list.in.to.chicago this week: 07.12.2004

Good morning sports fans! Paging through this week's Reader -- so you don't have to, natch -- I can say one thing, definitively, about this coming weekend. Don't drive, because whatever street you're trying to drive on is probably blocked off for a street festival. Yeah, they go on every weekend throughout the summer, but this weekend, in particular, seems to be some sort of band/beer/sun nexus that is expanding and taking the population of Chicago with it. Sorta like that first Star Trek: The Next Generation movie, only with live bands and no Malcolm McDowell.

Pick of the week
Two solid local bands on Saturday, and if you time it right, you might be able to catch both, with The Changes at Subterranean and American Motherload around the corner at Double Door.

list.in.to.COZ
This week is all about me singing, or trying to, as I'll take my utterly cashed voice to Vaughan's on Tuesday, and then (tentatively) Soldier Field on Saturday.

Recap
I ended up catching the last four or five songs of Tributosaurus on Wednesday, and I'm glad I did. Even being forced to listen to "That Voice Again" from the sidewalk because the room was so crowded, with Kris Myers absolutely nailing the drum part ot the wall and Jonathan Paul on Chapman Stick, was a treat.

Tuesday's Vaughan's set was graced by this guy named Seth Horan, playing solo bass, and playing the heck out of it. I ended up catching a full set from him at Uncommon Ground on Saturday on the merits of those three or four tunes on Tuesday. Sorta somewhere on that Victor Wooten-Stu Hamm-Les Claypool axis, but with a strong singer-songwriter vibe.

As for my gigs, the Abi Cruz show went well, with lots of songs taking unexpected extended solos and breakdowns that kept me and Oscar on our toes. I didn't necessarily feel at my funkiest, but it still felt good. Friday's Diver set hung somewhere around the median for those shows. I think I like playing Vaughan's, but don't particularly like setting up there.

7.12   monday
Don Henley with Madeleine Pehroux (Ravinia Festival)
Okay, I could almost understand the ticket prices on Eagles tours of the last several years. The Eagles are clearly an important band, and command top dollar. But $85 for Don Henley solo? On the strength of what, "Dirty Laundry"? Okay, to be fair, I like that song, but still, that screams "lawn seats" to me.

7.13   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
You know how I keep telling you that I cheered and chanted through a whole soccer game over the weekend, and as a result, will only play Tom Waits, Everlast and that one instrumental tune I wrote? Well, Sunday was a doubleheader, so expect even more of the same. Last week had a ton of good musicians, so maybe this is a trend. Only one way to find out, right?

John Hiatt solo acoustic with David Lindley (Ravinia Festival)
To be fair to Mr. Henley, John Hiatt by himself is $40 for pavillion seats, so if each guy in Henley's band gets, say, $10 of the ticket price, maybe you can justify it. Or not.

7.14   wednesday
Incubus with Sparta (Allstate Arena)
This is just one of the coolest "big" bands to come around in quite a while. They just sound so...authentic, and if they don't have the strength of their musical convictions, they do a hell of a job of making it sound that way, which is just as good.

Robert Cray with Marcia Ball (Ravinia Festival)
If we're still triangulating those Don Henley ticket prices, Cray is also only $40, ostensibly with a band. And he was supposed to redefine popular blues music what, fifteen years ago? Some may accuse me of belaboring this point, but it afforded me the opportunity to use "ostensibly" in a sentence, so I win.

7.15   thursday
Big Boi with Sleepy Brown (House of Blues)
With Andre Benjamin favoring guest spots on The Shield over touring, it's left to the other half of Outkast, Big Boi, to spread the word. I'm on the fence as to whether or not Boii's Speakerboxxx is better than The Love Below, which was one of the favorite debate topics of music critics everywhere last year.

Melvin Taylor and the Slack Band (Hard Rock Cafe)
I saw Taylor once way the hell back when I was in college, and it struck me sort of like [fusion guitarist] Allan Holdsworth playing the blues. I haven't ventured all the way out to his favorite stomping ground of Rosa's to check him out since, but here he's a little closer to downtown.

Sparta (Bottom Lounge, early show)
I don't see opening acts on bigger tours picking up a club show while they're in town all that often anymore, and that makes this somewhat refreshing. As I've told you before, this is the half of At The Drive-in that didn't become The Mars Volta.

Fat Nut reunion show (Double Door)
It's a continuation of what seems to be "Chicago music scene nostalgia month." First, it was Nubile Thangs at Elbo Room last weekend, now Fat Nut. The only things I remember about these guys is that the drummer had one of those flags you sometimes see attached to bicycles on his drum stool, and that one guy in the band rented my first post-college apartment after I moved over the Grace Street.

7.16   friday
Buckethead's Giant Robot (Double Door)
Now that he's done with Axl Rose's 21st-century Guns 'N Roses experiment -- I don't remember if the whole thing fell apart, or if he just left -- the, um, unique guitarist is on the road on his own. His solo output is remarkably inconsistent, but the high points are typically worth wading through the really weird, self-indulgence.

Menthol with The Static Age, Something About Vampires and Sluts (Bottom Lounge)
I don't know if Menthol fits into that nostalgia vibe, because I don't think the one-time major-label signee really went anywhere, except low-profile. Still, it's good to see them back in action. They've also got a gig Wednesday at the Hideout with Light FM, so this is almost like a mini-tour of sorts.

Anne Harris with Anne Heaton (Martyr's)
John Kerry may or may not have gotten a bounce from the DNC fundraiser in town a week or two ago, but I imagine Harris will get one as a result of her appearance at the event. This is also a CD release party for Heaton.

7.17   saturday
American Motherload with Aberrant, The Silents, Ton (Double Door)
Last time I saw these guys, it was abundantly clear that they were a step above your average local band. They just played BIG, putting on a bona fide big rock show instead of just playing down the set list. Which isn't to say band who do the latter or slackers or anything, just that, again, these guys take it to another level.

The Changes with The Starlite Desperation, Telenovela (Subterranean)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Good god, there only seems to be one Friends of Coz show this week. [Upon further investigation, I'm going to have willingly omit Light FM at the Hideout on Wednesday with Menthol to maintain that fiction, but that's the price of finding a theme and running with it, but I've now snuck in two mentions of that show, so we're okay.] Well, at least it's a good one. The band has recorded some new stuff just recently, so expect to hear some of those new tunes on top of the regular agenda. Okay, two people are going to get the "Agenda" reference, but who cares, it's my list.

Coz Sings! (Soldier Field) SEE COZ LIVE! MAYBE!
I might be doing another pre-game set for the Fire-Metros/Morelia-Nexaca doubleheader, but even if I'm not, isn't it time you made it down to a Fire match anyway?

Morrisey (House of Blues)   SOLD OUT!
The former Smiths frontman is enjoying a bit of a renaissance with his new solo album You Are The Quarry. I've heard one track so far, and it's pretty good.

Eric Clapton with Robert Randolph and the Family Band (United Center)
I sorta wish Robert Randolph would take a page from Sparta's playbook and play a club show while they're in town with Clapton, 'cause man, are they a fun band.

Paul Oakenfold with Sandra Collins (The Vic)
DJs in a concert setting can be problematic, but Oakenfold has been touring concert venues over clubs for some time, so you would think he's got the medium figured out.

7.18   sunday
The Scarecrow Garden with Sue Generis, The Fold (Metro)
This is a CD release for The Scarecrow Garden, and I have mixed feelings about them putting out a disk already. On the one hand, the right producer might have helped the band break out of their Radiohead phase, so it might be a good thing for their development. On the other, it might set that sound in stone and keep them from growing. They're a young band, and right now they really wear that influence on their sleeves.

Sting with Annie Lennox (Tweeter Center)
It's hard to be overly critical of Sting's solo output, as he still writes songs that are typically very sophisticated harmonically, melodically and lyrically. My issue with him is that he seems to have gotten complacent. He doesn't challenge himself anymore, when in the past, he'd hire guys for his band (Branford Marsalis, Vinnie Colaiuta) who would push him. Now his live show has all the spontenaiety of a Vegas revue, and while it's not a bad revue, it could be a lot better.

Alice Cooper (Star Plaza Theater, Merrilville, IN)
Does Cooper only tour in the summer, when school actually IS out? Would the crowd not find the song compelling in, say, October?