Hear Nebraska

words by Chance Solem-Pfeifer | photos by Chris Dinan New Year’s Eve at Vega was the fifth time I’d been to a Universe Contest show in 2013. It’s a riot each time, with the vim undiminished by repetition. But in that it’s now a well-known hysteria, sometime after midnight, the mass of people, washed in green- and blue-lit baths, become an object of fascination as well. On this night, Universe Contest begins their set just after 11:30, so they can usher the crowd through the midnight countdown and play until around 1 a.m. The towering scaffold lighting they introduced at their Lincoln Calling set is in full effect and the October addition of dancers in tight clothing and strange masks was ramped up, too, with New Year’s Eve’s participation of the Resplendent Jezebel Burlesque. Once the band has doffed their sparkling tuxedo jackets and the burlesque dancers (men and women alike) are doing a racy version of “the monkey” from the tabletops behind us, I ask my friend if he thinks the band has anything to say