Maha 2011 | Lineup Announced

by Jordan Minnick

It's official, three of the mainstage performers for this year's third annual Maha Music Festival include Omaha rock band Cursive, indie reunitees Guided by Voices and reggae MCer Matisyahu. The festival takes place Saturday, Aug. 13 at the Lewis and Clark Landing. You'll remember that last year's mainstagers included Spoon, The Faint, Superchunk and It's True.

There will be two additional lineup announcements from Maha for three more mainstage acts and the five local stage acts. A July OEAA showcase will also decide the local band to open up the festival on the local stage.

Festival organizer Tre Brashear gives a little more insight to this year's mainstage …

"One thing we wanted to do this year is we really wanted to make sure that we were spreading things out throughout the day. We wanted to make sure we were creating a festival atmosphere and not neccessarily a concert that's dominated by one or two performers, and so we wanted to make sure we had a strong lineup throughout the day. And we're also trying to tie in things that really seemed to resonate with people in past years. And bringing back someone who's known to be an indie legend like Guided by Voices; it seemed to make sense, seeing how excited people were for Superchunk last year."
 
Cursive

 
"Everybody loves Cursive. The Faint last year–people loved the fact that The Faint were playing, so having Cursive here this year just made a ton of sense." He says many probably would have guessed Cursive to play Maha, and with word already out on the local act playing the festival, this one's probably no surprise.
 
Guided by Voices

 
"It's the orginal lineup, the lineup that got so much praise at Madator 21 reunion show last year. People loved it. So getting them, we're really excited. We think it's consistant with everything we're trying to do with indie music."
 
GBV is also set to play Hopscotch Fest with Flaming Lips and Superchunk as well as the Pitchfork festival. Thank God we can catch 'em in Omaha!  
 
Matisyahu

 
"We wanted to have a reggae performer for three years, just because we think it fits with the overall festival. Matisyahu is a great live performer, sold out his last show here at Slowdown, I think a couple months ahead of time. People love his show. It's a high-energy show, it's a little different." Brashear says the artist will likely come as the biggest surprise. Matisyahu also comes as the first act of its kind (that is, of the hip-hop genre) to perform at Maha, and will be the last performer. As a devout Orthodox Jew, he says, the MC cannot take the stage until after sundown. 
 
Tickets hit the internet market 10 a.m. Saturday via etix.com. This year, they're $30 in advance and $35 day of.
 
What do you think about the lineup? Tell us in the comments.