list.in.to.chicago this week: 06.07.2004

"I can tell you have a day job now." -- Steve Gillis (Filter)

Hey, I thought it was funny. Steve's one of the biggest advocates of this list, so he's totally allowed to crack jokes at my expense.

Pick of the week
The two really obvious hot shows, Franz Ferdinand (Friday, Metro) and Wilco (Saturday, The Vic) are both sold out, and Wilco is systematically designed so you can't scam tickets at the last minute. Which isn't to say you don't have other good options. Fareed Haque (Friday and Saturday, Boulevard Cafe), the MC5 (Saturday, Metro) and Beulah (Friday and Saturday, Abbey Pub), for starters.

list.in.to.COZ
How often do you get to hear me play with a band for the first time ever? Not often, I tell you what. As I may have alluded to several weeks ago, I'll be covering the drum chair with Marigold Engine (Friday, Elbo Room) while their regular drummer spends six months or so going through that seminal pro musician rite of passage, playing on a cruise ship.

Recap
The less said about Thursday's Nitrous Foxide show at the Lisle of Lucy Festival (say it out loud, you'll get it, and bonus points if you get the reference) the better. I think I just hate the suburbs. Really, really hate the suburbs.

Went to see The Mountain Goats on Friday night, and they live in a particular blind spot for me. Not bad at all, by any stretch, and the people I went with, who are big fans, enjoyed it tremendously. I just seem to have this deep-seated need to be beaten over the head repeatedly with some lyrical or melodic (heck, even rhythmic) motif, so the narrative, confessional style goes right over my head in it's un-beaten-over state.

6.07   monday
Dana Lawrence Trio (Bad Dog)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Okay, I've gotta give my friend, percussionist Alex Rea, a little shit for his promo e-mail for this one. I don't think it's physically possible for Dana to "swoon the audience." At least not without pulling a muscle. As for "bold and sultry," that's bordering on death by adjective. All that said, it's a good Monday night choice in Lincoln Square, and not just for nitpicking grammar. Sorry, Alex, I had to do it.

6.08   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
I know I've been saying this a lot, but (a) I don't know if I'll make it because I've got a rehearsal, and (b) my voice may or not come along if I do make it. This soccer season is going to kill me, but hey, I reportedly got a lot of camera love from ESPN2 again on Saturday.

6.09   wednesday
Little Steven's Underground Battle of the Bands (Double Door)
This is actually going on all week at Double Door, but this was the only night I didn't have anything worthy of mention. After what happened to [name withheld if you still haven't watched the last couple of Sopranos episodes], I hate to think what happens if you lose.

6.10   thursday
Family Style with Tisch/Torres Quintet, Star People (Gunther Murphy's)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Chris Neal, who I must once again remind you, sat in on sax in the short-lived Clusterfunk, is part of this funk/soul/jazz outfit. I'm still amazed that I was able to make anything out in the miniscule type of the Gunther's ad, beaten out for incomprehensibility this week only by the Bottom Lounge's abject lack of typeface or design. Had to be a mistake there somewhere, I'd imagine, otherwise somebody should be fired. Unless they already were, and so there was nobody left to do the ad.

6.11   friday
Marigold Engine with the Lynn Thompson Band, Driveway Ninjas (Elbo Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ! SEE COZ LIVE!
You know how I've told you to go see these guys before? Now I'm playing with them, so you've got even more reason. Learning nearly a dozen tunes in a week or so will do wonders for one's associative skills, so now I'd describe the sound as sort of a "Train meets Hoobastank," for whatever that's worth, but I was listening ot the latter band shortly after learning a bunch of the tunes, so I might have had a bias.

James Brown (House of Blues)
The Godfather of Soul, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, and, quite possibly, the worst mug shot in entertainment history since Brett Butler. Need I say more?

Beulah with The Stratford 4, Manishevitz (The Abbey)
I guess these guys are sort of lo-fi ork pop. They sound a little more organic than most of the Elephant 6 bands, and only released on record on that label before moving over to Chicago-based Sugar Free for their second record, which I'm actually listening to right now. No lie.

MC5 Reunion (Metro)
I'm not a big punk guy, but even I know this is significant. There's probably backstory to the actual reunion, and probably some punk-cred reason I shouldn't be buying into it, but looking that up would look too much like actual journalism, which we can't have around here.

Fareed Haque Group (Boulevard Cafe)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Guitarist Haque is so comfortable going in so many different directions, you can never be quite sure what you'll get with him, but as usual, he's got a top-notch band that includes Tributosaurus vets Dan Leali and Jon Paul.

6.12   saturday
Fleetwood Mac (Tweeter Center)
Speaking of Tributosaurus, this could be an interesting case study, since they were the Mac last month. How does an incredibly skilled band devoting less than a month to an artist compare to the real thing? Particularly when the real thing is somewhat, shall we say, past their prime?

Franz Ferdinand with Sons and Daughters (Metro)   SOLD OUT!
Lots of buzz about this recent British import. I find it odd that Metro left it out of the display ad, as I thought they tended to leave sold out shows in the listings to give them some sort of bragging rights. But then, Double Door doesn't have anything listed in their ad for Friday, either.

Wilco with The M's (Vic Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
There's something oddly disconcerting about bands so popular in the city that they have to make concertgoers jump through ridiculous hoops to avoid massive scalping of tickets, and Wilco has officially jumped into that territory.

Beulah with The Stratford 4 (The Abbey)
See Friday's listing, sans Manishevitz. Then read the Fareed bit again, because he's playing again tonight, too.

Fareed Haque Group (Boulevard Cafe)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
At this point, I have nothing at all to add in this space. Yet you're still reading it. That's the power of the written word. Or something.

6.13   sunday
Nicholas Barron's Hyperactive (Long Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Which isn't to say that I have nothing to add to the rest of the list. If you took it that way, I apologize from the bottom of my empty, black heart. Go see Nicholas, Steve, Shawn and maybe Vijay. You'll feel better.