One of Omaha’s longest running and most dedicated music venues was probably not set up to be such from the start. The Hideout Lounge, tucked in the back corner of a strip mall a two blocks south of Dodge on 72nd Street, might have paid attention to the old “location, location, location” adage if it were meant to be a music hot spot from the get go. The Hideout Lounge is a medium-sized neighborhood bar that has opened its doors to local music and other artistic endeavors. What makes them unique from the dozens of other neighborhood bars that have attempted this is that they continue to do so after weathering the many ups and downs of hosting live music that caused many others to re-think their business plan.

The Hideout Lounge was formerly known as Shea Riley’s, and the live music started showing up on a more regular basis there after the closing of the Ranch Bowl just up the street. They provided a much-needed spot at the time for local hard rock, metal, hip-hop and bar rock bands. Jumping into hosting music during a time of demand can catch a bar owner off guard and not allow them to go through the growing pains needed to make it an adequate place to play and see shows. Shea Riley’s suffered through reputation problems regarding its sound, security and general atmosphere. There were a few publicized incidents on local message boards that also did not help the bar attract the group of music fans it was hoping to.

This past September two former employees of Shea Riley’s, Steve Reddick and Dave Blackman, officially took over the bar and started the reboot under the appropriate name the Hideout Lounge. Reddick and Blackman are fans of the local music scene and were pretty much running the show during the end days of Shea Riley’s as is. The duo’s main goal is to make the venue a viable and respected option for bands and fans to experience live music. The first step was cleaning up the joint, as Reddick explained: “We are trying to start fresh. We didn’t have the best reputation for environment in general I guess. Some of the things we have done include painting the place, cleaning it up, new carpet on the back side, new speakers, lights, mikes, etc. We have heat and air now, people would come in from a day of working outside for a cold beer and it was just as hot in here. We also cleaned up the bathrooms. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing to be compared to the Ranch Bowl, but not in that aspect.”

Steve and Dave are not just trying to jump on the music bandwagon for a quick fix to lagging sales like some bars have done in the past. One will regularly see them out at other music venues watching bands that they are fans of. I asked Steve what types of music they are hosting currently. He stated, “We have been doing a lot of hard rock/metal. What we would like to get in here is some of the indie bands. We have had Capgun Coup and Rock Paper Dynamite play in here. Anything that Surreal (hip-hop artists and promoter) wants to do with hip-hop we will do, but we won’t do a lot of hip-hop on a regular basis. We want to get a lot of bands back that may have heard about bad sound or lights.”

They have also been hosting many touring bands as Blackman explained, “We have Paulie Rhymes coming and he’s a touring hip hop act. DJ Starscream (Sid from Slipknot) was just here. We have had a couple with Tuco (local promoter) and those guys bringing in a couple of regional metal bands and what not.”

The one thing that Reddick seemed especially proud of is the expanding beer selection at the Hideout. “I think one of the biggest things we have done is expand the beer from eight or 10 when Ron owned it to about 46 now.” He continued, “Anything that anyone asks for we will try to find it for the next order and sometimes it sits here and people will drink two of them, but whatever.” Another thing they are happy with is their open mike night on Tuesdays called “Shoot Your Mouth Off,” which unlike other nights around town includes comedy, slam poets and music.

Reddick summed up the new venture like this, “It’s not going to be the Taj Mahal or be mistaken for a martini bar or anything. It’s a fun place to hang out and most of the time the bartenders would be more than happy to have a drink with you.” Some upcoming shows at the Hideout include Vesperian Sorrow, Godhate, Aysoltec, Dissenter and Dead Echos on May 17, and local rock band Icares playing their final show on May 30. Check out the full schedule at www.myspace.com/hideoutloungeomaha.