Weird War, How Could I Forget.

July 28th, 2005

These cats can swing it. From the dramatic, nonsensical spoken word to start the experience the last leap onto the monitor, the energy was right up there the whole time. I brought a friend out who hasn't seen a show in forever but was a big fan of The Make Up, so it didn't take much arm twisting when I told him who Weird War really was. He loved it. I'd bet it was the best time he'd had in a while, and I felt the same way. It was one of those nights when you're in a crowd of a few dozen and something really special is happening. Weird War made me feel sad for the rest of the world, the people who missed the show.

Alex, you kung-fu pimp.
You singed my eyebrows.
Was it because you knew I was in love with Michelle Mae?

Michelle, coolest to ever stand stage right of the center pole at Sokol.

Ian, no words are necessary.
But thanks anyway for hanging out with us at the Ottobar that one time.

And Neil, you should keep those drums chained up.

Turned Green and Nearly Fainted

That's what happened to my buddy the night we went to see The Faint.

August 15th, 2005

It started with a few pints and a hot grill with ham at La Buvette, then a pit stop at my apartment before heading down to Sokol. It was very hot. I was very hot to see the show, since I was on the ticket possessing side of a sold out night and after seeing them open for Bright Eyes at the Mid-America show, I was pretty sure they were going to become my favorite Omaha band.

I'll use my friend's comments to describe Ladyfinger, "I should just go home and listen to Black Flag." I told him to go then, but I was only halfway into Ladyfinger because as I said, it was hot, and I was feeling like I needed lots of beverage and the show was taking a back seat to me cooling down and getting accustomed to the evening. My buddy was feeling the heat too, and went off to grab some water. I run into him moments after the set and he's looking okay, a little sweaty, but not too bad. Then he sortof crumples over and we grab him and walk him over to the wall. He comes back about halfway, so he's more or less standing, but he's pretty pale, and he can't see. We find a place to sit for a bit, his eyesight returns and at this point we realize the middle act, Orenda Fink (she used to be half of Azure Ray) has come on and is playing "Do You Realize??"

Sorry Orenda, but we spent the majority of your set sitting in the gym and you were too quiet to hear where we were sitting. I'll see you again I'm sure, but my boy really needed the break. He bounced back after modifying the blood pressure with a trusty red bull.

The Faint.

Now THIS is a real rock show.

Multi-media extraordinaire with a deafening, vibrating soundsystem to pump the sweaty crowd full of jam. My general gripe about crowds in Omaha: gawkishness. Not tonight. Tonight is Dance Party Faintastic. Synthy wobbling nod fodder for the folks who can't get anything else moving. The visuals were tightly matched, constantly changing and hi-fi. Not only was the soundsystem more than sufficiently watted, the 4/4 kick literally hit you with wave after tangible soundwave, it was crisply balanced, so that I could hear the lyrics, most of the time. But everybody here has seen The Faint at some point or another, so I guess I should just drop it. Go see 'em if you haven't. If you like electro, find a disk, and even if you don't end up liking it, go see 'em live if you get the chance. The ladies seem to love 'em, and they have a bunch of songs about sex. Personally, they upstaged Bright Eyes, but maybe that's because they followed Mars Black.

I did brave the 140 degree sauna upstairs to snap a couple of photos of the setup, but they'll probably be crapola because of all the humidity rising up off the crowd. You'll see them here if they ain't.

Nice guys, that Neva Dinova

August 13th, 2005

Omaha music fans come out for the local guys. Neva Dinova put money in the boy's pockets tonight. I wish I had written this up sooner, because I'm at a loss to say much about this one. It was the first time I had seen Neva Dinova live, but I knew was I was getting into and they exceeded expectations.

I also remember Mayday being enjoyable, but again, I gotta do this right away or else I can't think of anything interesting to say.

So I'm afraid to say that's it for this one, I promise to improve.

Morningwood

I went to Sokol that night unsure of what I might see, as I often do. The middle band of three, Morningwood comes out like a comedian playing the really rocking part of the Top Gun Anthem. Titties was quite pneumatic, and quite enchanting, the band was very tight and I liked them, honestly I was feeling a slight bit blown away by the whole thing, or so I thought. Then they went into Take Off Your Clothes.

Titties goes into the crowd. I'm thinking.. these guys are going to try and pull somebody on stage as they mentioned in the banter earlier. She steps in front of me and sizes me up. I raise an eyebrow to accent my current smirk. The band drops into a riff and we're dancing. That's hot. I like sweat. I like dancing dirty. I like Titties. The encounter intesifies as my adrenal glands finally awaken from a state of disbelief. The band is ripping velcro and Titties really has the pneumatics oscillating as I hold her like a rocket just after zero, osmotic sweat facilitating our cominglance of muscle and flesh.


And then it was over. I shakily lit a cigarette. Yeah. That's exactly how it happened.

I met Titties after the set to give her a proper thanks and a kiss on the cheek. She also signed my record, the hard kind.. as she referred to them.



Check the band's site for photos of more Take Off Your Clothes antics, not by me, but elsewhere on the tour. Alas, it seems there was no photographer to document the Sokol show.