Lullaby for the Working Class at The Admiral, Oct. 20, 2026.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The will-call line — filled with the bands’ friends and family — stretched out the front door of The Admiral at last night’s Bright Eyes concert. Since I’m neither, I had purchased a ticket and was whisked right inside just as Ted Stevens and the other seven members of Lullaby for the Working Class stepped under the dark lavender stage lights to the acoustic strumming of “Good Morning,” the first song from the band’s 1996 debut, Blanket Warm. 

I recognized most of this configuration of Lullaby — Nate Walcott on keyboards, a bald/bearded A.J. Mogis on upright bass, Megan Siebe on cello and mandolin and, of course, Mike Mogis on banjo. But I didn’t know the drummer, violin player or the guy playing what I think was a hammered dulcimer. Yes, it was that kind of concert. (Editor’s Note: A kind reader pointed out that Tiffany (Kowalski) Osborn played violin and Shane Aspergren played drums – both original Lullaby members).

Lullaby for the Working Class, one of Saddle Creek Records’ early bands (though their albums were also released on Bar/None), was renowned for their multi-instrumental chamber-pop style at a time in the ‘90s when acts like Tindersticks, Neutral Milk Hotel and Pinetop Seven (which Nate Walcott also played in) were all the rage.

Most people know Stevens from angular indie-punk rockers Cursive, where frontman Tim Kasher handles most of the vocals. It’s easy to forget Stevens’ own rather remarkable voice, which has only gotten better as he’s aged.

The set’s highlights came from that first album. “Honey, Drop the Knife” and “Spreading the Evening Sky with Crows” took full flight on the wings of this orchestra, which at times featured three bow-driven instruments in sonorous synchronicity. Watching Mike Mogis dance around with his banjo made me wonder if Sufjan Stevens had heard Lullaby prior to recording Michigan. Maybe, maybe not. 

Ted played a solo acoustic number late in the set with the lyric, “Lift up your chin / and share in my chagrin,” which I can’t find in any Lullaby song. Then the band returned joined by Conor Oberst on guitar and backing vocals for the last two songs — “Queen of the Long-Legged Insects” from Blanket Warm and a rousing rendition of “Hypnotist (Song for Daniel H.)” from 1997’s I Never Even Asked for Light. 

I wondered how many people in the audience who were there to see Bright Eyes were familiar with Lullaby for the Working Class or if this was their introduction. And if they’ll seek out more. Stevens and the band sounded so good, could this tour ignite a revival? What would new Lullaby music sound like at a time when a ‘90s-style of indie is coming back in vogue?

Oberst took the stage between sets to urge people to vote and to introduce (surprise!) independent candidate for U.S. Senate Dan Osborn, who took a minute to tell people how the future of the country depends on the next election. 

“To quote Bright Eyes, ‘No one’s sure how all of this got started / But we’re gonna make them goddamn certain how it’s gonna end,’” said Osborn to a room filled with whoops and hollers. 

The Bright Eyes orchestra at The Admiral, Oct. 20, 2026.

Then the band we just saw returned in the guise of Bright Eyes, though A.J. Mogis wasn’t playing bass. Throughout the set, Stevens traveled around the stage playing guitar, singing backing vocals and even playing that hammered dulcimer on one song. His voice and the other stringed instruments added new depth to a more autumnal set of songs than Bright Eyes played last month at The Waiting Room, or maybe it just seemed that way. 

When Stevens made his way up to the front of the stage with an acoustic guitar in hand, Oberst recalled the two of them playing Indigo Girls songs together early in their lives. “Ted was the first person to record me,” he said, “back when I was 13.” 

Oberst said the tour with Lullaby for the Working Class, which ended last night, had been a dream come true. There’s no reason they couldn’t keep that dream going. 

For Bright Eyes, the tour and that earlier Waiting Room show mark a return to form we probably haven’t seen since the band’s early days, perhaps thanks in part to Oberst’s newfound sobriety. He has a new spark and energy on stage, and everyone up there with him was having a blast playing songs created over the decades. How will this newfound energy translate into new material? Only time will tell…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2026 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Wagon Blasters at the Speed! Nebraska 30th Anniversary showcase, Oct. 16, 2026.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Previous commitments meant that I was only able to catch two of the five bands that played at last Friday night’s Speed! Nebraska 30th anniversary showcase/celebration at Reverb Lounge. 

Domestica at the Speed! Nebraska showcase, Oct. 16, 2026.

The Lincoln-based power trio Domestica was already halfway through their set when I arrived. Bassist Heidi Ore and guitarist Jon Taylor sounded as good as they did 30-some years ago when they fronted their original power trio — Mercy Rule. 

On a side note, Mercy Rule was among the artists inducted into the Nebraska Performing Arts Hall of Fame Saturday night in Lincoln, along with Skudder, The Boys and Floating Opera. I’m unsure who played drums with Mercy Rule for the ceremony’s performance, but I’m told it wasn’t original drummer Ron Albertson or Domestica’s drummer, Pawl Tisdale (of Sideshow fame — why hasn’t that band been inducted?).

After I bought a new Speed! Nebraska ringer T and sunburst-colored trucker cap from the label’s chief executive, Gary Dean Davis, his band, Wagon Blasters, took the stage in front of a crowd of around 50. Again, Davis and guitarist Bill Thornton sounded as good as they did 30-some years ago when they were in their previous band, Frontier Trust (another band destined for the Hall of Fame). 

Late in the set, Ore joined the band on stage for a heart-felt rendition of Frontier Trust’s cover of “Jackson,” the Billy Edd Wheeler-Jerry Leiber song made famous by Johnny Cash and June Carter. It was an iconic moment, an evening highlight and a fitting way to honor a record label that’s played such an important role in Nebraska’s rock ’n’ roll history. 

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2026 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The post Live Review: Speed! Nebraska turns 30 at Reverb… appeared first on Lazy-i .

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s another busy weekend of shows, kicked off tonight with the big Speed! Nebraska showcase at Reverb Lounge. You read the interview with Speed! Nebraska label executive Gary Dean Davis a couple days ago, and if you didn’t, go read it now. 

The five-band bill is headlined by Bad Bad Men, with Wagon Blasters, Domestica and DIP TET. Half Trust — Gary and Bill Thornton playing Frontier Trust tunes — kicks things off early at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10. Come celebrate and buy a new Speed! Nebraska seed cap!

Saturday night, Slow Pulp returns to Slowdown. The Chicago-by-way-of-Madison, Wisconsin indie band’s new LP, Melodie, came out last month on Anti Records and received a 7.4 rating from the once-influential tastemaker, Pitchfork. Sonically, it’s not much of a stretch from their 2023 breakthrough album, Yard.

As I said of their 2023 show: “The remarkable thing about the band is how lead singer Emily Massey’s flat, unadorned, unfussy vocals perfectly complement the band’s impeccable playing. On the surface, Slow Pulp is nothing new or groundbreaking — they play somewhat run-of-the-mill indie rock that would fit comfortably alongside other modern-day female-led indie projects like Alvvays or Momma. Their strength lies in creating a sound that feels comfortable and assured — a fine, even style of songwriting I could listen to all night.”

Open act, Chicago trio Feller, released their debut full-length Sound Colored Penny this past February on Shuga Records, and sonically is a nice fit with Slow Pulp. This is a main room show. Start time is 8 p.m., tickets are $30. 

Also Saturday night, live music returns to fabulous O’Leaver’s with an Elliott Smith tribute show featuring performances by Mitch Gettman, Benicio Archuleta, Adam Stoltenberg, Timothy Collier and Noah Larsen. The free show starts at 9 p.m. 

And over at the B Bar on Leavenworth, Dead Poets is headlining a free afternoon show with Dead Don’t Die and Absence & Alchemy as part of the No Coast Punk Rock Flea Market. 

And that’s all I got. If i missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend!

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2026 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The crowd slowly trickled into Reverb Lounge Saturday night, turning what looked to be a lousy turnout into a well-attended show, headlined by indie soft-rockers Hovvdy. 

Opening act Emma Ogier had just been christened the “next big thing” a couple days earlier by Rolling Stone and was no stranger to Omaha, having played at Pageturners Lounge this summer. Still, only about 30 folks stood in the club when she took the stage along with two guitarists. 

Other than a couple YouTube videos, I hadn’t heard Ogier’s music before, so most of it would be new to me and likely to the rest of the audience. That’s because her new album, Fly 1111, which Rolling Stone already called “one of the year’s best,” isn’t scheduled to drop until Nov. 11 via Lost Highway Records. 

To tide fans over until the release — and to have something to sell at the merch table other than ball caps branded with the number 11 — Ogier had burned a handful of CDRs with demo versions of songs from the new record. I bought a copy for $10 intending to get a head start on hearing the record and also thinking the CDR might someday be a valuable collector’s item when Ogier reaches Adrianne Lenker’s fame status. 

Emma Ogier at Reverb Lounge, Oct. 10, 2026.

The Verbatim CDR came in a crumpled red-paper sleeve. Ogier had scrawled something resembling a stork on the front with a Sharpie, along with “Emma Ogier was here.” Five of the nine tracks on the CD, named CD Baby Vol 3 when loaded into iTunes, appear to be on the new album, though the other four could simply be titled differently from the end product. 

Stylistically, the songs reminded me of Lenker and Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, though the mostly lovelorn lyrics sound like someone younger than both. The gorgeous “At Least I Think It Was” sounds like it could have been an outtake from the Buckingham Nicks album. Record of the year? Let’s see how these sound when fleshed out with a band. 

Performed live last Saturday without a rhythm section, the songs obviously were more stripped down, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Ogier filled in the spaces between numbers with war stories (including one about a wardrobe malfunction during that Pageturners show) that made her sound like an old pro. It was a fun, comfortable set.

Hovvdy at Reverb, Oct. 10, 2026.

Hovvdy took the stage a little after 9 — a five-piece band centered on lead singers Charlie Martin and Will Taylor, who alternated the frontman role throughout the set with equal down-home panache. The southern lilt isn’t always apparent on their new album, Big World, but you get dollops of it when Martin is up front, whereas Taylor’s more indie-fluent songs are what’s getting them airplay on Sirius XMU. 

Their slightly twangy soft-rock approach would have made these guys big FM radio rock stars in the ‘80s, sounding like a cross between Southern Accents-era Tom Petty and Counting Crows (with the Crows winning out, most of the time). But I guess you could say the same thing about MJ Lenderman and This Is Lorelei and Alex G.

Throughout the set, everyone but the drummer swapped instruments between songs, so the keyboard player would switch to bass while Taylor took his turn behind the console, and everyone played one of Martin’s many guitars by the end of the evening.

In what I have to guess is an effort to follow The Strokes (or Cher), Martin sang through an Auto-Tuner on a couple songs. The technology always sounds gimmicky to me, and Saturday night was no exception, but he was having such a good time, I doubt he cared what anyone thought. Twice during the set Martin stood on the edge of the stage and coaxed the crowd (now at about 50 people in size) to sing along to a chorus. And a few fans actually did. 

The Hovvdy set list.

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Geordie Greep’s Wednesday night headlining show at Slowdown has been canceled, with no reason given on the Slowdown website. But a quick Google search of Greep’s name will uncover the mystery.

A string of shows including Wednesday’s was canceled after the former frontman and guitarist of English rock band Black Midi (who played at Slowdown a couple years ago) faced sexual misconduct allegations made prior to his Oct. 8 show in Vancouver. 

Greep denied the rape allegation, as reported by Stereogum in a story that includes a video of Greep discussing the incident from stage before his portion of the Vancouver show, which he performed without his backing band. Tickets bought for Wednesday’s show are being refunded.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2026 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The post Live review: Hovvdy brings the twang, Emma Ogier brings the promise; Geordie Greep cancellation update… appeared first on Lazy-i .

Georgia Gets By performing at Ming Toy Gallery, Oct. 8, 2026.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

We hosted Georgia Gets By last night at Ming Toy Gallery — that’s our art space in Benson operated by my wife, Teresa. My connection to the event makes writing a review impossible without the appearance of bias, but that said, it was a stunning evening.

I hadn’t heard of Georgia Gets By or Georgia Nott (her actual name) before seeing an offer to host a tour date on the Undertow website. She’s also known as half of the electro-pop group Broods, who I also had never heard of. But one listen to Nott’s new LP, Heavy Meadow, on Spotify and I was hooked. 

I wasn’t expecting what we got last night. Nott’s voice is otherworldly. It was one of the finest live vocal performances I’ve ever heard. We’ve hosted a couple other performances at the Ming — Eric Bachmann and David Dondero — and neither used a PA because the room is so small and acoustically bright. Last night Nott used some sort of Bose PA “stick” setup along with a small mixing board, which she controlled from her chair to add a slight delay. The audience of just under 30 people was mesmerized. 

Lit only by a small desk lamp and whatever ambient light was coming off Maple Street through the front windows, the entire evening had a Cowboy Junkies’ The Trinity Sessions vibe, as Nott performed her entire new album, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar and switching to a small harp for one song.

She concluded the hour-long set with two songs from her previous EP and an a cappella version of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren,” which has been covered by a ton of artists including Sinéad O’Connor and Robert Plant (but one of Nott’s favorite versions, she told me afterward, was by This Mortal Coil). It was a great way to end a great night.

We’re trying to figure out how to host more shows at the gallery, at least once a month, preferably on a Thursday night but any night will work. I’m keeping an eye on the Undertow website as well as local artists who might be appropriate. I’ll let you know.

Georgia Gets By at Ming Toy Gallery, Oct. 8, 2026.

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2026 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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