Don’t Miss These Shows
In the past couple of weeks I have seen some shows by bands that were pretty amazing, but not very well attended. It’s a shame when a good band comes through that many people would like, but it just flies under the radar. It’s natural that these things are going to happen, especially when Omaha gets so many weekday shows being in between some major cities. Here are some shows coming up around town that I think some people might miss out on.
An amazing indie Americana artist Star Anna & the Laughing Dogs will be performing at the intimate O’Leavers Pub this Friday, Sept. 23. Her and her band have three albums out, and she has a lot of famous fans including Mike McCready of Pearl Jam who can be seen jamming with her and the band in many videos and Duff McKagan of Guns & Roses who referred to her as “the real deal.” Opening the show is young Omaha band Field Club who I caught recently at the Waiting Room and was very impressed with. Star Anna will also be doing an in-store at Homer’s in the Old Market on Friday, Sept. 23 at 6:30 p.m..
Bluesy Americana band The Wood Brothers are performing at the Waiting Room Lounge on Tuesday, Sept. 27. The Wood Brothers are Chris and Oliver Wood and they hail from Boulder, Colo. Chris Wood is a member of the popular jazz trio Martin, Medeski and Wood. Oliver Wood is a bluesman whom played with blues favorite Tinsley Ellis. The band performs a southern sounding style of blues and Americana music. Opening the show is a former songwriting partner of John Mayer’s and currently a member of the Zac Brown Band, who was a headliner at this year’s Red Sky Music Festival. He’s a good performer and a pretty pure songwriter and this could be one of the sleeper sets of 2011.
Yet another Americana band on the list is Truth & Salvage Co. who were signed to Chris and Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes’ label, Silver Arrow, by Chris himself. The band features many musicians who have been making the rounds in the music industry for well over a decade. Tim Jones is from an interesting band called Old Pike (who played Omaha a couple of times opening for people like Ben Folds and The Old 97’s). Members from that band went onto My Morning Jacket, Rougewave and Truth & Salvage Co. The band is said to put on high energy and spirited shows, and we can see for ourselves at the Slowdown on Wednesday, Sept. 28 when they perform with openers Farewell Milwaukee who are a fantastic harmonic roots band from Minneapolis.
The final show I hope to see people at, in fact I hope to see it sell out, is the Wild Flag show at the Waiting Room on Tuesday, Oct. 4. People who know who is in this band are attending, and people who have heard the music are attending. Wild Flag is Carrie Brownstein (formerly of Sleater Kinney), Mary Timony (formerly of Helium), and Janet Weiss (formerly of Quasi and Sleater Kinney) and Rebecca Cole (formerly of The Minders). People may also know Carrie Brownstein from her work on NPR and the show Portlandia. Omaha music fans may know Janet Weiss from her work with Bright Eyes as she performed with the band during the 2007 David Letterman appearance and also toured with the band. Wild Flag might be a indie rock super group on paper, but their self-titled debut record is one of the best of the year and one of the more forward looking pieces of music I have heard in a while. I don’t expect this to be a show that is under-attended, but I just want to make sure that people know what they could potentially be missing here.
MarQ Manner has been involved with music in Omaha his entire adult life – from managing and booking bands to a 15-year run as manager at Homer’s Records to writing a local music column for the past 11 years. Currently, Marq is the Music Nominating Chair for the Omaha Arts & Entertainment Awards.