Details On The Return of Maha, I Just Got Excited About A Thursday Show This Morning, Much Metal This Week Including Metal Album of the Year?
Wednesday and Thursday Live Music Lineup
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We got the initial news that the Maha music festival was returning this past week from Tim McMahon at Lazy-I. I have been a stage manager at Maha since its second year and also was a stage manager this past year at Outlandia, and I had no inkling that Maha was to return in 2025. So, if you ever wondered if I ask a lot of questions of people—no, I do not. I did get the press release yesterday morning, and the information contained within is as follows.
Maha will be held at The Riverfront on August 2nd of 2025, where it was supposed to be held in 2024 after a long run at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village. 2024 was canceled, and they stated they would return in 2025, which not many people bought into, myself included. The Riverfront (before all the new fancy stuff) was where the original run of the Maha festival was held starting in 2009. Maha built up to a two-day festival starting in 2018 but will smartly scale back to one day next year.
It is stated that the four Maha founders, Mike App, Tre Brashear, Tyler Owen, and Mike Toohey, will return to the festival. 1% Productions will also return to producing the festival. The above went on to form the Outlandia festival, which took place the last three years at Falconwood Park outside of Bellevue. That festival will be no more or will be absorbed into Maha. We will see if it ends up being a little of both or one or the other or even something else altogether when the lineup is announced. Also involved is the Maha board of directors, MECA, and Emily Cox, who was the executive director of Maha in past years.
I am glad that Maha is coming back, and honestly, I am glad that it took a year off. I am curious to see where it is going to go, and I had some fears last year that it was going to head to a place that no longer appealed to me and one that would lose 'the little festival that could' vibe that made Maha special to me and others. It still could go that direction, and our core festival in town really should not be gearing itself to my demographic anyway. I do think them doing a reset could give Maha a chance at remaining at least partly the unique festival it has been for so many years. That they scheduled this for the same weekend as Hinterland in Des Moines and Lollapalooza in Chicago has to be strategic, and one has to assume we will be getting some acts playing one or both of those festivals also. 2025 has certainly gotten a lot more interesting.
Night one of metal in Benson brings the Devastation of The Nation tour to The Waiting Room on Wednesday, which will feature I Am Morbid, Suffocation, (hang on—I need help reading the next few) UADA, Mortiferum, Fulci, and Knoll. This show was originally at The Admiral, but the headlining band, Morbid Angel, featuring its only original member, Trey Azagthoth, dropped off the lineup. Now you have I Am Morbid featuring Evil D David Vincent, who was Morbid Angel’s lead vocalist during most of their time as a band. You also get drummer Pete Sandoval, who was Morbid Angel’s drummer during most of their prime as a band. Sounds like you are getting twice the Morbid Angel in a smaller room.
If Home Free looks familiar to you, you may have seen the country acapella group win season four of The Sing-Off. The group has been putting out albums since then and released Any Kind of Christmas this year. They will be celebrating that release and the holiday season on Wednesday evening at the Holland Center.
Heavy psych band King Buffalo is coming to Slowdown on Wednesday. They have toured with Clutch, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, All Them Witches, The Sword, and Elder. They will bring along riff masters Rickshaw Billies Burger Patrol. I have had a lot of people in the store this past week talking about this show. The stoner rock crowds seem all about this one.
Blood Incantation is the second straight night of metal at Waiting Room Lounge on Thursday. This is easily the most talked about and requested metal album of 2024 at the record store this year. The band's album, Absolute Elsewhere, is showing up on many album of the year lists in places you would not expect, including non-metal publications. I have to imagine a great crowd will be in attendance.
Who is this? I just put this on this morning to check it out, do a little research, and write it up, and I just found my Thursday night show. It looks like Theo Lawrence has a few albums out and a killer classic country sound that is maybe a little Everly Brothers, some Buck Owens, Ricky Nelson, and the like. This is pure OLD OLD school country, and he does it very well. I just got very excited for this. Reverb Lounge on Thursday night!
Here is the full calendar for Wednesday and Thursday
Wednesday December 4th
Home Free at the Holland Center 7:30PM (Omaha)
I Am Morbid, Suffocation, UADA and more at Waiting Room 6:30PM (Omaha)
King Buffalo at Slowdown 8PM (Omaha)
The Henhouse Prowlers at The Zoo Bar 6PM (Lincoln)
Persuaders Gold at Bogies West 6:30PM (Omaha)
Stephen Monroe at Pit BBQ Lounge 6PM (Papillion)
Chris Shelton at Copacabana 9PM (Omaha)
Vibe Check at The Zoo Bar 9PM (Lincoln)
Live Jazz with Red Lion Quartet at Red Lion Lounge 7:30PM (Omaha)
Open Mic at Razorwire Productions 6:30PM (Omaha) FREE
Open Mic Night at Storm Cellar 9PM (Lincoln)
Open Mic at Down Under Lounge 8PM (Omaha) FREE
Open Mic at The Tavern 9PM (Omaha) FREE
Open Mic at Dubliner Pub (Omaha) FREE
NOMA Underground Open Jam at North Omaha Music and Arts 7PM (Omaha) FREE
Georgie and Friends at Down Under Lounge 5PM (Omaha)
Jam Session at Vino Mas 6PM (Omaha)
Thursday December 5th
Blood Incantation at Waiting Room 8PM (Omaha)
Theo Lawrence at Reverb Lounge 8PM (Omaha)
Eric 'EZ' Zigler, Dream Journal, Das Dat, Josh One, Static Soul, Turquoise at Duffy’s 5PM (Lincoln)
Woodhoops at Bar 39 8PM (Omaha)
Squeeky Feet with Midland Band at Bodega’s Alley 9PM (Lincoln)
They Said Mantics, and Oh, God Damn at The Zoo Bar 6PM (Lincoln)
Lisa Lisa at Corner Kick 6PM (Omaha)
Jason Mayer at Copacabana 9PM (Omaha)
Chris Shelton at Dubliner Pub 9PM (Omaha)
Open Mic at Hub Cafe 5PM (Lincoln)
Joe McCarthy at The Habitat at The Peregrine 6PM (Omaha)
Artists Anonymous Open Mic at Beach House Bar 9:30PM (Omaha)
Jazz Night at The Tavern (Omaha)