Friday night at Wired, four local bands rocked the roof off the small bar. I arrived early to the bar and was able to enjoy a soundcheck, which included Adam Petersen growling out a version of the SpongeBob SquarePants theme. I was already sold on the night. The Omaha View crew sang along gleefully. Petersen was the opening act and was a stark contrast to the rest of the evening. Seated on a purple velvet chair with his acoustic guitar, he played a mix of original songs and covers. One of the standout covers was his final song, Hurt. It was a nice mix of both the Nine Inch Nails version and the Johnny Cash version.
Next up, Organ Grinders Henchmen. With screaming guitars and a driving bass, it was the start of the heavier portion of the evening. The standout moment for me was the Type-O Negative cover of “I Don’t Want To Be Me”. You could tell there was a camaraderie between the bands playing tonight as both Adam Petersen & J (from RGF) joined OGH on stage for a few songs.
RGF grabbed a ball of energy and jumped on stage. The singer, J, takes the stage and makes it his own. Throwing in theatrics and emotion with his performance, he knows how to include the audience with great show. The band played a non-stop set full of heavy drums and guitar. The sound reminded me of the heavy metal of the late 70’s/early 80’s with just a pinch of grunge mixed in.
The final act of the night was Brave the Fall. Continuing the heaviness of the previous bands had set forth, Brave the Fall hit the stage sounding like a good counter to RGF, having a more grunge sound to their performance, but still holding on to the heavy metal edge.
There was good support for local musicians at a small venue last night and the high-voltage sound the bands put out was almost too much for the confined space and I would not have been surprised if the roof had actually been blown off the building with all of the energy these four groups put out!