I saw a bunch of great local bands this weekend. On Friday, Thunder Power (now sans exclamation points) had their CD release show at Slowdown with Honeybee, These United States, and Midwest Dilemma. It was the first time I’ve seen Midwest Dilemma and they sounded really good and full (they should sound full with that many members) and I’m always excited to see Honeybee live. Thunder Power sounded great too and the EP Love Yourself looks and sounds awesome.

On Saturday there was a benefit show at The Waiting Room for the Peace Center, which amongst other support, offers free counseling for soldiers with PTSD. Bands that played included: Bear Country, Simon Joyner, Bill Hoover, McCarthy Trenching, Outlaw Con Bandana, Orenda Fink and Baby Walrus (pictured above).

It was the first time I’ve seen Outlaw Con Bandana, and they were really, really good. I’ve heard good things about them, and they did not disappoint. I haven’t seen Baby Walrus in what feels like forever, and it was way too long, because this band is SO good. They played a few new songs which were really promising and is a sign of more good music to come from them, and the old stuff reminded me how good their album was. I guess I’ll have to take Lykke Li out of my CD player. It was bound to happen some time.

This is a gravely inadequate post, but I just want to say that I saw The Fiery Furnaces the other night and they were amazing and now I can’t stop listening to them. They are an extremely talented and intriguing band live. I saw Mates of State on Saturday and they were pretty awesome too. Their new album Re-Arrange Us is really good and poppy and the songs and bits of lyrics are guaranteed to stay in head for days. The past couple of days I’ve woken up with pieces of their songs in my head…like the moment I woke up. That’s how catchy it is.

In downer news, Little Couch had a less than impressive showing at pub quiz tonight. In fact, we were so embarrassed that we used a pseudonym. We’ll bounce back next week with a best ever score!

(a week and a half ago)

Photos from the Obama rally show at the Slowdown featuring Secret Life of Sparrows, Jim Ward, Bright Eyes, M. Ward and Jim James can be found here, taken by Omaha photographer Kayla Benker.

Just got back from seeing Darren Kean and Thunder Power!!! at Slowdown. Great show. I’ve got to get to bed for my early wake up tomorrow at 8:30 am to make history attending Nebraska’s first ever caucus. I’m so excited! I am so intrigued by the weirdness and mystery that is a caucus. I even love the word.

Also, I wrote a review of the Bright Eyes, M. Ward, Jim James, etc. show for the great Omaha music blog, Omahype.

Today (technically yesterday) was a busy day. I went straight from teaching to pick Kyle up and head downtown to the Civic Auditorium to attend a Barack Obama rally.

Bright Eyes, Jim James and M. Ward played a few songs at the opening of the rally. Then we waited awhile for Barack to come onstage (he was an hour late) and then he spoke for about an hour. We arrived at 3:30 and left at 7, at which time I had to head straight to Slowdown and stand in a long line in the freezing cold to get into the free Barack Obama rally show with, again, Bright Eyes, Jim James, M. Ward and Jim Ward of Sparta and Secret Life of Sparrows. The show was awesome. Basically an all star band that sounded really good and we got to hear about 5 great bands for free and Jason Boesel was drumming. I’m too tired to describe any of this in any detail whatsoever, except to say it was a great and exhausting day.

Photos below. I took some videos too, so maybe I’ll post some more on the rally/show tomorrow. And I have photos from Florida yet to post. I’m getting behind!

Quick run-down on weekend cultural activities:

Dan McCarthy, Spring Gun and Thunder Power!!! at Slowdown was awesome. The sound is really great in there and as a result, the bands all sounded great, especially TP (photo below). Kacynna’s voice was amazing on those crisp speakers.

Saw Billy the Kid at Film Streams and really liked it, also enjoyed the Q & A afterwards. I felt nostalgic for 466 nights and Q & As and felt like I should’ve been sitting on the floor in the front taking photos. That would’ve been weird though. I decided that I would make a list of all the guests we had so that I could remember them in my old age or tell my grandkids. I always plan to do this with concerts too (for the same reasons). I will add both of these lists to my non-New Years resolution list. But yeah, the movie was a funny, interesting, moving portrait of this kid, Billy. It’s surprising that the director, Jennifer Venditti, was able to establish trust and a sense of rapport with him in only 5 days (she went back and shot 3 more days. If you don’t feel like doing the math, that’s 8 shooting days)…although after watching the film and getting a better sense of Billy, it’s not all that surprising – though it is a testament to her personality as well. I have a lot more I could say about this film (and maybe will), but for now (since this is a quick recap and it’s 2:14 am) I will just say: go see it if you can.

It is also the kind of movie that makes me really want to go out and make a film. It had a very DIY aesthetic and was shot with basically just two people as the crew on the Panasonic DVX camera and has a verité style. I wish the camera had been more steady, but in the end it didn’t matter because Billy as a character and the subject matter as a whole was so strong. It really is an example of story, character and heart triumphing over any matter of production value or gloss.

Recently got back from seeing Baby Walrus at The Waiting Room. It seemed like a shorter set than usual, but it was still fun and they sounded great. I really like the record, but it’s even better live. I still have What Plastic Box in my head. Here’s the end of it live:

I would like to go to The Waiting Room tomorrow night to see Orenda Fink, Jake Bellows, Joe Knapp, Stefanie Drootin, Dan McCarthy and more, but probably won’t because I haven’t planned anything for class on Monday and that would be another late night and I have get sleep for my long work day on Monday. I’m just not as hardcore as I once was, I guess. I’m getting old.

And last, but not least, I am in the process of re-watching Me And You And Everyone We Know. It’s been too long since I’ve seen it last, and it’s been fun and inspiring to watch it despite the fact that I keep falling asleep…which has nothing to do with the movie itself and everything to do with the fact that I start it at around 3 am after taking Tylenol PM (a recent bad habit I am aiming to break). I’m hoping to make it through another 20 minutes tonight. Later.

Here’s Tilly & the Wall’s entrance to the Slowdown stage tonight in Omaha. They were awesome. They looked like they were having a lot of fun. It’s so great when bands actually smile. Members of Tilly smile a lot. That is one of the great things about them. They played a bunch of great songs, the tap dancing was amazing (the number of tappers is growing…), the crowd was really into it — and the show was free! Can’t get much better than that.