list.in.to.chicago this week: 12.15.2003

No newsletter next week. Maybe the week after. We'll see. On that note, list.in.to.chicago (oh, crap, I'm doing that thing where I refer to myself in the third person with the name of the column) has no plans as of yet for New Year's Eve, so if you've got something fun going on, let me know. Inexpensive is good.

And just so you know, I've been up since 6am today and am still fighting off a cold. But I soldier on for YOU, dear reader, because I know this is important work here, reading the music listings so you don't have to.

Pick of the week
It's The Changes on Thursday at the Empty Bottle, in part because they might get some blowback from mistaken identity (below), and in part because they're really good and you should go see them. And I'm intrigued by the Pat DiNizio solo show on Friday at Elbo Room. Us Jersey boys gotta stick together.

list.in.to.COZ
Just Vaughan's this week after last week's flu-induced craziness, but I'm promising hip-hop, hard rock, AND Christmas music! Where else are you going to get that on a Tuesday?

Recap
Wow, Monday seemed like a long, long time ago. Dana Lawrence was good, accompanied by many, many war stories from jobbing musicians at the bar, Vaughan's was alternately drunken, silly and both, Patrick Hasbrook (and friends) was a fun time, with a killer rendition of Duran Duran's "Rio" as part of the proceedings. The big debut of The Band Formerly Known As The Curtains If I Have Anything To Say About It went well, especially considering how sick Anto was. We accomplished what we set out to accomplish, I think, and now we need to keep it moving.

Friday was Regal Standard at Subterranean, which sorta snuck up on me, in that I don't think I mentioned it last week. Larry and company were definitely on form, but when are they not, really? Saturday's Abi Cruz show was postponed due to illness, which I should have taken as a cue to stay in and get over my own cold, but didn't.

12.15   monday
Corey Radford Quartet (Phyliss' Musical Inn)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Sorry Scott, this is how Paul referred to it in his e-mail. Seriously, Corey and Mister Anderson (although this one probably isn't our savior from a life of enslavement by machines) will be joined by Steve Ramsdell, also on guitar, and Paul Mutzubaugh on organ. So it's like an organ trio, except it's a quartet. And it goes to eleven. Which is a Spinal Tap reference, not when the show ends. Okay, I'll stop now.

12.16   tuesday
Open Mike (Vaughan's)   SEE COZ LIVE!
I can only imagine the reaction to playing Outkast if I actually remember the words this time. Also, Christmas favorites!

Apollo Chorus (Symphony Center) FRIENDS OF COZ!
Speaking of Christmas favorites, this big-ass choir is performing Handel's "Messiah" three times in less than a week, with this being the first. My roommate is in said choir, and would probably beat me up if I didn't mention it. And lest I get in trouble for other reasons, that's "big-ass" as in "lots of people," not "big-assed" as in "lay off the Christmas cookies."

12.17   wednesday
Your Little Ponies (Lyon's Den)
A friend tells me the Ponies have about a hundred new tunes, or some such, which is both exciting, and very, very scary.

Chevelle with Campfire Girls (House of Blues)
This one's sold out, but that doesn't make Chicago's own "band of brothers" rock any less. Makes you wonder if Chevelle is picking sides in the active rock showdown that's brewing between local radio stations by doing a Q101 show, and if so, what that might cost them. Are they getting airplay on the Zone right now?

12.18   thursday
The Changes with Watchers, Joggers and DJ CB (Empty Bottle)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
It is critical to note that these are The Changes playing at the Empty Bottle on Thursday, and not Changes, who were scheduled to play there last weekend amid a certain amount of controversy as described by Monica Kendrick in The Reader. I just can't see Darren in a 60s paramilitary group, except maybe as some sort of weird buddy comedy.

12.19   friday
Pat DiNizio with Al Weber, Matt Hoffer (Elbo Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Hoffer's a friend, but DiNizio, who normally fronts power popsters The Smithereens, is a hometown boy, hailing from good old Scotch Plains, New Jersey. I stage managed a show for the Smithereens in college, and it was like a sort of homecoming. Not the U2 song, but like actually being home and stuff.

12.20   saturday
Michael Schenker Group with George Lynch, Adler's Appetite and Enuff Z'Nuff (House of Blues)
I'll give you three guesses which radio station is putting this show on. If you need more hints, George Lynch was the guitarist in Dokken, and I'm assuming "Adler's Appetite" involves former Guns N'Roses drummer Stephen Adler. Both of those bands, along with Schenker, whose brother famously teamed with Mathias Jabs as the ax-wielding duo in The Scorpions, fit in with the overall mindset of said station that the 90s, for the most part, never happened.

12.21   sunday
Nicholas Barron's Hyperactive (Long Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I just realized that, instead of reading this as "Hyperactive, belonging to Nicholas Barron," you can read the band name as "Nicholas Barron is Hyperactive," which is probably more appropriate. Maybe that was the idea all along.