list.in.to.chicago this week: 01.31.2005

Okay, if you're still putting crap in the street to hold your parking spot, you need to stop. The snowstorm was over a week ago. Let it go. There will be other parking spots.

Pick of the week
If there are, in fact, tickets left, Alejandro Escovedo (Saturday and Sunday at the Old Town School of Folk Music) should be very good. Secret Machines (Friday at Metro) also looks like a winner, along with Tributosaurus as Earth, Wind and Fire (Wednesday at Martyrs') and Light FM (Friday at Schubas).

list.in.to.COZ
Just Vaughan's tomorrow night. Next band show is Diver at Fado on February 19th.

Recap
One thing I will say about playing Fado on a Friday night, and that's that many of the patrons seemed to have been there since the end of the business day. Very rowdy, very fun crowd, and the break over the holidays did us a world of good. This is also two consecutive shows where somebody recognized me as the guy who plays the drums at Fire games. Which is funnier considering that at one of those shows, there were a couple of players from the team in attendance who went unrecognized.

Saturday night was sort of a big mess of sound on stage at Elbo Room, but we seemed to get through it and sound good in the process. Chinchilla Fury had that jam band vibe down pretty cold before us, and the band before them, well, let's just stop with Chinchilla Fury, shall we?

1.31   monday
The King Khan and BBQ Show (Empty Bottle)
With Cynthia Plastercaster and the wonderfully surnamed Brian Costello Show on the bill, along with King Khan, The Night Terrors, The Crunchies, Patrick O'Brien and Tony Sagger, this looks like a lot of bang for your buck on a Monday night. Especially since there's no cover.

2.01   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
Okay, so the Darkness tune could use a little more work. I've got a bunch of ideas of new songs to learn, but probably won't have time to get to them just yet, so we'll see if I can't find some tunes I haven't played in a while.

Help! A Tsunami Relief Benefit (Schubas)
Lots and lots of solid acts pitching in for last month's disaster, including The Beer Nuts, Butterfly Child, Caviar, Chris Connelly, Giant Step and Kelly Hogan, and that's not even the half of it.

2.02   wednesday
Tributosaurus (Martyr's)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
This month, Earth, Wind & Fire get the tributo-treatment. It looks like two shows, 7pm and 10pm, have become the norm.

Cheer Accident with Rope, Mark Shippy (Schubas)
These guys are way trippy, in a sort of early Mr. Bungle vein, if I remember the one time I saw them accurately. I had a tough time dealing with the sonic onslaught, but that seemed to be more my problem than theirs, as I can get cranky at shows sometimes for no good reason, giving the band on stage one more hurdle to overcome. I recall that show as being one of those times.

Scottish McMillan (Cubby Bear)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I bump into Scottish every six months or so, and he always comes back to how much he enjoyed URT. Makes me feel all warm and squishy inside. Cubby Bear has acoustic acts in the side room on Wednesdays and Fridays while they renovate the big room.

American Hi-Fi with Bowling For Soup, Riddlin' Kids, MC Lars (House of Blues)
I really should scan and post those pictures of American Hi-Fi frontman Stacy Jones from (ack!) fifteen years ago at Berklee. I don't recall ever seeing him not wearing that Edie Brickell and New Bohemians t-shirt.

2.03   thursday
Tsunami Relief Benefit Concert (Joe's)
This one's got performances by Joe Reilly, Melissa Ziemmer, Underwater People, Lovehammers, Simmering, Dayna Malow Band, Voodoo Kings, Pharisee and James Ullrich Band. Apparently, the turnaround time for putting something like this together is right around one month.

2.04   friday
Light FM with Earlimart, Del Psychos (Schubas)   FRIENDS OF COZ
I don't want to alarm you, but I may actually be able to finally go see these guys again. I'll believe it when I'm actually in the club and the first note is played.

Rik Emmett with Slick (House of Blues)
He's no longer young, wild or free, but I'm guessing he's still got the magic power of the music in him. If you're very scared that I was able to summon up Triumph lyrics on command, well so am I.

Secret Machines with Moving Units, Autolux (Metro)
There was just enough buzz about these guys last year that it might not sell out, and then you can say you were there if they get big. That said, I'd still buy tickets during the week, just in case.

Mike Park with Colossal, Sanawon, Report! (Bottom Lounge)
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume this is the same Mike Park who used to be in Deals Gone Bad, and is a regular at Chicago Fire matches.

2.05   saturday
Alejandro Escovedo with Jon Dee Graham (Old Town School of Folk Music)
The Austin-based singer/songwriter's show at Fitzgerald's earlier in the week is sold out, but this one isn't labeled as such. That, too, may change during the week, so I'd check on tickets in advance.

Gan Bua with Gareth Woods (Martyrs')
If you were with us for the Christmas benefit show at the Abbey Pub back in December, this was the rest of the bill. Gan Bua is a pretty cool traditional Irish band, and Gareth plays the shit out of his acoustic guitar.

2.06   sunday
Alejandro Escovedo with Jon Langford (Old Town School of Folk Music)
This time, with Mekon and Waco Brother Langford in support. Also not coming up as sold out, and I'm still skeptical.