$10 Advance/$12 Day of show – Front Room – Tickets

Facebook RSVP | 1% Productions In July 2011, I went to Austin Texas to make a record. The Hold Steady was on a four month break, and I wanted to try something a little different. Earlier in the year, I had written a bunch of songs that were outside of the norm for The Hold Steady, a little quieter and perhaps more narrative. I also wanted to gain some experience and insight into the process of making a record by working with new people.

It was July in Austin. It was hot. Really hot.

I had enlisted Mike McCarthy to produce the record. I really admire his work and his thoughts on songs and recording. Prior to arriving, I had sent Mike acoustic demos of 23 songs. They were very rough recordings, just acoustic guitar and vocals recorded live intmy laptop. The songs had mostly been written in the first half of 2011, when I was experimenting with trying to write a new song every day.

When I arrived in Austin, we trimmed the list down to 14 songs and made simple but good sounding recordings of each of these, each live with just acoustic and vocal. Then we talked about possible instrumentation and arrangements. We listened to records. We conceptualized and talked about what we were hearing in our heads. We sketched out rough ideas

The next Monday, four musicians showed up: Josh Block, Jesse Ebaugh, Ricky Ray Jackson, and Billy White. Mike had chosen them, and he chose well. We said hellos and got to work. We moved quickly. I would show them the song and they would learn it, and quickly we were rolling tape. I sang the vocals live in the studio, something I hadn’t really done before. I don’t believe any song took more than three takes. These players brought a ton of enthusiasm and energy to the recording. It was really exciting to watch and hear them play together. We averaged a couple songs a day. By that Friday evening we had 14 songs tracked, including the vocals. We spent a few days listening and then did a few overdubs. We drove around in Austin, listening to rough mixes.

I left Austin three weeks after I arrived. It was still really hot.

When considering the songs as a whole, I realized that a lot of the songs deal with displacement, and people that are struggling while out of their element or comfort zone. A lot of the songs are about being alone. This is all pretty fertile ground for a musiciathat spends a lot of time on tour. It’s also telling about the way we made this record, going to a friendly but fairly unfamiliar place to work with all new people.

I’m calling this record “Clear Heart Full Eyes”. It’s a juxtaposed reference to Friday Night Lights, a TV show that excited and moved me and also happened in Texas. Further, “Clear Heart” signifies honesty and transparency, and “Full Eyes” suggests experience. Thus, it’s about being optimistic and open without succumbing to the weariness or doubt that comes with age and experience. To me, that is what it’s all about.

I hope you enjoy the music. I am very proud of it.

Thank you.

Craig Finn – Website | Twitter

Mount Moriah – Website | Myspace | Facebook | Bandcamp

$7 – Front Room – Tickets

Facebook RSVP | Music | 1% Productions Blue Bird represents the latest evolution of female-fronted independent music. The group’s soaring vocals, musical depth, and songwriting abilities find them at the forefront of new sounds emerging out of the indie music hot-bed of Omaha, Nebraska. Blue Bird is the creation of pianist/acoustic guitarist Marta Fiedler, the band’s lead vocalist and chief songwriter. Fiedler is flanked vocally by Car…rie Mardock and Samantha Brock (also holding down violin duties). These young women have brought a fresh sound to the stages of Omaha and throughout the country during the band’s recent tour of the Midwest and East Coast in the summer of 2011.

The dynamic of Blue Bird is a unique one, and backing up these young songstresses is a group of some of Omaha’s most experienced musicians: Ian Simons (keyboards), Vince Giambattista (guitar), Matt McClure (bass), and Rob Mathews (drums). This dynamic has allowed Fiedler’s musical visions to be fleshed out wholly and made a reality with a stronger result that one might find with a group of musicians still building their chops. Blue Bird’s songs feature lush harmonies and diverse musicality with depth, offering appeal to a wide audience. The band takes on softer tones and showcases a classic indie pop sound while mixing in folk, Americana, and chamber pop orchestration. When listening to the band’s debut recording, Metamorphosis EP (self-released fall 2010), thoughts of Hem, pre-pop hits Bangles, Calexico, She & Him, and Azure Ray may be evoked. Blue Bird is able to bring the quality of their studio recordings to the live stage, and they offer an emotive set of songs where the vocals truly shine and the musicianship of all seven members are showcased. This is truly a band with a bright future! Watch for Blue Bird recordings, tours, and special appearances throughout 2012 as they start a new chapter of sharing these songs with music fans everywhere.

Blue Bird – Website | Myspace | Facebook | Twitter

Skypiper – Website | Myspace | Facebook | Twitter

Cowboy Indian Bear – Myspace | Facebook | Twitter

El Valiente – Website | Myspace | Facebook

Watch the Big Game on the Big Screen in the Main Room. Free food and Happy Hour 4-7pm!

Free! – 21 and over

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All tap beers are a mere two bucks from open to close

Free – 21 and over

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Science Cafe at 7pm: Lindsay Novak presents “In the Next Room: A History of Sex Medicine.” Pub Quiz at 9pm.

Free! – 21 and over

Facebook RSVP | Website Science Café involves a face-to-face conversation with a scientist about current science topics. A science café’s casual meeting place, plain language, and inclusive conversation create a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere for people with no science background. Each meeting is organized around an interesting topic of conversation.

After a short break, Pub Quiz follows. Gather up a team of 5 or less people and get ready to have your wits tested with 40 questions from the Quiz Masters. Always a nice prize for the winners!

$18 Advance/$20 Day of show – Tickets

Facebook RSVP | Music | 1% Productions Railroad Earth is one of America’s greatest bands playing today, plain and simple. They sing of our nation’s changing landscape and social ills with a commitment reminiscent of Woody Guthrie, while interpolating instrumental timbres that could have been pulled from Celtic or Cajun culture. And as anyone who has caught them live will attest, their concerts are imbued with the fire-in-the-belly passion of straight-ahead, blue collar rock & roll. Then there is the newest album from the New Jersey sextet, which is the most cohesive embodiment of their myriad gifts to date­hence the decision to simply call it Railroad Earth­showcasing nine new selections that draw strength and inspiration from an acknowledgment of our shared past, while also embracing new ideas and celebrating diversity… just like America when she is at her best.

Railroad Earth – Website | Myspace | Facebook | Twitter

$8 – Front Room – Tickets

Facebook RSVP | Music Take old time music off the back porch, throw out the hillbilly reputation, and put it in the hands of a group of guys that like to work hard and play even harder. Pert Near Sandstone rejuvenates American stringband music with raw energy; they play tightly-crafted original material that lends itself to the modern audience, as well as being stewards of the old-time and bluegrass traditions. They ar…e just as at home playing fully acoustic in the traditional style as they are plugged in at an indie rock venue. From saloons to theaters, hollering into a single microphone and laying thick rhythm on driving fiddle melodies, their sweat-inducing, foot-stomping live performances keep crowds begging for more all night long.

Pert Near Sandstone emerged from the same roots-based musical hotbed in Minneapolis that gave birth to Bob Dylan, The Jayhawks and Spider John Koerner. Originally formed by four friends from the same hometown, Pert Near Sandstone formed unintentionally over weekly, whiskey-fueled picking sessions in an old house in St. Paul, MN. They decided without any real intentions to start playing shows and the chemistry of their music and friendships, even early on, left people feeling like the party followed them everywhere they went. Word of the bands’ uncanny ability to whip audiences into frenzies spread and they were invited to play some of Minnesota’s most legendary venues including First Avenue, the Cedar Cultural Center and the Historic Orpheum Theater.

The band has been taking their show across the country, paying their dues in smoke filled taverns and roadside juke joints while organically building a dedicated following from coast-to-coast. Their formative years on the road painstakingly paved the Pert Near path as the band traversed from city-to-city winning over audiences “the old fashioned way”; face-to-face. Over the course of the next five years, the band maintained a full touring schedule appearing at many national festivals and sharing the stage with many legendary musical talents; the likes of Del McCoury, WILCO and Yonder Mountain Stringband.

In 2008, Pert Near Sandstone was hand-picked by Garrison Keillor to appear as the featured musical guest on A Prairie Home Companion where Garrison proclaimed that, “The group has become a force on the Minnesota roots music scene and beyond.” Fellow Minnesota speed-grass band Trampled by Turtles is proud to wave the Pert Near flag high and wide with band leader Dave Simonett calling Pert Near Sandstone one of his “favorite contemporary bluegrass acts in the United States.”

The band’s stock is sharply on the rise with their recent victory at the prestigious Northwest String Summit Band Competition. The band’s originally arranged rendition of The Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus”, from the Minnesota Beatle Project Volume 2 (2010), was inducted into Minnesota Public Radio’s (89.3 The Current) Chart Show Hall of Fame in January of 2011 following 12 weeks on the Top 20 list; 10 of these weeks in the top 5, and 5 weeks at #1.

With the release of their fourth album, Paradise Hop, Pert Near Sandstone has managed to harness the raw energy of their famed live shows and inject it into 12 tracks of original material and a couple of originally arranged traditional songs sprinkled on top. The band’s trials and tribulations, encountered during life on the road as a Modern American Strigband, spill out in vivid detail on tracks like “Long Decline”, “Appalachian Girl” and “Solid Gone”. Wild-eyed, lightning fast tracks like “Reuben’s Train”, “Crossroads” and “Paradise Hop” place the band’s commanding technical prowess front-and-center, while a much more cerebral and introspective facet of the band’s songwriting shines through on tracks like “Save Me” and “Parse”. Paradise Hop is a celebration of life in all of its glorious peaks and torturously painful valleys that leaves listeners with an acute sense of what it’s like to step into the beautifully twisted world of Pert Near Sandstone.

Pert Near Sandstone – Website | Myspace | Facebook | Twitter

The Big Deep – Myspace | Facebook

Free to attendees of OEA Awards or $5 – Front Room – Tickets

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The Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards celebrates our city’s creative class in the areas of live music, visual arts and performing arts.

The Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards seeks to enhance our community by planning and producing an annual awards event that uniquely recognizes the performing arts, visual arts and live music of the Omaha area.

With all-star talent and red-carpet prestige, the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards is a memorable evening that thanks the artists who keep Omaha culture alive.

BASSthoven – Myspace | Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud

Snake Island! – Facebook

All tap beers are a mere two bucks from open to close

Free – 21 and over

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