list.in.to.chicago this week: 03:15.2004

Thank god it's another two years before St. Patrick's Day falls on a weekend. Although the ability to celebrate it on at least two discrete days, in this town, may be worse. The outpouring of celebration, and the inpouring of libation, never ceases to amaze me.

Pick of the week
So much to choose from. I'd go with either Assassins (Schuba's) or Eric Johnson (Park West) on Thursday. If you don't come see us, the Chin Up Chin Up show on Friday is for an obviously worthwhile cause, described below.

And no, I didn't forget about Britney Spears. There was already so much going on this Friday that I had to leave Tesla out, and anyone who knows my sense of humor knows I'd rather make slightly (?) more obscure jokes about Tesla than obvious jokes about Britney.

list.in.to.COZ
You've actually got no less than five chances to see and hear me in some musical context this week. Two of those are the Potbelly's lunch gigs on Monday and Wednesday at the Merchandise Mart, but that's still pretty impressive. That is, if you're impressed by that sort of thing. I'd draw your attention to Diver, playing Wednesday and Friday at Blue Bayou, which will clearly be the loudest of the bunch.

Recap
The Potbelly's gigs went well enough, although it took them until the second one to tell me my signal was distorting, and I seem to have caught whatever has knocked Anto out. His deteriorating health made for an interesting gig on Saturday, as we didn't know enough Joe Cocker tunes to play to the state of his voice. We ended up playing the second half of the night as a trio.

Then, I caught the U-Toons Sunday night at Blue Bayou (they were the band that I didn't know the name of last week that played before us at Cullen's). Have you ever wondered if someone going completely over-the-top in parodying Bono would seem any different than Bono himself? The answer is mostly no, although U-Toons tend to be funny funny rather than arch and ironic and swearing on awards shows funny.

3.15   monday
Dan Darrah with Blue October (Schuba's)
If this is a full band show, it gets a "Friends of Coz" tag with Dario on drums, but given the likely intimate nature of an opening act for a Monday night residency, it might just be solo keyboard/vocal. And, despite having shared a rehearsal space with Darrah for probably close to a year now, I've still never met the guy.

3.16   tuesday
Open Mike (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
At the behest of countless fans (and believe me, counting them would be a bit depressing, plus not counting covers for the fact that I'm actually making this up), I'll be adding more Billy Idol to my token three or four songs. Could be more if Anto is still under the weather, and as always, come out if you want to sing.

Elvis Costello with Steve Nieve (Oriental Theatre)
This is the rescheduled March 1st show, which had to be postponed so the former Declan McManus could go to the Oscars. With his most recent album North moving back toward balladry, this will likely be a more low-key affair than the tour that followed When I Was Cruel, which if you don't all have by now, I'm going to kick you in the shins next time I see you.

3.17   wednesday
Diver (Blue Bayou)   SEE COZ LIVE!
If you want to avoid actual Irish bars on St. Patty's Day proper, how about a Cajun bar with a bit of an Irish flavor? I think one of the owners may be Irish, in which case, I have a tremendous amount of respect for any Irishman who opens a non-Irish bar in this city. We'll be rocking it out all night, with or without our flu- and sore throat-ridden singer if necessary, and again, under the old name.

3.18   thursday
Assassins with Venue (Schuba's)
I'm very curious to see which way this one goes, as it could be the scenester's paradise of a packed show, or everyone could have forgotten about the band, as they haven't played in town in well over six months. If memory serves, they've been off working on a major-label debut, assuming the bidding war for the band's services was ever resolved, and I think it was.

Eric Johnson with Tony Furtado (Park West)
I've been a fan of Johnson for years, although he sorta lost me with his Venus Isle record, which I think I listened to exactly once. This is billed as an "acoustic guitar and piano" show, which sounds like an interesting context for him, although it negates his alleged ability to tell what brand of battery is in his effect pedals.

3.19   friday
Diver (Blue Bayou)   SEE COZ LIVE!
If you've missed the two shows in the previous seven days, or just like us that much, we're at it again. Anto will have to have his voice back by this one, don'tcha think?

Assassins with TRS-80 (Schuba's)
Obviously, they're expecting the demand is still there, otherwise they wouldn't have booked two consecutive nights.

The Doors of the 21st Century (Auditorium Theatre)
If you've ever asked "what would happen if Ian Astbury of The Cult joined Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek of The Doors, playing Doors material," well, I'd be very surprised. Nonetheless, you get your answer here. Stewart Copeland had been playing drums with at least Krieger and Manzarek at some point, but that apparently fell through.

Dream Theater (Riviera Theatre)
I love how "An Evening With" has become code for "two sets, no opening act, or at least not one that you've heard of." That's right, two whole sets, which will likely be the only thing all night divisible by two, as I would imagine none of the time signatures will be. They were going to play at The Vic, but I heard Mike Portnoy's drumkit wouldn't fit on the stage.

The Paramours (Blue Iguana)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Haven't seen the full-on electric version of the band yet, but I figured I'd check to see if singer Niki Conrad was Googling her name again.

Chin Up Chin Up with New Black, Rollo Tomasi, Paletazo (Empty Bottle)
Talk about your good causes. This is a benefit for the Chris Saathoff Foundation. Saathoff, as you may have read about, played bass for the band until he was killed by a drunk driver a few weeks ago. I expect there will be a fair amount of press next week that will do both the tragedy and this event more justice than I could.

3.20   saturday
Robbie Fulks with David Zollo (Martyr's)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I still haven't seen Gerald Dowd playing drums behind Fulks, and I need to remedy that situation one of these days.

3.21   sunday
Nicholas Barron's Hyperactive (Long Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Always a safe bet on a Sunday night, if by "safe," you mean "I have absolutely no idea what they're going to play." Which is, ironically, why it's a safe bet, 'cause they're really good at making shit up.