list.in.to.chicago this week: 07.14.2003

Good grief, there's an absurd amount of music happening this week and this weekend. Looks like a little something for everyone, and as you'll see shortly, I mean EVERYONE.

Also, I've been remiss in exhorting you to forward this to your friends, and for those friends to subscribe (instructions are at the end of the e-mail). Share the love, why don'cha?

Pick of the week
Gotta go with Pharoah Sanders almost all week at the Jazz Showcase, then Drive and Mighty Fine Machine on Saturday at The Note, even though I'll probably be at Beat Kitchen for Cane Corso, and the John Scofield Band at Park West on Saturday. But really, there's so much going on that you almost can't go wrong, LoopFest notwithstanding.

list.in.to.COZ
Two open mikes and a pre-game set on Saturday. I was debating the Goose Island open mike on Wednesday as well, but that's maybe too much of me singing for one metropolitan area to handle.

Recap
I did make it out to Vaughan's on Tuesday, and then to Moxie for another open mike on Thursday, so with the Lindsie and Foxide gigs, that was four nights in a row plying my trade. Yow. The Lindsie gig rocked mightily, even with a couple of slight derailments and Liz Phair not showing up, as was rumored earlier in the evening. The Foxide show ended up including a Coz!Acoustic set in the middle, once it became apparent that we didn't have enough songs to fill out the whole night. The show itself went well, the loadout maybe not so much. Sometimes being a drummer really, really sucks. And not in that good way.

7.14   monday
Blur with Moving Units (Congress Theatre)
I haven't heard Blur's new CD Think Tank yet, but I'd like to check it out. The band faces the uphill battle of becoming more than their most memorable song with the least memorable name, "Song 2." You know, the "woo hoo" song. Radiohead was able to get past "Creep," if that's any consolation for Damon Albarn and company.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Empty Bottle)
These guys provide a little window on how this list comes together. I've been seeing their name a LOT. All over. Places I can't even remember. So I see them in an ad, and figure "hey, there's that band I keep seeing everywhere, I wonder what they sound like?" Those mental notes turn into this newsletter. Yeah, on some level I'm succumbing to relentless marketing, I guess, but I can live with it.

7.15   tuesday
Open Mike (Vaughan's)   SEE COZ LIVE!
After a couple weeks of late appearances, I'll definitely be back this week. I tried adapting an Oingo Boingo tune for acoustic performance, but I don't think it's going to work.

Pharoah Sanders Quartet (Jazz Showcase)
Tenor saxophonist Sanders probably is best known for his tenure with jazz legend John Coltrane, but he's certainly capable on his own. Plus, the opportunity to see anyone from that late bebop/experimental jazz era of the sixties shouldn't be passed up. As is customary with Showcase gigs, he'll be here through Sunday.

7.16   wednesday
Ivory Wire (Elbo Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Apparently, the folks from "Wild On," the E! network show, will be in town filming the band for this show. So if you're stalking new host Cindy Taylor, just want to maybe be on TV or, imagine this, want to see the band, it should be a good show.

Ruins (Schuba's)
I'm occasionally confused when Monica Kendrick says good things about bands that are nominally progressive rock. That said, Ruins seems a bit more experimental than prog, but still looks like an intriguing band. They're a duo that will record things like medleys of Black Sabbath and Mahavishnu Orchestra. I have no idea how two people would do that.

Modest Mouse with Radar Brothers Bloodthirsty Lovers (House of Blues)   SOLD OUT
These guys have been the darlings of indie rockers for a while, to the point where a pair of shows at HOB have sold out (they're there on Tuesday as well, but the "sold out" tag on the ad blocked the other bands on the bill, so I skipped it. Aren't you glad you know that?). Which means there are either a LOT of indie rockers in Chicago, or they've managed to go a bit more mainstream. Even odds on either of those.

7.17   thursday
Open Mike (Moxie)   SEE COZ LIVE!
Yeah, I've added another night of acoustic madness, in the hopes that they'll give me a paying gig at some point down the line. Kind of a different vibe here, as it's trying to be a more swank bar than the more homey, Irish Vaughan's. It's up on Clark, right across from the Wild Hare.

Fountains of Wayne with Ben Lee (Metro)
Another one of those "I've been hearing about these guys for a long time" entries, including a recommendation from my bandmate Kevin "Straplock" Holland. According to the Reader, it looks like big pop hooks (which writer Keith Harris inexplicably considers a bad thing), fairly deep lyrics, and a song about Hackensack, New Jersey. What's not to like?

Trainwreck with The Pages, Matt Beckler (Double Door)
From what I can gather, Trainwreck is the non-Jack Black and non-Dave Grohl (who can currently be seen cavorting, for lack of a better word, together in the video for the Foo Fighters' "Low") part of Tenacious D, Kyle Gass and Lee, their webmaster and song subject.

7.18   friday
Drive with Mighty Fine Machine, Blackmaker (The Note)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
The nice things about CD-Rs is that you can take all of your little samplers from local bands and put together a nice compilation disk. My most recent one features Drive, EXO, Regal Standard and 2 Ton Levy. Come to think of it, I've got MFM's 3-song disk, too.

Cane Corso with Avocet, The Red Line (Beat Kitchen)
It has recently come to my attention that Cane Corso includes guitarist Steve Gerlach, who was in one of my favorite Chicago bands ever, Phantom Helmsmen. With the exception of his stint with the Bad Examples, that's always going to make a band worth checking out. Also, I seem to recall The Red Line having a very attractive female fan base, for those of you interested in that sort of thing, although I didn't stick around to actually see the band last time.

Sammy Hagar, Journey, .38 Special (Tweeter Center)
Okay, a few weeks ago, The Onion hosted "MulletFest," but that was supposed to be ironic. This, sadly enough, is dead serious.

7.19   saturday
John Scofield Band with Groovatron (Park West)
The jazz guitarist is in town as part of the JVC Jazz Festival, which looks like it's just three shows over three nights at different venues. Lately, Scofield has been mining a funkier New Orleans vibe to great effect, and it looks like he's still at it on this tour.

New England Revolution vs. Chicago Fire (Cardinal Stadium, Naperville)   SEE COZ LIVE!
I'll be doing a 75-minute acoustic set about and hour and a half before the 7:30 kickoff for this match, which has gotten much more interesting as the standings in Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference have gotten closer. Chicago is currently in second, only a point ahead of a quietly surging New England club. If you want to go, let me know. I've got ticket vouchers.

Styx, REO Speedwagon, Heart, Night Ranger (Tweeter Center)
What, you thought one night of mullet music was enough? I'm not sure I want to meet anyone who has tickets for both nights of this thing.

Eve 6 (Clark Street Fair)
One of the only bands named after an X-Files episode that I can think of, these guys had a pleasant little alternative rock hit ("Inside Out") back in the early 90s, then were largely never heard from again. The street festival is at Clark and Addison.

Dream Theater, Queensryche, Fates Warning (Aragon Ballroom)
I'd say this is in here purely for Mike's friend Dean, but I have a hunch he already knows about it.

7.20   sunday
Muck Brothers (Ben Fest, 5pm)
Another street fest show, this time at Irving Park and Leavitt. The Muck Brothers were, at one time, one of the better Irish rock bands in the city, but they don't seem to play as much as they used to. Which is as good a reason as any to get out in the sun and see them, I suppose.

OzzFest (Tweeter Center)
If you're a metal fan, you could do a lot worse than Ozzy, Korn, Disturbed, Chevelle and yes, even Marilyn Manson, along with Cradle of Filth and Voivod on the second stage.