I’m a firm believer that there is something special in the water of Omaha, Neb., where Saddle Creek Records seems to put out one amazing band after another. Orenda Fink, one-half of former Saddle Creek band Azure Ray, is now the frontwoman for a new band, Art in Manila, which includes Ryan Fox, also of the Good Life, Adrianne Verhoeven, formerly of the Anniversary and some other amazingly talented musicians.

Fink weaves her heavenly vocals over mellow guitars and keyboards, creating a beautiful sound that’s not totally unlike Azure Ray’s material, but fantastic, nonetheless. Fink wields a hefty guitar on her petit figure leading the band through slow, melodic musings with songs like “Time Gets Us All” and more upbeat, guitar-infused tunes like “Our Addictions.”

After Art in Manila, Reprise artist Jonathan Rice struggled to keep the crowd afloat as they waited for headliners the Good Life to take the stage. Once Tim Kasher and company stepped foot on the stage, the crowd erupted in a roar of cheers.

The energy of the band seemed to come mainly from Kasher as he wailed and flailed around the stage screaming lines like “I could never take another’s hand/It’s to you I’m condemned” from “Lovers Need Lawyers,” and then took it down to a whisper that you could almost hear the tears dripping from. Playing mostly songs from new album Help Wanted Nights with a few thrown in from Album of the Year, the band kept the audience completely enthralled. You could feel that there wasn’t a single heart in the sold-out house that didn’t belong to the Good Life.