A couple quick updates. First, I'm told that Bad Luck Charm is not playing at The 49'r tonight, as I said yesterday. Guess that was a calendar snafu.

Second, a last-minute show has been announced tonight at Mick's featuring Lawrence singer-songwriter Arthur Dodge, Midwest Dilemma and multi-band songstress Adrianne Verhoeven. $5, 9 p.m.

Third: I completely forgot about one of the most interesting shows of the weekend: Lightning Bolt, Shinyville, Vverevvolf Grehv and Fathr^ (featuring The Faint's Todd Fink) at The Magic Theater, 16th & Harney. $5, 8 p.m.

Finally, Steve Bartolomei of Mal Madrigal has been added to Monday's show at The Waiting Room featuring The Good Life and Team Love recording act Berg Sans Nipple. Playing alongside Steve will be Mike Saklar and Ben Brodin $8, 9 p.m.

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Here are my picks for the weekend... and beyond.

Tonight it's Explosions in the Sky with The Paper Chase and Eluvium at Sokol Underground. I've listened to the new Explosions CD a few times and it's pretty hot, downright epic, and The Paper Chase always puts on a good show. Unfortunately, if you don't have tix by now, you're SOL because it's sold out and has been for quite a while. You're other option for this evening: Lincoln's Forty Twenty at The Waiting Room with The Nedrecks & Lonesome Lloyd And The Hard Acres. $7, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night it's Tilly and the Wall down at Sokol Auditorium with Page Francis and Headlights. Tickets are $13 and proceeds go to support ALS in the Heartland. Champaign Illinois' Headlights is on Polyvinyl and is a solid indie rock act with a jonze for My Bloody Valentine. Terrific melodies, great band. Get there early if you want to catch them -- the show starts at 8. Also Saturday night, Bad Luck Charm is at The 49'r, punk band Planes Mistaken for Stars at The Waiting Room with Cancer Bats and Sin.

Sunday night it's Brimstone Howl with The Shanks and Son of Yeah at O'Leaver's. $5, 9:30.

And finally, Monday. I got a phone message from drummer Roger Lewis earlier this week asking if I could pimp his Good Life show at The Waiting Room Monday night, opening for the new Team Love band Berg Sans Nipple. I don't think The Good Life needs my help to pack a room. To my knowledge, this will be the first time Tim Kasher and his crew will have performed on the massive TWR stage. I expect this to sell out. $8, 9 p.m.

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Over the years, O'Leaver's sound system has been spotty at best. Let's face it, there's not much to it, really, a couple speakers hanging from the ceiling, a couple monitors that may or may not work. And on any given night, it can be good, bad, crappy, adequate, lacking, etc. The fact is, they don't need much in there to make it work. And for whatever reason -- maybe it was the sound guy, maybe they tweaked something that I don't know about, maybe it was the bands -- the stars aligned and it sounded pretty damn great last night.

Regardless of the sound system, Robot, Creep Closer sounded about a 100 times better last night then when I saw them a month ago at The Saddle Creek Bar. The Lincoln-based 5-piece plays crisp, chunky grunge-flavored punk inspired by Nirvana and The Pixies with a heavy dose of power chords. The lead singer was clearly more confident than at their SCB show. In fact, everyone was. I just wish they played their songs faster -- they seem to chug along in one plodding speed, pushed along by a drummer that could use an extra helping of Wheaties. This type of music deserves some serious pounding. All night I imagined their tunes sped up, and liked with I thought. The songs also seemed to go on too long. Hey, I like a long song as much as the next guy, as long as something interesting is going on. RCC songs jump right out of the gate, but just when you think you've had enough here comes another repeated verse or melody. Still, they were pretty durn good.

The Monroes don't get better or worse -- they just keep doing what they've been doing for what seems like forever, reaching back to Pioneer Disaster and Frontier Trust a decade ago. At the core is ageless wonder Gary Dean Davis who has lost none of the high-jumping panache that he had when he was bouncing around The Cog Factory and Howard St. Tavern stages back in the '90s. If you've seen them before, then you've seen them, and there's a certain satisfaction to their consistency, and in where they deviate from the norm. The deviation comes in the form of Lincoln Dickison, whose guitarwork is as unpredictable as it is bone-jarring. There's an almost athletic quality to Lincoln's playing that -- to me -- raises The Monroes slightly above Gary Dean's former projects. Frontier Trust was always fun-loving tractor punk. The Monroes, on the other hand, rumble through their set in darker shades of John Deere green, a metallic green at that.

And man, was it loud. O'Leaver's will never have a sound system that matches The Waiting Room or Slowdown, but it has exactly what it needs for its size and stature and place in the Omaha music scene. It's the hole-in-the-wall with the low-down vibe where good bands who don't need nothing fancy are always welcome. In other words, it's exactly what we need.

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The thing I noticed about Little Brazil that I just barely touched upon in this most recent article about the band: Landon can sing. Of course he can sing, but he actually does sing when he's on stage. Notes. Words. Everything. Unlike Alan Andrews, the guy who fronts The Photo Atlas, who opened for Little Brazil last night at Sokol Underground in front of 250 or so people. Andrews did that ol' atonal yell/sing/staccato/shrill/screech vocal thing that we last heard on the first Rapture album (back before the Rapture became a "dance band"). Andrews' voice was a young voice, younger than Landon's even though Landon is probably older than him. It's an emo voice (neu emo vs. real emo) and it's probably exactly what the kids want to hear over this punky, percussive music where the angular riffs are repeated atop a quick, straight-up 4/4.

Landon, on the other hand, is a pure crooner, an Omaha-style indie singer cut from the same bolt of cloth as Tim Kasher (a la The Good Life, not Cursive). Every time I see him with his just-woke-up hair and cheap wireframe glasses I think of Corey Haim as Lucas or a bespeckled Bobby Brady, age 13. His voice kinda/sorta matches his appearance -- an unpretentious caterwaul that has no problem reaching for the high notes at the peak of a heart-wailing phrase. Little Brazil's music isn't exactly a bold, new direction in the world of indie rock. You got your cool guitar riffs, your lean bass lines, your thunderous drums (Oliver Morgan is always at his best every time I see him on stage -- he has no second gear), coming together to form a verse-verse-verse song (why are there never any choruses these days?) that typically builds to a predictable -- if satisfying -- "big ending." The differentiator -- Landon's Bobby-at-13 voice, that is both honest and simple and, well, good enough to cut through the din. It's kind if quirky, but perfectly on pitch. And it follows a melody that rises and falls -- unlike Andrews' atonal, one-note, auctioneer bleatings that are more about rhythm then melody.

Landon held back on a couple songs, and I'm not entirely sure why. On "Southern Florida" off You and Me he clearly was trying to get the crowd to sing, waving for them to bring it on, and many of those huddled around the stage did. It wasn't exactly a soccer chant, but it was still pretty impressive. A couple other times, though, he seemed to be singing off the side of the microphone, and throughout the evening he complained that his glasses were fogging up in the Sokol heat and humidity. Two or three times he said "I can't see." Once he said "I can't breath." I was ready to call a doctor. For the most part, though, he sounded pretty good, while the rest of the band sounded road-hardened and ready for another six weeks on the road.

By the end of their one-song encore, all of the Photo Atlas guys were on stage with their shirts off, as one by one, friends and fans joined the band on stage, jumping around and popping balloons (yes, there were balloons, released halfway through the first song). It was a fitting victory lap after a long tour. Now it's off to Denver to return the Photo Atlas' favor by opening for their CD release show. And then…?

Tonight at O'Leaver's it's The Monroes with Lincoln's Robot Creep Closer and Denver's Flobots; Bad Luck Charm and Jaeger Fight at The Niner and Such Sweet Thunder and Bad Canadians at The Waiting Room. Stay dry.

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Here's what we got for the weekend:

Tonight at Sokol Underground, the glorious return of Little Brazil as they celebrate the release of their new CD, Tighten the Noose, along with Cap Gun Coup, The Photo Atlas and Dance Me Pregnant. Considering the press, you'd think this show would be MASSIVE, with stories about LB in The City Weekly, The OWH and right here in Lazy-i and The Reader. It's the holy triumvirate of local media! Will it sell out? Find out. $7, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, the always entertaining Now Archimedes! (featuring Bob Thornton, rock god/punk god.) is playing at O'Leaver's with Blackhorse. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow night's hallmark show: The Monroes at O'Leaver's with Robot Creep Closer and Denver's Flobots. Tractor punk hi-jinx. $5, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at the 49'r it's legendary punkers Bad Luck Charm with Jaeger Fight (featuring The Reader's managing editor, Andy Norman). $3?, 9:30 p.m.

While over at The Waiting Room it's Such Sweet Thunder (who also are doing an acoustic set at Duffy's Sunday night) with Bad Canadians (yet another musical odyssey by the mega-talented Matt Rutledge). $7, 9 p.m.

Have a good weekend.

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The interview for this week's feature on Little Brazil (read it here) was conducted way back in January, right before the band headed off on a tour that runs all the way through to this Friday's show at Sokol Underground, and beyond. The Photo Atlas is opening for LB Friday, then LB is turning around and opening for their CD release show in Denver Saturday night. The early interview was the only time available to do a sit-down with the guys before the tour, which explains the odd time juxtaposition in a story that covers the making of their new record, Landon Hedges' connection to two of his former bands (The Good Life and Desaparecidos) and their pessimistic/optimistic views of the future. Check it out and head on down to the show Friday night.

Tonight at The Saddle Creek Bar its local boys Satchel Grande with New York tri-county outlaws The Mathematicians. $5, 9 p.m. Happy spring.

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St. Patrick's Day was a bust. That's the last time we go to The Dubliner on March 17. Oh, I love The Dubliner and its cavernous confines and indefinable stink. It really is the right place to be on St. Patrick's Day. But the band that's played there the last couple years is intolerable. It's one thing to listen to badly performed Irish music and quite another to hear American music badly performed by a so-called Irish band. The last thing I want to hear on St. Patrick's day is John Denver and God Bless America, but I got both on Saturday afternoon - just like last year. I've learned my lesson. Next year it's off to the big, ugly, sanitized white tent outside The Raisin Head for The Turfman, unless a miracle occurs and The Turfman head back downtown.

So by 5:30 I'd had enough and went home for a much-needed nap, leaving me refreshed for late-evening cocktails at The Waiting Room, where I caught sets by Sleep Said the Monster and Kyle Harvey. SStM played nice, mid-tempo indie rock that bordered on radio pop. What they lacked in memorable melodies they mostly made up for in musicianship. Kyle Harvey poured out another in a series of emotional acoustic sets, this time accompanied by the recently returned Reagan Roeder, who just moved back to Omaha from Wichita. Roeder played some sort of mini-Moog-type keyboard that made lonely sounds to match Kyle's lonely music. The effect was pleasantly haunting, and while I like Kyle's style, he could mix it up a little. I like a mournful ballad as much as the next guy, but after three in a row I'm ready for any slight variation.

A follow-up to this column on Dan Schlissel's Grammy Award: Dan e-mailed yesterday to say he is, in fact, receiving a statuette in honor of his contribution to Lewis Black's Grammy-winning record. Asked what he'll do with it, Schlissel replied, "What do folks do with trophies? I don't know as I've never gotten one before. Put it under glass on my mantle and look at it a lot, I guess." Wonder how much it weighs…

Fresno's Rademacher takes the stage tonight at The Saddle Creek Bar. The band plays gorgeous indie pop reminiscent of laid-back Pavement or early Malkmus solo stuff. I dig it. Take a listen to their Myspace, and then head on down. $5, 9 p.m.

And I just noticed on Slam Omaha that Cloven Path and Paper Owls are playing tonight at O'Leaver's with Jodi Hates the World and Slow Car Crash. Probably $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow, Little Brazil.

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Two shows tonight: Simon Joyner and Midwest Dilemma are at O'Leaver's with traveling singer-songwriter Paleo. No idea who is backing Simon on this one -- it could be solo acoustic. $5, 9:30 p.m. Meanwhile, down at Sokol Underground, it's a veritable night of Bright Eyes' tribute bands with An Angle and Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs. Also on the bill, Zach Heath Band and Brad Hoshaw. $7, 9 p.m.

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My favorite holiday without exception is St. Patrick's Day. It has all the accoutrements for a good time: Good music, good beer and the NCAA tournament. I will be spending my St. Paddy's Day enjoying a pint or two down at The Dubliner, where I've spent it for the past 15 years, even though the better Irish band -- The Turfmen -- will be out at The Raisin Head. I'm sure there's a good story that explains why Douglas County Public Defender Tom Riley and his crew left the smelly, dank confines of Omaha's oldest downtown Irish bar for the swank, Village Inn-like setting of The Brazen Head, located in a West Omaha strip mall. I'm sure it probably involves money, too. Without The Turfmen at The Dubliner, my St. Paddy's Day is a little bit more overcast, but I'll survive.

Anyway…

I'm usually asleep by 7 o'clock on St. Patrick's Day after an afternoon of mucky brown ale. And that will be a shame this year because there are a couple good shows going on Saturday night. But before we get to that:

Tonight at The 49'r Stephen Sheehan, former frontman of Digital Sex, The World, Between the Leaves, Bliss Repair and Missionary Position (included here because the name is so naughty) will be celebrating his 49th birthday with a special concert at The 49'r that will include a bevy of local musicians. They include Matt Whipkey, Sarah Benck, Kyle Harvey, Richard Schultz and Mike Fratt, as well as a number of "special guests" who Sheehan will not disclose. Those expecting to hear old Digital Sex songs will be disappointed. Instead, the band -- which has been rehearsing all week -- will be playing a number of Sheehan's favorites. The fun begins at 10:30 and costs $3.

Meanwhile, over at The Waiting Room, Irish-style (more like Flogging Molly-style) Lincoln band The Killigans are playing a pre-St. Paddy's Day set. Ah, but even more interesting is the opening act -- Lincoln's Domestica, featuring Jon Taylor and Heidi Ore of Mercy Rule, who by themselves are worth the $8 admission. That show starts at 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night, for those of you who will wait until after 8 to imbibe, Kyle Harvey is playing at The Waiting Room with Sleep Said the Monster and It's True. $3, 9 p.m., while Blood Brothers, Celebration and Moon Rats are down at Sokol Underground, $12, 8 p.m.

If I missed any notable shows, post them here.

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That's right, Little Brazil's big CD release show is... well, next Friday night at Sokol Underground. But for some reason the band's decided to also do a show tonight at The Waiting Room with Ladyfinger. Gee, do you think it'll impact the draw for next week's show?

We're going to be seeing this kind of thing a lot more often with all these new clubs. Bands that may have only played once every couple of months will now have the opportunity to play twice as often (or more) as club owners scurry to find someone to perform on their stages during the week. That's not necessarily a good thing. I go back to the wisdom of punk-rock legend and St. Stanislaus School principal Gary Dean Davis. When asked over a decade ago why his band, Frontier Trust, didn't play more often, Davis said, "If you've just seen us play, why would you want to see us again so soon? Nothing's changed. Even I wouldn't want to see our band again if I just saw them a week ago."

Some bands, however, play around town on a weekly basis (sometimes twice a week). For them, it's another way to make some bread while doing what they love. That's fine, just don't expect large crowds at your shows. Other artists who want to play more often do what a majority of the Saddle Creek Records musicians do -- play in multiple bands. It's a trend that goes back to the '90s. Perhaps the most visible example is Kasher's duo projects (Cursive and The Good Life). Today it's not uncommon for musicians to be in as many as four different bands at the same time. Just this last weekend, we saw Adrianne Verhoeven perform in The 4th of July, Art in Manila and Flowers Forever. The only one of her bands missing was Coyote Bones. The problem with that situation is that all four of these bands will have opportunities to do national touring, which could make for an interesting juggling act. The only answer is for two of the bands to go on the road together -- The 4th of July and Art in Manila, for example, mirroring how the two bands played opening night at The Waiting Room. That's a long night -- and a long tour -- for Verhoeven, who hails from Lawrence, not Omaha.

Little Brazil/Ladyfinger starts at 9 p.m. and is $5 (and 21+). Also going on tonight, Mike Tulis' Rock Movie Night at O'Leaver's featuring Not a Photograph: The Mission of Burma Story. The 2006 documentary traces the rebirth of the seminal punk band that called it quits back in 1983. According to the O'Leaver's website, the show starts at 8 and is free. These films normally don't begin screening until 9:30, so you may want to call ahead to make sure about the time.

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I heard on the news this morning that they're experiencing flooding in Austin today. Forecast calls for thunderstorms through Thursday, then blue skies for all of you lucky enough to be attending SXSW. Every year The Reader offers me passes to attend the conference, and every year I turn them down due to costs, vacation time from work, etc. Actually, the real reason is that I hate hassles, and SXSW sounds like one enormous clusterfuck of a weekend. Do I really want to deal with running from one venue to the next chasing after the evening's hot show, hoping that I can get in and once inside, struggling to get a drink? I don't know, but for some reason, that doesn't sound like fun. Add to that the fact that most of the bands that I want to see at SXSW have or will eventually make their way to Omaha or Lincoln. There are obviously many, many exceptions, but if they don't want to come to me, I can live without them.

Nebraska will be well represented again this year, though don't look to the SXSW site for all the details. Little Brazil will be playing; so will The Terminals and Brimstone Howl, though I can't find these bands listed anywhere on the SXSW site. Perhaps their performances are "unofficial."

Official shows include The Show Is the Rainbow March 17 at Redrum, The Faint March 16 at Eternal with Flowers Forever, and Cursive, Art in Manila and Tilly and the Wall March 17 at Beauty Bar as part of the Memphis Industries/Saddle Creek/Team Love showcase. Is the fact that Art in Manila is playing this showcase a foreshadowing that Creek will be handling their new album, Set the Woods on Fire, recorded by The Faint's Joel Petersen? Time will tell. The real question is why The Faint isn't included in the Saddle Creek showcase.

So inevitably I'll ask someone who went to SXSW who they saw, and the response will be something like, "Well, I caught Little Brazil and The Faint on Friday night, then hung out at the Saddle Creek showcase on Saturday night after catching The Show Is the Rainbow that same day." Why? Why fly a thousand miles, spend god knows how much money on lodging and food just to see the same bands that play here all the time? I asked one guy who did just that last year, and he told me it was interesting to see how well our local bands are received out of town. That's not a good enough reason.

It's been written about in hundreds of publications and blogs -- SXSW has strayed from its original mission, which was to give unsigned bands a stage to show their wares to all the labels. Every Omaha band that's taking part this year is already signed to a label, and the ones that should be there that aren't signed -- folks like Matt Whipkey, Sarah Benck, The Stay Awake, The Filter Kings, Artsy Golfer, Shelter Belt, Dance Me Pregnant and on and on, well, they're stuck back here with us. Something's wrong with that picture.

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The Waiting Room Day 3: The secret show last night was, of course, The Faint. I don't know how secret it was, actually, though I didn't see anyone outside trying to cage a ticket. The logistics behind admittance: You had to be invited or had to buy one of 80 tickets sold by friends of the venue's owners. So for the first time in recent memory, the crowd at a Faint show wasn't a mob scene.

It could very well have been the last chance anyone around here will ever have had to see The Faint at a club-sized venue, a setting where they're at their absolute zenith. The auditorium or arena-sized shows never really do them justice. It's in the clubs that their music thrives, and last night was no exception.

Opening was Flowers Forever, a new band fronted by singer/guitarist Dereck Pressnall of Tilly and the Wall that includes Adrianne Verhoeven of 4th of July, Art in Manila and Coyote Bones. She's one busy lady. Pressnall's songs border on protest ballads, where he accentuates every phrase with an obscenity (maybe they should be called Flowers Fuckin' Forever). Are they war songs? Songs about personal freedom? I'm not sure, though I know they're rooted in his personal beliefs. As a result, the music has a '60s aesthetic that you'd expect from a band named Flowers Forever, though style-wise nothing they play resembles music from that era. Instead I was vaguely reminded of '70-era NYC punk rock with distinctive folk overtones, as well as aspects of modern-day baroque (a few songs featured trumpet, one, trombone). Artsy, yes, and slightly pretentious, they still managed to pull some rock moments out of their set.

They were followed by The Faint. As is their style, two projector screens were set up on stage to show the usual videos designed to enhance the beat. I said yesterday that this would probably be the ultimate test of the house sound system, and it was - chest-crushing bass (their signature sound these days) literally shook the walls. I was standing on a platform off to the left above the crowd and watched as tiny bits of crud dusted from the ceiling lit by the projector beam. I can't imagine what it would have been like without ear plugs -- even with them, my head was ringing when I got home. It was impressive, if not painful.

What to say about their set? It was long, well-played, and familiar. The dance floor was completely full and Todd only had to prompt the crowd once. "I realize this is friends and family, but you can dance. We can have a party." He needn't have suggested it, as everyone on the floor was bobbing throughout the set.

The band played at least three new songs that weren't much of a stretch from their older material. The last song, a laid-back ballad, sounded like something off Her Space Holiday's last album. Of course it was the classics off Danse Macabre and Blank Wave Arcade that got the crowd pumping. I don't know if The Faint will ever write a song as good as "Glass Danse" (or an album as good as Danse Macabre) again, and I'm not sure they need to. Most people who read this blog have been listening to The Faint since Blank Wave came out in '99 (that's eight years ago for those of you keeping track). We tend to forget that their music hasn't been exploited to its fullest potential. Other than college stations and MTV2, it's never had the national exposure that it deserves, certainly not national FM airplay. The Faint could live off - and grow their fan base - merely by performing Danse and Blank Wave on tour. But they'd never be satisfied doing that. Who would?

Based on the Pitchfork article that came out last week (here) it could be a year until they release a new record. That won't stop them from touring, though. Last night's gig was a warm-up for SXSW, where they will likely be one of the hottest tickets at the festival.

Three nights in a row at The Waiting Room is quite enough. I'm tired. I don't know how Leibowitz and Johnson do it every night. I guess it helps if you can sleep in until 2 in the afternoon. Regardless, they're probably used to it after running One Percent Shows for the past decade. They better be. They've got the club that they've always wanted, and they've christened it in style with a weekend of amazing shows. Based on everything I've seen and heard, they've got a long, successful future ahead of them, along with a lot of long, long nights.

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The Waiting Room Day 2: Last night's all-punk power-trio line-up was in stark contrast to the more acoustic, less intense opening night bill and provided a nice test of the venue's sound system on much, much heavier material. Big surprise: It passed with flying colors. Now Archimedes! and The Stay Awake never sounded better. NA!'s '90s-influenced grind-house punk never fails to impress and bring back memories of days gone by, though their sound continues to grow beyond that narrow description. Thornton is a grinning monster on stage as he belts out the punk in furious, fuzzy chunks. The Stay Awake, on the other hand, is pure, bitterly sharp shards of punk guitar intricacy driven by Steve Micek's mad ravings -- one moment, a mumbled spoken word, the next, vein-popping screaming at some imaginary girlfriend. As tasty as Robert Little's bass lines were (absolutely core to their sound), I could have used more of him out the mains. I can't honestly say that this was the best Bombardment Society has ever sounded. I've heard them in wall-of-sound mode down at Sokol Underground, and those sets were unbeatable. Last night's was impressive, but you may be starting to hear a possible limitation to The Waiting Room's system. When it comes to Bombardment Society, louder is always better, and it could have been louder last night; it probably would have been louder at the Underground. It's probably not a limitation of the sound system as much as the venue subconsciously trying to be considerate of the folks in the back of the room. Such considerations never enter anyone's mind at Sokol Underground. I have a feeling the system's ability to handle ear-bleeding loudness will be realized at tonight's invitation-only show, which I'll tell you about tomorrow morning if I get up early enough.

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Marc Leibowitz said during our interview that the house PA at The Waiting Room was essentially the same as what's down at Sokol Underground, only in a room half the size. So you'd naturally think that the sound would be twice as loud (which would be damaging). Ah, but here's a case where more power doesn't necessarily mean louder, it means better.

The sound quality of the PA last night was absolutely gorgeous, and never too loud. I only wore earplugs during the 4th of July set, which was definitely mixed both louder and bassier (in fact, too bassy). For Art in Manila, no hearing protection was needed. Yeah, it was plenty loud, but it sure didn't hurt.

Let's start from the beginning. We ate dinner beforehand at The Pizza Shoppe and didn't get to the club until around 8:30. Needless to say, parking wasn't an issue, since we left the car in front of the Pizza Shoppe and hoofed it two blocks to the venue. When we left at around midnight, there were open spots all around us. I guess parking may not be a problem after all.

When we stepped inside, the place seemed far from capacity, but it was early. Incidentally, the show was 18+. When I talked to Marc and Jim a week earlier, they weren't sure that they'd be able to do under-21 shows, and asked me not to mention it in the article (after all, they still hadn't received their liquor license.). The doorman explained that anyone over 21 would get a wrist band, while under-21 patrons would have large X's smeared on their fists straightedge style (and under-age folks wouldn't have in-and-out privileges). Problem solved. Now, will they be able to do all-ages shows?

Anyway, everything was in place and a crew was behind the bar serving. I guess the license came through. All the tables and barstools were filled, and yet the room didn't seem packed. It felt comfortable and lived-in, as if the bar had been there for years. They'd managed to retain the room's aged ambiance while adding a few modern touches (and a fresh coat of paint).

Consumer note: Bottles of Rolling Rock are $3 -- that's a dollar less than Sokol Underground's $4, but more expensive than both O'Leaver's and SCB.

Without a place to sit down, we made our way into what I'm going to call "the stage room" (as opposed to "the main room" where the tables and chairs are) and found cushioned seats along the wall across from stage right. That's where I stayed for most of the evening. It was the perfect hiding place, out of the bright lights of the main room. (I would suggest that they turn the lights down in the main room during the sets -- the harsh light and the low ceiling make it feel like an FOE club compared to the stage room).

First up was Black Squirrels -- a trio featuring guitar, keyboards and stand-up bass -- no drums. They ramped through a tight set of kitschy blue-grass folk and sounded better than the last two times I saw them (at The Dubliner and O'Leaver's). Bassist Travis Sing said afterward, 'We really play well when we can actually hear ourselves on stage." What? There's no monitors at O'Leaver's? As clean and balanced as they sounded, their sing-songy folk wasn't a real test of the sound system. That would come next with 4th of July, a band that, to me, epitomizes the Kansas indie rock sound that I remember from the old days, back in the '90s when I drove down to Lawrence every few months to catch bands like The Anniversary and Kill Creek at the Bottleneck. These guys have that same wheatfield college-rock flair that never loses sight of its melodies. The lead singer, however, lost his way a couple times early in the set, which he apologized for later, explaining that they were playing a lot of new material.

Warning to any shitty bands that want to play here: There's no place to hide with this PA -- your suckiness will glow like neon, not merely fade amidst the bright-white noise of other system's distortion. The crowd will hear your every mistake, every goof up, every off-tone moment.

The 4th of July didn't have to worry about that. Anchoring their sound was an amazing drummer. In fact, the drums last night sounded terrific during both sets -- was it the drum set (the same one used by both bands) or was it how the stage picks up and amplifies the drums?

During The Black Squirrels set, the red-and-black linoleum floor in front of the stage was mostly empty as people were content sitting back at the tables. When 4th of July came on, however, the floor filled up with slouchers. A brief word about the stage -- as my companion said, it was like something you'd expect to see in Austin -- the height, the curtain, the stainless steel lighting racks. Much more impressive than the old Music Box stage. It had a serious, professional look and feel that made the performers glow and would be a great place to film a live performance.

Art in Manila came on a little after 11. By then, the bar was at capacity (The night will go down as a sell-out with numbers at around 215, according to the door guy). The entire floor was filled, and I had a hard time squeezing through to get to my spot after getting a couple beers. Even with those numbers, you could comfortably fit an additional 100 people in the venue if you wanted to break the fire code (which I know these guys would never do).

There's a good story in this week's Omaha City Weekly (here) where the reporter talks to Orenda Fink about her new band and life after Azure Ray. What he didn't ask (or at least didn't cover in the story) was who will be releasing the new Art in Manila album. Will it be Saddle Creek? Will it be Range Life, who Creek now distributes and who will be releasing the new 4th of July album? Whoever it is will have gold on their hands. This incarnation of Orenda is by far the best. Better than anything she did with Azure Ray and much more soulful than her solo album, which was pretty damn soulful to begin with. Art in Manila takes Orenda's sweet, breathy voice and surrounds it with rich, earthy instruments. Every element of the six-piece, from Dan McCarthy's keyboards to Steve Bartolomei's searing guitar solos, adds new depth to her songs. Orenda's lucky to have one of the area's best drummers, Corey Broman, playing at the very height of his ability and clearly driving everything forward. Again, the drums just sounded freaking amazing without overpowering the rest of the band. Great balance from every instrument. Terrific work from the sound guy.

Moving around the room, the sightlines were unhampered through every opening. As you move further back -- all the way to the pinball room -- you receive a sort of letterbox effect looking at the stage, because of the slight overhang that divides the two rooms. There is a noticeable difference in the sound as you move around the main room. In fact, there's quite a drop-off in levels the further you go, cutting off the high and low end. This, of course, is understandable as the sound is being funneled through the opening between the two rooms and is literally absorbed by the crowd. That's not to say the sound is bad in the back. On the contrary. Though there's no place in the venue where you can get away from the noise, people are able to at least carry on conversations without having to yell at each other -- something that's impossible at just about every other club I frequent. If you really want to hear the band in all its glory, though, you have to go into the stage room, which has a higher ceiling and is completely unencumbered by barriers. Perfect sound forever.

Art in Manila played for about 45 minutes, finishing up at around midnight by thanking the bands and Marc and Jim for all the hard work they put into the place. Our impression upon leaving was that we'd just been in the best live music venue in the city… for now anyway. That distinction will likely shift to Slowdown when it begins live shows in June. Consider that Slowdown is being built specifically to provide the finest acoustics possible -- and consider the enormous amount of money that's being invested in the highest quality sound equipment available. It should be better, right? Right?

One final thought: I left the bar at around midnight. I was sitting in my living room at around 12:10. Priceless.

* * *

So what's in store for tonight? On top of the list, again, is The Waiting Room. They opened with an evening of mellow(er), rural indie rock. Tonight they're turning things up with Bombardment Society, Now Archimedes! and The Stay Awake. How will punk sound on that big, beautiful stage? $7, 9 p.m.

Will Leibowitz ever get to see a show at his own club? Not tonight, as he'll likely be working the Hella show down at Sokol Underground with Dirty Projectors and Who's Your Favorite Son God? $8, 9 p.m.

According to SlamOmaha, Dance Me Pregnant is at The 49'r tonight (I can't get the Niner myspace to work this morning).

And if you didn't get enough of Black Squirrels, they'll be playing down the street from The Waiting Room at Mick's tonight with Hoots and Hellmouth. $5, 9 p.m..

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Throughout the week I receive a number of invitations to see bands perform at the various clubs around this great city of ours. This week, all of them contained the phrase 'If you're not going to The Waiting Room this weekend..." Everyone thinks that the club's grand opening will be the must-do event of the season. As talked about yesterday, on the bill for their opening night is Art in Manila (did anyone notice the evasive, back-in approach that I used to describe that band in yesterday's article?), 4th of July (Adrianne Verhoeven of The Anniversary and Art in Manila) and Black Squirrels (ex-Darktown House Band). I can say with complete confidence that this is the largest crowd that Black Squirrels have performed in front of in their short, illustrious career (in fact, the OWH's pre-coverage of The Waiting Room's opening seemed to focus primarily on the Squirrels rather than the bar).

The only thing that could dampen their opening night is the ol' 'I'm going to wait until the place slows down' syndrome -- i.e., people avoiding opening night because they figure it'll be too packed or that they may not even be able to get in. All three bands have played in Omaha numerous times over the past year, so they're not going to be the intrinsic draw. It's the curiosity over the bar that will bring people in, but the fact is, the bar isn't going anywhere. If all you want to see is its insides, you can always go there Monday night, or Tuesday, or Wednesday...

That said, I'll be among those who will be attempting to cross the velvet rope. We've already made contingency plans if we notice a line of people stretched out along Maple St., standing in the rain waiting in The Waiting Room's waiting line to get in. And speaking of plans, you might need to devise one for parking if you're driving to the club. When I interviewed Leibowitz and Johnson last week, we talked about including a parking map with The Reader article, and I considered outlining all the parking options in the area. Then I thought 'What, am I stupid?' It's going to be hard enough for me to find parking as it is, I'm certainly not giving you any tips. The fact is, there aren't many options beyond the public lot a couple blocks away. I foresee hundreds of people walking the sidewalks of Benson this evening from parking lots as far away as behind Mick's. It would be a good night to have a hotdog cart parked along those sidewalks.

Anyway, the show begins at 9 p.m. and costs $7. Now, if you're not going to The Waiting Room tonight there are other options, such as Kite Pilot, Razz the Kid and Or Does It Explode at The Saddle Creek Bar. Or Does It Explode is Robert Little and Matt Stamp from Mariannes, Tim from Latitude Longitude, and Pat D from RTO and Cactus Nerve Thang. $5, 9 p.m.

Down at Bemis Underground it's the Black Shoe Bash and Dance Party with The Terminals, Brimstone Howl and Denver's The Machine Gun Blues. Show starts at 9 p.m. and you're asked to make a $5 donation at the door. Bemis Underground is the lower level of the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, south of the Old Market at 724 S. 12th Street.

Ironically, Marc Leibowitz, co-owner of The Waiting Room, won't even be at the club's grand opening because he'll have his hands full working The Take Action! Tour down at Sokol Auditorium. The benefit tour that focuses on issues surrounding suicide and depression includes bands The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Emery, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, A Static Lullaby, and Kaddisfly. Part of the proceeds from the tour supports Youth America Hotline! 1-877-YOUTHLINE. Show starts at 8 p.m. and is Sold Out.

If I missed anything, post it here. I'll try to write an update online tomorrow morning about The Waiting Room (if I get in) and what's in store for Saturday night.

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This week's column is actually a feature about The Waiting Room, which was originally slated to be a cover story for The Reader. The editors decided it would make a better "expanded" Lazy-i column. What you'll read in The Reader is an abbreviated version of this story, where Johnson and Leibowitz discuss their new club and the role it'll play in the future of the ever-growing Omaha music scene.

So, go read the story here, now, and consider the following as an afterward:

History points to the challenges these guys face just keeping the place open. One of the persistent questions that keeps coming up about The Waiting Room: Will it be open on evenings when no bands are scheduled to play? Leibowitz and Johnson look perplexed when asked. Clearly they've never had any intention of making The Waiting Room some sort of rental hall. It's a bar, first and foremost.

"We've built a nice place here," Leibowitz said. "We've made it comfortable. People should come just to hang out."

"If we had a show every night, we'd eliminate our bar crowd," Johnson said.

"Other bar owners have tried live music because they think it'll bring people in," Leibowitz added. "We'll bring people in when we have shows, but I don't know if Omaha would support a show here seven nights a week anyway. We're looking at three to five shows a week, which is still a pretty good goal that will require expanding into different areas from what we've booked in the past."

Leibowitz said that The Waiting Room will provide the most comfortable live performance environment for a room its size. "It's not The Music Box, which was clean and all neoned out and too adult," he said. "Some people who haven't gone to shows since the Music Box closed will be coming here."

So could it be that after years of whining that there aren't enough live music venues in Omaha, that for the first time the city actually may have too many venues?

From their perspective, the answer is a resounding 'No.' After all, One Percent will be booking shows at practically all of them. In fact, despite the opening of The Waiting Room and Slowdown later this year, Leibowitz said Omaha still lacks at least one important stage.

"From a One Percent Productions perspective, Omaha needs a 215-capacity club, an 800-capacity club and a 2,500-capacity club," he said, adding that only the largest will be missing. "We really need something like the old Peony Park Ballroom for acts the size of The Pixies, Flaming Lips, The Shins, Modest Mouse and Bright Eyes."

Leibowitz said The Waiting Room is the perfect size to not only grow new talent, but to grow One Percent Productions, which incidentally, will have its offices housed in the same building. "We needed a place to develop new bands and talent," he said. "Not only on a local side, but on a national side, too. This will be a realistic place for a smaller touring band to have a successful show. If you bring in 100 to O'Leaver's, it's too packed. One hundred at Sokol looks horrible -- it's empty. Here, 100 hopefully will be a success. One Percent needs to present as many alternatives to booking agents as possible, and this should help us do that."

Yeah, but what about parking? I assume that Friday night's show will be a capacity crowd, and that most of them will get plenty of exercise walking to the venue as the bar doesn't have its own parking lot. You're looking at street parking, or a public lot a couple blocks away. "I'm a big fan of parking," Leibowitz said. "It's the main reason why I don't go to the Old Market, but my favorite place in Austin was a 1,000-capacity club with no parking. This is an issue that people deal with in other cities all the time. I wish there was a better scenario.

Johnson pointed out that D Dubs used to do a helluva business, "but there would be 100 bikes lined up out front," he said. "If everyone got a Vespa, we could do 90-degree Vespa parking and the problem would be solved."

* * *

Speaking of big shows, O'Leaver's has one of its own tonight -- Ladyfinger and Dance Me Pregnant. I suspect there will be more than 100 people there. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Look, I know you're getting sick of all this Bright Eyes news. Every day it's something else. Well, it's only going to get worse. Just bear with me. Today's news is that Bright Eyes announced the first leg of their tour in support of Cassadaga. Among the dates is a gig at The Holland Center April 26. Opening will be local boys and Team Love artist McCarthy Trenching along with Merge recording artist Oakley Hall. Expect a large ensemble on stage for this BE tour, including lots of lush strings. Tickets go on sale March 16.

And speaking of openings, The Waiting Room has opened their actual website at www.waitingroomlounge.com. Look for a long profile on Leibowitz and Johnson and the new bar online here tomorrow. An abridged version appears in this week's issue of The Reader.

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Those of you keeping score, Bright Eyes has once again made it into the pages of the great, gray New York Times. In a review by our old friend Kelefa Sanneh, who has penned most of that paper's Saddle Creek coverage, Conor is defined as a 'miserablist.' Since I'm not as smart as the typical NYT reporter (Who is?) I had to look it up in Merriam's, but, alas, I couldn't find it listed. It also didn't show up at AskOxford.com. It must be a word, though, or the NYT wouldn't let Kelefa use it in the headline (The Miserablist, All Grown Up and Hard at Work). Throughout the review, Sanneh comments on how Oberst has been labeled a boy genius, even though he now is in his late 20s. He then goes on to say Conor has earned his rep as a miserablist thanks to songs like "Laura Laurent." Maybe Kelefa thinks the song is miserable and, since Conor wrote it, that would make him a miserablist -- kind of like how a writer of a novel is a novelist? Anyway... Kelefa liked the concert, which went down last Friday at the Bowery Ballroom. You can read the full review here. So far the press on this BE tour has been positive, except for the consistently negative comments about Conor's hair. This Globe and Mail review said he "resembled Anthony Jr. from The Sopranos (the sixth-season Anthony, not the baby-fat Anthony)." Funny. There should be an avalanche of Four Winds reviews hitting the net over the next few days, as the album drops today (as did Maria Taylor's new one, Lynn Teeter Flower). It's all just a mild precursor to the release of Cassadaga in April.

Even bigger news, however, is tonight's show at O'Leaver's featuring The Terminals, Brimstone Howl and their Alive Records labelmates Radio Moscow. The show is listed on SLAMOmaha as starting at 8 p.m., but is listed on the Terminals Myspace as starting at 9. Consider it a warm-up for all the bands' upcoming South by Southwest gigs.

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My weekend was dominated by my parents' 50th anniversary, a joyous occasion that kept me out of the bars Saturday and Sunday night. I did get out to Sokol Underground Friday night for Cap Gun Coup, Baby Walrus and Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs?

The highlight was Baby Walrus, a trio featuring a drummer and two guitarists -- with the frontman switching between guitar and keyboards. The guy sounded like a young Jim Morrison, especially on songs that had that weird Doors wonky flair. Their music was brash and bluesy and intricate bordering on experimental. They're one of the best new bands I've seen so far in '07.

Friday was Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs?' debut at Sokol, and you could tell. One funny comment from someone in the crowd: "They sound more like a Bright Eyes rip-off than An Angle." There were definitely plenty of Conor-isms to go around, but like An Angle, WHD? also doesn't have anything resembling Oberst's songwriting chops. I'm told all the band members are transplants from Florida who made the trip to be near Nebraska's burgeoning indie scene (or to be closer to Conor, whom I'm told they adore). Take the Bright Eyes adoration out of the equation and they come off as a very young band with a slightly skewed vision, which may or may not be misguided. With their preening frontman and stable of prancing musicians, they were more precious than Tilly and the Wall and would probably be eaten alive at rough-house bar like The 49'r. By the end of their set they exceeded their cuteness quotient when I noticed a young girl -- maybe 17 -- sitting on the floor next to the bass drum. Just sitting there, smiling like a stage prop.

Finally there was Cap Gun Coup, who I really came to see. I was told by someone who has heard them before that it wasn't their finest moment. The set was sloppy and out of sync, and I have to wonder if it wasn't just an off night. That said, the crowd of around 80 didn't seem to mind. In fact, the whole evening had a house party feel to it and you could tell that the crowd consisted mostly of friends having a good time. Nothing wrong with that.

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I have no idea what's going on tonight, the day after the blizzard of '07. Last night I was driving around and the streets were snow-packed but fine. Still, OPS is closed today, as are a number of businesses. That said, check with the venue if you're wondering about a show's status tonight. The only real question mark that I have is whether Once a Pawn makes it from Lincoln tonight for their show with Jaeger Fight and Bent Left at O'Leaver's. Last week I mistakenly said that Paper Owls had been recording with ARC Studio's Ian Aeillo (and that may be the case in the future), but the fact is I confused them with Once a Pawn, who actually has been recording with Ian. That show is $5 and starts at 9:30.

Another notable show tonight is Cap Gun Coup w/Baby Walrus and Whatever Happened to Dinosaurs at Sokol Underground. Cap Gun Coup has the distinction of being name-checked by Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst during a recent interview -- what that equates to, I don't know. I haven't seen them perform live yet, but dig their stuff on their Myspace page. $7, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, rootsy folk band Outlaw Con Bandana plays at Mick's with jazzmen Kevin Pike/John Kotchian and Hot Sick. ($5, 8:30 p.m.).

And for the strangest gig of the evening, according to their Myspace page, New Jersey band Ours, who records on Geffen/Universal, are scheduled to play at The 49'r tonight with Bay Area band The Michetons. Ours, who I've never heard of, obviously are heavily influenced by Radiohead, right down to their vocalist's Thom Yorke aping. $7, 9:30 p.m.

If I'm missing anything, post it here. Look for another show update tomorrow.

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