While in Omaha, NE after Christmas spending time with Julie’s family, we did the usual things… ate, drank, acted merry, etc. One evening we played bingo with a whole pack of family members including Julie’s cousin JoAnne and her husband Doug. (Bingo is a family tradition with Julie’s folks and usually means about 20 people competing to win various white elephant gifts such as the Mr T bobble head doll and X-ray Spex that I won.) At the end of the evening, JoAnne invited us to their annual New Year’s Eve party. They live in an old house in the historic Dundee neighborhood of Omaha which they have been restoring over the past few years. Excited to check their progress, we agreed to attend.
Arriving at the appointed time, we learned there was to be a live band. Turns out Doug plays in a rock trio called fromanhole (I’ve met Doug a couple times but this detail did not come out previously). After mingling a while and tossing back a couple keg cups of American Wheat from Upstream Brewing Co, the band headed to the basement and began to play. fromanhole describe their music as “jazzy grindcore”. Their MySpace page lists a stack of influences, but when I heard them I decided they sound like a mix of Radiohead, Fates Warning, Rush and Tool (but not so dark). Or something like that. It’s not really worth trying to categorize them as they do have something unique going on. I believe they only play originals; no covers. Their songs also don’t have many, if any, lyrics. That’s not a bad thing, just different.
Since we had Julie’s Flip Ultra along, I decided to record a song:
Here’s another one someone else at the party made (at the beginning of the video note the good looking chap watching from behind Doug, the bassist):
I guess fromanhole tour occasionally and have done a few shows in Denver. If you see them pop-up in Westword, be sure to catch their show.
BTW… In case you’re wondering, the house is pretty much done and turned out very nice. Doug is a pretty handy guy. Be sure to check out his work at dKISER | design.construct.
