words by Michael Todd | photos by Matthew Masin
Your stomach growls on a Friday night. It’s a distinct kind of growl, one that asks for something that will follow a glass of good beer on its way down. You’re in town for state boys basketball, a father who made the trip from the panhandle by himself, and you wander downtown with nothing but a smart phone to guide your way. You search “pizza and beer,” and Yia Yia’s is the first result.
And so, you find a parking spot, put in a few quarters despite it being past 6 p.m. and go in search of 1423 O St. In the rush of stimuli, you don’t see the partly obscured sign hung across the Mix Barcade, Yia Yia’s and The Bourbon Theatre. You don’t glance at the poster listing Good Speakers Fest bands, but you do hear the faint sound of polka music interrupted by "Rebecca, your slice is ready."
You open the door, take in the atmosphere for a brief moment, and blam! You see a man with a mustache and a tuba prancing toward you. What do you think? Do you smile, or are you frightened?
All of this is hypothetical, of course, but as I stood at the pool table end of Yia Yia's — as Brian Brazier tromped down the length of the restaurant with his tuba and Dave Socha no doubt offended a few people with his singing and accordion — I wondered how an innocent bystander would react to Good Speakers. The festival was an assault on the senses, in a good way, and the usual separation of artist and audience was almost nonexistent early on at Yia Yia's and the Bourbon.
The Bolzen Beer Band sang about beer and weed as small children danced along. They sang a cover of "The Hokey Pokey" then about fat women. Next door at the Bourbon, Ed Schrader's Music Beat ended their set — apparently written on the drumhead of the large bass at centerstage — with a mostly a cappella church-like chant and a blistering tribal beat rap. Plack Blague followed with a form of performance art, a barrage of noise, some nearly naked crotch-grabbing and other suggestive gestures.
Dean the Bible was supposed to be offensive, too, but their words were mostly indistinct through the PA at Yia Yia's. Still, you got the idea from a T-shirt of Obama as Mao peeking through the growing crowd. Bolzen's Brazier says, "Dean the Bible can tell a story so well, he can manipulate you into committing a felony," so perhaps it's a good thing the words fell to the floor before they reached my ears.
The Mix Barcade offered free arcade games from 7 to 9 p.m., and gradually the small number of people who passively heard Bassthoven's video game-inspired set began to increase. The venue operated as a sort of hangout and recoup headquarters. As DJs were tucked away in their cockpit at the back of the venue, few passengers paid attention while they talked at the bar or shot aliens.
The man behind it all, Darren Keen, says the festival was a success for him. It was his first as promoter, soundman, band caretaker and more, and all the time he had put into preparations paid off.
"I had been running around like a chicken with my head cut off all day," Keen says. "So once the music started, I felt like, it sounds silly, but it was cool that it was the beginning of the end almost of all your hard work."
In addition to the acrobatics it must have taken to hang his banner across the tops of three buildings, Keen punctuated the air in all three venues with small clouds like oversized cotton balls. Plack Blague tore one down at The Bourbon, and others such as Brazier and his tuba kept throwing the weather system into upheaval.
Conchance was the most comfortable artist under the harsh pool table lights at Yia Yia's. He and fellow Midtown Marauders' member Black Jonny Quest rapped over jazzy beats. This is the closest I'll get to seeing A Tribe Called Quest — even if the similarity is a stretch — and I consider it the highlight of my night.
Other bands in the Slumber Party Showcase such as Sun Settings and Noah's Ark brought a more traditional rock setup, though the former caught my ear more on Friday with its dancing vocal lines. Again, the mix for Noah's Ark was a little muddled together, but for a first try, Yia Yia's worked well as a venue.
Keen says the way in which he and Yia Yia's owner Nader Sepahpu finally organized for live shows should remain a Lincoln music mystery. Still, Keen says, "I guess he had thought about it, and he knew I was the dude to make it happen." And while Keen was jumping from venue to venue most of the night, "The few times I could sit back and sort of take in the fact that I had facilitated all of that were really, really excellent."
And now for the meme of the night, the song that spilled over onto the sidewalk into Yia Yia's after it went for more than 10 minutes at the Bourbon: The band, Electronic Nightmare, was, well, pretty much what you'd expect from a band whose "hit" has the line that goes, "Cheek to cheek, butt to butt, come on everybody go 'what, what.'" You might remember it from this. A few laughs were had, and I felt sorry for the synth player who played about six notes repeatedly for those 12 or 13 minutes.
I won't pretend to know anything about DJing, but I will say Inflect was my favorite. Why that is exactly will also remain a mystery until I learn the trade. But for the most part, I liked seeing Brett Smith's active involvement in the music he was spinning and manipulating.
To end my night, UUVVWWZ indirectly caused a light to go out, asked for duct tape for some unknown reason and drummed without glasses. The veterans they are, singer Teal Gardner, guitarist Jim Schroeder, bassist Dustin Wilbourn and drummer Dave Ozinga all took the changes in stride.
It was an audience member who swung the pool table light so much to cause it to go dark after all. Another audience member who provided the duct tape made things even, though. And from my perspective behind the crowd packed in, I didn't see how Ozinga lost those glasses. Still, the band played their set of new songs without any noticeable mistakes musically.
All in all, it was a crazy first year for the festival, a success for one of Lincoln's most consistent musicians, Darren Keen. It was another festival musicians go to see other musicians at after Lincoln Exposed, as members of other bands such as Universe Contest, Low Horse and Time Hammer dotted the crowd. For my money, just $7, it was an experience I sincerely thank Keen for arranging.
The next big event on the schedule for Good Speakers is Delicate Steve, Janka Nabay and InDreama at Slowdown on March 25. The show will be a benefit for All As One, a non-profit organization with a mission to provide Sierra Leone's children and women with education, health care and other basic needs.
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Michael Todd is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. He is excitedly looking forward to the shows at Yia Yia's on the second Friday of every month. Reach him at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.