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones fought to escape a maelstrom.

There’s something to be said for watching an entire trilogy in one sitting. That’s hardly news to “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” fans, but there’s lots of trilogies out there that are worth sitting down to. Here’s two other trilogies I think warrant an evening of popcorn and dry champagne (if you’re old enough).

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” — The originals, not the new CGI one. And yes, I’m well aware of how bad the third one is. Still, these have tons of sentimental value, and no member of my generation should be able to say they’ve never seen these.

The “Bourne” series — As far as trilogies go, this is one of the best that I’m aware of. Each movie has a definite conclusion, yet they still manage to logically tie it into another movie.

So, readers, what trilogies do you think belong on this list?

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