Leila’s Rose
August 23, 2025
After starting this blog a little over a year ago, I decided to try my hand at TikTok. Although I frequently confuse the TikTok algorithm by posting a variety of content covering my extensive hobbies, my videos mainly focus on the concerts I attend and the music I am currently listening to. As you can probably tell from my many review over the past year, my genre of choice is alternative rock, stemming from my dad’s love of alternative rock music. Growing up (and to this day), my dad sits at the back computer in his house every week listening to the new alternative rock music released that week. Although paying for each song is now a thing of the past, he still enjoys clicking through each week to see what music to add to that year’s playlist.
However, after posting tons of music-related content on TikTok, it kindly pushed music from the midwest band, Leila’s Rose, my way. After hearing one of their originals released earlier this year, Make It Easy, come across my feed I knew I needed to send the song to my dad so he could take a listen. I usually get the typical dad responses to my messages (like a thumbs up, or a “cool”), but this song received a resounding “I like it!” followed by a “They are going to be at the Slowdown on Aug 23.”
Two months after the discovery, we found ourselves at the Slowdown for our first Leila’s Rose show. The Slowdown has two different “rooms” for bands to perform in. The front room is an intimate room for smaller bands that holds between 200-250 people. The front room opens by partition into the main room which holds a much larger crowd of 700-750 people. Although originally slotted for the front room, the band sold an astounding amount of tickets for a local midwest band earning them a spot in the main room. When we showed up, we were pleased to see just how big Omaha showed up for these guys.
Before the show, the band posted up at their merch table to interact with the attendees. They were extremely pleasant and willing to put up with me and my family’s (husband, sister, cousin, and parents) million merch questions. These guys were genuine and the interaction made us even more excited to see them perform.
The band performed a variety of covers ranging from Declan McKenna’s Brazil to Metro Station’s Shake It. The crowd sang along to each of the covers and were engaged throughout the whole show. The band also performed many of their original songs (linked below) that my family had largely memorized. It is so fun to hear songs that reference parts of your city (like Blackstone) when none of the bands you listen to are from Omaha or are based in Omaha. One unreleased original was played as well, and now my family can’t wait to listen to all of their new music as its released. My one wish for the show was that the lead singer’s microphone would have been turned up as his voice was largely drowned out by the instruments.
Overall, for a young local band, I was extremely impressed and look forward to seeing them again in the future.
OVERALL RATINGS
Setlist: 8.5/10
Merch: 8/10
Audio Quality: 6/10
Venue: 8/10
Vibes: 1,000 /10
