photos by Chevy Anderson (far left and far right), Matt Masin (inside left) and Allison Hess
reviews by Andrew Norman, Casey Welsch and Michael Todd | photos by Bridget McQuillan, Chevy Anderson, Dawn Thorfinnson, Matt Masin, Michael Todd and Natalia Kraviec
Now we know why Tuesday's opening night of Lincoln Calling included only three shows. A second day of local acts and a few scattered touring bands left our crew of eight a bit tuckered out as we shot from venue to venue.
It was a night of quiet introspection, blues, straight-ahead rock, pop with piano and a couple sets to mark down in the Nebraska music scene history book: Carrot Carrot's final show and Dan McCarthy's ragtime on the Zoo Bar piano by the bar with James Maakestad on his bass. As the weeknight welcomed smaller crowds than will no doubt try Lincoln Calling 2012 closer to the weekend, it was also a second day of a "conflicting" nature, as organizer Jeremy Buckley called it. Not everything would work, but most everyone had their handful of favorites.
Click your way through the table of contents to see photos, read reviews and hear live audio. Find the schedule for Thursday shows farther below:
Jazzocracy, Homegrown Film Festival, Demos, Emily Bass, Domestica, McCarthy Trenching, Classes, Good Show Great Show, Minor Birds, Omni Arms, Tenderness Wilderness, Touch People, Gayle Skidmore, Hume, Flashbulb Fires, THEMES, Carrot Carrot, Dirty Talker, Orion Walsh, #lincolncalling on Instagram, Lincoln Calling schedule
Jazzocracy
review by Casey Welsch | photo by Dawn Thorfinnson
There is little to say about jazz that hasn’t already been said, so I won’t butcher an attempt at trying to wax poetic about it here. Jazzocracy is really good at it, and it’s a damn shame more people weren’t in the audience at the Zoo Bar to see them. It’s their regular bopping ground, but I guess it just wasn’t their day.
I was thoroughly entertained, along with maybe 10 other people. Brian Morrow (tenor sax), Tommy Van Den Berg (trombone), Tom Harvil (keys), Sean Murphy (bass) and Andrew Tyler (drums) still played like it were the Ritz, though, and they put it on. I can appreciate that, and quality shows.
The songs lost a lot of energy during the bass solos. Murphy did a fine job of soloing, but there were too many of them. Not every song needs a bass solo, same as not every song needs a drum solo, or a solo from every instrument for that matter, which is the pattern of the jazz Jazzocracy played. I get it, but it gets predictable, and when you can predict jazz, something’s not clicking.
Jazzocracy is a name that implies rule by jazz, and though I would vote for it, there weren’t exactly masses flocking to the Zoo’s town hall.
Homegrown Film Festival Showcase
This year's showing at Bourbon Theatre of locally produced short work included the disturbing — Joshua Weixelman's "Mind Games" — the eccentric and quick — Ladd Wendelin's "Sad Clown" — and thanks to curator Elizabeth "Grindcore" Reinkordt, a number of videos we've featured on Hear Nebraska. Here are just a sampling of the pieces we were proud to see on the silver screen:
Dave Socha | Hohner Compadre from Hear Nebraska on Vimeo.
Demos
review by Casey Welsch | photo by Matt Masin
I have never heard of this band. My photographer tells me this is their first show. They say it’s their second. I don’t know who to trust. Facebook says second, you can trust everything on Facebook. I also don’t know what to expect, because Facebook doesn’t say anything about that.
There wasn’t much cohesion to Demos' sound. A little bit of metal, a little bit of punk, a little bit of math rock, none of it really gelling, and very, very little volume from the vocals, but I think that was mostly the fault of the limited sound system at the Black Market, where the event took place.
The Black Market is a great used clothing store, but I think it is a terrible venue. The sound was mushy and I couldn’t hear a word of a single song.
Emily Bass
review by Michael Todd | photo by Dawn Thorfinnson
Talent comes in all forms, many of which we've heard before. Case in point: Emily Bass.
This blues soloist on the plastic ivories has one hell of a pair of lungs, or perhaps a diaphragm that just won't quit. No matter the anatomy that allows her to belt out a number of notes only a few vocalists nail, though, only a couple folks paid much attention to her basic song structures and even more common choice of lyrics. The Zoo Bar's honorary king, Magic Slim, sat down on the stage for a bit to give Bass his ear, but after a song, sauntered back to his spot at the end of the bar to join the conversation.
While she didn't seem to miss a note, Bass missed the opportunity to impress her talent upon the slowly growing crowd that was drifting in for The Zoo's next act, McCarthy Trenching.
Domestica
review by Casey Welsch | photo by Matt Masin
Domestica is a truly awesome, nigh legendary Lincoln grunge-punk band, and reviewing them is pretty unnecessary. They still got it.
However, why such Lincoln luminaries were stuck playing at the Black Market immediately after a group of newcomers is beyond me. They played with bad mics, cold fluorescent lighting and people shopping in the background. Shopping! During a punk set. During a DOMESTICA punk set. It wasn’t fitting, and though Domestica rocked as loudly as I’m sure the building-enforced noise limit allowed them to, it just didn’t hold up to what a Domestica show should be.
McCarthy Trenching
review by Michael Todd | photo by Chevy Anderson
Yes, McCarthy Trenching generates the most laughs of any Nebraska band. No need to count them either to prove this point. Dan McCarthy turns the coldest setting into one that feels just like home, if your relatives were quick-witted, humble and could play a number of ragtime tunes.
But that's not to say The Zoo was cold. McCarthy on the bar's native piano by the bar and James Maakestad on standup bass musically skipped through an unplanned set list of new ones off Plays the Piano. The regulars and friends tapped their feet or sang along as I imagined what Lincolnites of the late 19th century might have thought of McCarthy.
Bonus McCarthy quip before his "The Ballad of Dorothy Lynch": "It's really sad that ranch has reached worldwide fame, but Dorothy Lynch is stuck in Nebraska."
photo by Natalia Kraviec
Classes
review by Casey Welsch | photo by Allison Hess, Daily Nebraskan
After a few lackluster shows, I felt bored, which is a new one for me and Lincoln Calling.
At the Bourbon, Classes was playing its soothing, beautiful and well-crafted music, which is also reserved. It’s quiet and simple, and in a bill packed with pretty much beautiful, soothing, well-crafted folk music, Classes had little to set itself apart. They didn't do it for me, but the crowd stuck around for each incarnation.
photo by Dawn Thorfinnson
Good Show Great Show
review by Michael Todd | photo by Chevy Anderson
The last time I saw Good Show Great Show, it was maybe the fourth in just a few months. At the time, their signature tricks seemed to be losing a bit of steam because of the frequent performances.
These tricks arise from the three-piece band's roots in a cappella singing, and they add synthetic drums, keys and a pair of guitars to their keen sense of vocal melody. Last night, it was apparent they've been working beyond their set of original material composed for their debut, Larry Turquoise. Three new songs, including the refined growling of closer "Old Wolfe," give reason to keep watching this Lincoln group as they develop their sound.
photo by Matt Masin
photo by Bridget McQuillan
Minor Birds
review by Casey Welsch | photo by Allison Hess, Daily Nebraskan
Yet again, I am struck by music that is beautiful, soothing and beige wallpaper. Only one half of the husband-and-wife duo that makes up Minor Birds showed up to the Bourbon. Chelsea Wilde could sing and tickle the electric ivory, and I couldn’t help but get an almost Sarah McLachlan vibe from the one-woman, one-song setup.
Omni Arms
review by Andrew Norman | photo by Natalia Kraviec
After Dan McCarthy of McCarthy Trenching brought the Zoo Bar back to 1899 for a bit — not such a stretch — with his encore Scott Joplin ragtime tune, Omni Arms ushered in at least 1983.
The forecast — via a barstool neighbor —called for fog from the Lincoln four-piece, which I'd only seen play one or two songs before. But the band must have left their fog machines at home Wednesday, as they played a set of dancey punk rocktronica to a sparse crowd that was attentive but stationary (myself included).
Drummer (and Bourbon sound guy) Christopher Johnson bangs out the beat as his three compadres at the front of the stage play bouncy pop melodies and low-fi, crunchy background on the five keyboards among them. It's a heavy electronic sound until one of them breaks off to pick fast runs on a bass. The lead singer's vocals sounded like a cross between Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh and Nerf Herder's Parry Gripp — I imagine the lyrics are amusing, but I coulnd't decipher them. The music sounds like the perfect score to the Atari game Pole Position, if the car was fleeing punk rock surf Nazis, rather than racing other drivers
They have a high-energy sound, but not much life on stage, staring at their keys with little crowd engagement. I think they could really move a crowd if they got a little more into it, with or without fog.
Tenderness Wilderness
photo by Matt Masin
photos by Bridget McQuillan
Touch People
review by Andrew Norman | photo by Morgan Spiehs, Daily Nebraskan
Wearing a hoodie (and even a shirt) with his fro smashed and contained by a skate cap, Touch People's Darren Keen looks like the DJ part, sure, but he's also become very skilled behind his laptop/keys contraption (at least to this admittedly casual DJ observer). His Zoo Bar set was loud as hell, and flowed nicely, as he occasionally picked up his bass guitar to add funky-as-shit low-end to super-dancey, hip-hop-influenced electronic songs.
I could hear the influence of The Show is the Rainbow — his best-known project — in his beats. And though it's more electronica than rock 'n' roll, it's more easily palatable TSITR for the average listener. I know Touch People has played for big rooms with The Faint, and I could easily picture a club crowd going bonkers for this stuff.
Gayle Skidmore
photo by Chevy Anderson
Hume
review by Andrew Norman | photos by Chevy Anderson and Angie Norman
Here's what I saw during this Baltimore band's Duffy's Tavern set:
Two drummers each on full sets control a wave of a beat that builds, builds, builds to a crescendo, before slowing to sleep, only to return with an explosive battle-beat to a final climax.
A guitar player (sans axe, often) kneels, turning and tweaking knobs on the largest pedal board I've ever seen to create screaming distortion and heavy ambient sounds that control the songs, making the sound hectic and spazzy at times, wistful and creepy at others.
The frontman holds down the low end on bass as he swings and sways with the breeze, chanting sleepy vocals to back, really, the high-energy prog rock.
On the last song, an uptempo rocker, the band bounced the bass cab off the brick rigged to replace its missing caster, landing his still-connected amp magically on it as it blasted sound to Parrish Studios.
Hume left people talking.
Flashbulb Fires
photo by Bridget McQuillan
THEMES
photo by Bridget McQuillan
Carrot Carrot
review by Andrew Norman
Dave Ozinga (UUVVWWZ drummer) said he wanted his longtime guitar/writing project to end unceremoniously last night, and it did. With Mike Elsner on guitar and Ron "Wax" Albertson on drums (after a one-practice orientation), Carrot Carrot played loud, hard and with energy. The Duffy's show ran until about 1:30, however, and this old man didn't have the day off, nor the energy to give them a better sendoff.
Dirty Talker
photo by Michael Todd
Orion Walsh
review by Casey Welsch | photo by Bridget McQuillan
Finally, and here I thought my whole Wednesday Calling would lead to me falling asleep in a Pisco punch. Orion had the whole band in tow at the Bourbon, and they just get tighter and tighter every time I see them play. I’ve heard all of these songs before, enough times to know all the words and even the horn parts, but Orion is a songwriter of rare form. I don’t get tired of hearing his tunes.
Something definitely set Orion apart from all the other folk offered earlier, and that’s his conviction. His songs aren’t fluffy, emotional or touching, but they are genuine, meaningful and direct, and they are angry. And so is he. It always pays off to see him and his band play, and I’m glad I did once again.
photo by Bridget McQuillan
#lincolncalling on Instagram
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photo by athoughtbytim Demos #lincolncalling |
photo by athoughtbytim Demos #lincolncalling #hearnebraska |
photo by fastorangebuckley Music video for Eli Mardock's "Cut Me Open." Homegrown Film Festival." #lincolncalling |
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photo by athoughtbytim Domestica #lincolncalling |
photo by athoughtbytim Classes #lincolncalling |
photo by hearnebraska @gshowgshow celebrates main songwriter Taylor's birthday @duffystavern for #lincolncalling |
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photo by morganthesaint Happy birthday, @DrGentleman! @gshowgshow #happybirthday #goodshowgreatshow #LNK #lincolncalling |
photo by hilarysk Lara #LNK #lincolncalling |
photo by hearnebraska Good show great show #concert at #lincolncalling |
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photo by hearnebraska 1/2 of @minor_birds at the Bourbon Theatre. #LincolnCalling |
photo by andrewnorman I'm sorry you can't see McCarthy Trenching playing the Zoo Bar piano. #lincolncalling |
photo by hilarysk @andrewnorman put this on my table and I had a minor panic attack, haha. #LNK #lincolncalling |
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photo by spencermunson CDs, Tapes, and Flash Drives. Orion Walsh on his merch game @bourbontheatre #LincolnCalling @hearnebraska |
photo by fastorangebuckley Tenderness Wilderness at Duffy's. 10.10.12 #lincolncalling |
photo by keithjp A deer at duffys…oh happy day!! #lincolncalling #lnk |
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photo by hilarysk Gayle Skidmore #lincolncalling |
photo by spencermunson Lincoln Punk #lincolncalling |
photo by spencermunson Tombone joining in on the street music action. #lincolncalling @hearnebraska |
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photo by hearnebraska @touchpeople has used every word and every note. There are no combinations left. No souls to bear, no songs to share… #lincolncalling |
photo by angiejnorman Touch People #hearnebraska #lincolncalling |
photo by fastorangebuckley Hume at Duffy's. 10.10.12 #lincolncalling |
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photo by hearnebraska Hume at #lincolncalling |
photo by angiejnorman "Baltimore, Nebraska's" Hume #hearnebraska #lincolncalling |
photo by fastorangebuckley Themes, Zoo Bar, 10.10.12 #lincolncalling |
photo by hearnebraska
Themes killing it at #lincolncalling
photo by hearnebraska
Orion Walsh at the bourbon #lincolncalling
LINCOLN CALLING SCHEDULE
Michael Todd is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. Andrew Norman is HN's co-founder, director and editor. Bridget McQuillan, Chevy Anderson and Natalia Kraviec are HN interns. Casey Welsch, Matt Masin, Dawn Thorfinnson are HN contributors. Together, they make up eight-fifteenths of our Lincoln Calling coverage crew. Reach us all through Michael at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.