Is Omaha the place for me? (Lincoln, Bellevue: health, house, crime)

[Terry Ray]

I'm looking for a laid-back city with friendly people that is home to a good college and entertainment. Ive been searching these forums up and down. I realize every city has crime and "bad parts", but for the most part what are your feelings on Omaha? Is it a good place for a single twenty-something student? Are there opportunities for a person to perform at open mics, etc? A lot of the musical cities people have directed me to seems to be so fully saturated with musicians that it is difficult to "stand out" if you will... Do you feel that Omaha has some musicial roots or is a musical city. All i have heard about is Saddle Creek Records and the Omaha Sound. I'd like to know more. A lot of the negative things I have read come from the same posters over and over again. Every city has negatives, feed me the positives PLEASE!!

[WhiteSandsYucca]

I'm not sure about all your questions, but I do know that Omaha has kind of a "band thing" going on nowadays, like a mini-Seattle/Nashville/Austin, or something. I also know of somebody that was really into singing, and they went downtown to sing in the Old Market quite a bit. I think it was an open mic...

[DTO Luv]

Originally Posted by Terry Ray

I'm looking for a laid-back city with friendly people that is home to a good college and entertainment. Ive been searching these forums up and down. I realize every city has crime and "bad parts", but for the most part what are your feelings on Omaha? Is it a good place for a single twenty-something student? Are there opportunities for a person to perform at open mics, etc? A lot of the musical cities people have directed me to seems to be so fully saturated with musicians that it is difficult to "stand out" if you will... Do you feel that Omaha has some musicial roots or is a musical city. All i have heard about is Saddle Creek Records and the Omaha Sound. I'd like to know more. A lot of the negative things I have read come from the same posters over and over again. Every city has negatives, feed me the positives PLEASE!!

For how you described yourself, I think you would fit in fine in Omaha. From the people I know in the music scene they are all very friendly and there are a lot of people in different bands that play together and with other bands. I don't think it's as cut throat as other places. There are many open mic places in Omaha and they're not hard to find.

[Dave1215]

Terry Ray: I'm following up on the conversation from the other thread... as I mentioned, I am not a music guy but will post some generic information and then we'll see if others will weigh in.

The Omaha City Weekly is a publication (alot of it online at that link) that gives local event information and maybe targeted towards you... check it out, including:
February Music Events
DJ/Dance ClubsDance Clubs
Live Music Clubs
Country
Karoke


Some other initial/quick random links just to spark thought/discussion: Check out this Music of Nebraska wikipedia link. It mentions:
Saddle Creek Records
Conor Oberst & Bright Eyes
Sokol Music
311
Chip Davis & Maneheim Steamroller
Holland Center
Orpheum Theater
Qwest Center
Omaha Community Playhouse

OK everyone: the above came from an old conservative family suburban guy with no music background or talent, so hop into the discussion and help this young gal looking to see if she is interested in Omaha.

[Dave1215]

Also, check out SLAM Omaha... I can't relate to what's on the site (remember I'm the old guy), but a quick look appears to give a lot of local music and art info... check out the link under Music for Local Venues... gives a good listing of places with the genre listed.

Events at Homers Music

[Terry Ray]

lol okay Dave, i will check out the link. thanks for all your help. Its nice to be on the receiving end and not just being the observer of your posts

[Dave1215]

Omaha Musican's Union (local 70-558)...

Another calendar of local music events

Blues Society of Omaha

Omaha World Hearld's (local newspaper) Music Section

Music in the Parks (2007 flyer)

HelloOmaha - Music Scene... don't know what this is, just ran across it - figured might give a little info.

Local music article from the Daily Nebraskan, the student newspaper of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln... speaking of Lincoln, don't forget that is where the university is (UNL) and Lincoln is only 45 minutes (interstate) from Omaha - so you also have that music scene available, which being so heavily university influenced would be different from Omaha.

Local band info from KXVO-Channel 15

The Reader a weekly independent paper that would be up on the local music scene

A recent City-Data thread started by ehenningsen, titled "Another great article on Omaha great Music/Arts scene" (no one responded but it has a link to a nice article)

[Steve_W]

Originally Posted by Dave1215

Terry Ray: I'm following up on the conversation from the other thread... as I mentioned, I am not a music guy but will post some generic information and then we'll see if others will weigh in.

The Omaha City Weekly is a publication (alot of it online at that link) that gives local event information and maybe targeted towards you... check it out, including:
February Music Events
DJ/Dance ClubsDance Clubs
Live Music Clubs
Country
Karoke


Some other initial/quick random links just to spark thought/discussion: Check out this Music of Nebraska wikipedia link. It mentions:
Saddle Creek Records
Conor Oberst & Bright Eyes
Sokol Music
311
Chip Davis & Maneheim Steamroller
Holland Center
Orpheum Theater
Qwest Center
Omaha Community Playhouse

OK everyone: the above came from an old conservative family suburban guy with no music background or talent, so hop into the discussion and help this young gal looking to see if she is interested in Omaha.

Thats much better than I could have done

[Dave1215]

Originally Posted by Steve_W

Thats much better than I could have done

So now I don't feel bad for an old guy (well, not 50 yet, so almost old guy)

[ehenningsen]

The Universities and colleges in this city vary greatly..

You have the very best in the midwest "Creighton University"
You have one of the nations best community colleges "Metropolitan CC"
You have a state university that has premier studies in "University of Nebraska in Omaha"

There is a host of others:

Bellevue University
College of Saint Mary
Buena Vista University
Creighton University
Dana College
Grace University
Iowa Western Community College
Metropolitan Community College
Midland Lutheran College
Nebraska College of Business
Nebraska Wesleyan University
University of Nebraska’s Peter Kiewit Institute of Information Science, Technology and Engineering
University of Nebraska at Omaha
University of Oklahoma (Omaha Campus) ????? <----- Never heard of this one..
Vatterott College – Deerfield Campus and Spring Valley Campus
Health Science Education

Clarkson College
Creighton University Medical Center
Nebraska Methodist College
University of Nebraska Medical Center (Huge Research Park)