list.in.to.chicago this week: 05.09.2005

Five-year old computers have their limitations, and as a result, Monday's usual "deadline" came and went with a whimper. But the music goes on, so let's get to it.

Pick of the week
Once again, it's looking like a lot of the choices this week will require one's firstborn being promised to your favorite ticket broker, but past that first wave, you've still got Gang of Four (Wednesday and Thursday at Metro) for the old-school indie/punk crowd, Callisto (Thursday at Gunther Murphy's), The Changes (Friday at Schubas) and Light FM (Saturday at Bottom Lounge) for your local fix, and Bright Eyes (Saturday and Sunday at the Riv) for the emo kids.

list.in.to.COZ
Should be a good time with Diver at Fado on Saturday night, especially if you go to the Fire-Metrostars game at Soldier Field first. At which I'll be playing pre-game on the concourse.

Recap
Where to start? Ben Folds is a heck of an entertainer, whether appropriating Dr. Dre tunes or leading the crowd as a faux horn section. I had the opportunity to see him in the restaurant at the House of Blues on top of the sold-out Riviera show, which featured opener Corn Mo, who is sort of a cross between Meat Loaf and Tenacious D, with a voice like Jeff Buckley, playing an accordian. You sorta had to be there.

I checked the old review I had online, and Wednesday's Garbage show at Metro was almost nine years to the day after the last time I saw them at that venue. Having four albums worth of material allowed the band to play much more to their strengths, even if the set was heavily skewed toward the first and the last. Shirley Manson was something else. Openers The Dead 60s bounced back and forth from ripping off Franz Ferdinand and the whitest reggae ever, but they weren't as bad as that makes them sound.

5.09   monday
Stereophonics with Augustana (Metro)
The Welsh band's latest, Language. Sex. Violence. Other? is much more varied than the current crop of newcomers from the UK, but while some bands can turn that into a strength, here is seems to detract from any chance the songs have of being memorable. Still, it's a pleasant listen from a band that could be considered a veteran compared to those newer bands.

U2 with Kings of Leon (United Center)   SOLD OUT!
Outside of Abe Pollin, I don't think anyone was happier about the Bulls dropping game six and the first-round series with the Wizards than U2, who I'm guessing would have had to strike their entire set and put it back together after Game 7.

5.10   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
Depending on how ambitious I'm feeling, there may be those "new old" tunes I mentioned last week, now that I've had a chance to work on them. You'll just have to imagine me in black and white with squiggly lines.

U2 with Kings of Leon (United Center)   SOLD OUT!
I'd be curious to see what Jim DeRogatis had to say about the Elevation tour, because my hunch would be that the show itself was more or less the same as the Vertigo tour, but that DeRo probably liked the former and clearly did not like the latter.

Trey Anastasio (Auditorium Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
I tried using the album with Les Claypool and Stewart Copeland as a more palatable entre into Anastasio's music, but it didn't take. That said, he doesn't need me on board to sell out a pretty decent-sized room.

5.11   wednesday
Bruce Springsteen (Rosemont Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
I love how bands like Garbage and Coldplay do a small club tour, and play a 1,000-capacity venue like Metro. Bruce, on the other hand, does a "small club tour," and plays the 5K Rosemont Theatre. Economies of scale, people.

The Killers with Tegan and Sara (Riviera Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
After a late-night TV appearance that apparently didn't impress much, the meme that the Las Vegas -- really, they're not from the UK -- band sucks live is spreading like wildfire.

Dianne Izzo with The Judy Green (The Hideout)
Okay, this is looking like a May residency at the uber-indie hotspot in...well, it's not quite Bucktown, and it's not quite Old Town, is it? What the hell do you call that neighborhood, other than "by the Home Depot," which isn't even nearly as unique as it used to be?

The Raveonettes with The Peels (Double Door)
It seems they've moved on from only playing three-minute, three-chord songs in B-flat minor with no cymbals, but had they been able to sustain that over even two records, let alone an EP and two full-lengths, I'd have been very surprised.

Gang of Four with Radio 4 (Metro)
This is another one of those important British post-punk bands that I know absolutely nothing about, but have seen cited by enough other bands to know that they're significant.

5.12   thursday
Snow Patrol with Athlete (The Vic)   SOLD OUT!
The short description of these guys is that they're Keane with more guitar. Lots of mid-tempo tunes wrought with emotion, and subsequently an audience that's likely more female than male.

Callisto with Telepathic Butterflies, The Great Perhaps, Deep Cricket Night (Gunther Murphy's)
I was starting to feel a bit of a buzz on these guys, who I haven't seen in a full-band context, when they seemed to disappear for a couple of months.

Billy Idol (Congress Theater)
Reviews of his new Devil's Playground album have been surprisingly good, but at this point, he has to compare favorably not only to his own musical "legacy," in perhaps the loosest intepretation of that word, but to James Marsters' portrayal of Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was a better Billy Idol than Billy Idol ever was.

Kansas (House of Blues)
I struggle a bit when I try to come up with examples of American progressive rock, but in the seventies, I think these guys definitely qualified. Granted, two of their biggest hits were decidedly non-prog, but a lot of the rest of the stuff fit that bill. And, to be fair, we really are all just dust in the wind.

Gang of Four with Radio 4 (Metro)
See Wednesday's listing.

U2 with Kings of Leon (United Center)   SOLD OUT!
I was going to wrap up the U2 listings with lots of puns using song titles, but I can't think of even One.

5.13   friday
Doves with Mercury Rev (The Vic)   SOLD OUT!
I know I saw this a lot, but I like to see bands from the UK with more than two albums in a position to ride the wave of the newer bands, because they almost always seem to have more depth to them. To me, anyway. And from a largely uninformed point of view, Mercury Rev seems a bigger deal than Doves right now, as they've been around longer and it's been about a year longer since their last record.

Mountain Goats with Shearwater, Jeff Hanson (Logan Square Auditorium)
I don't know if it's that the band has come to Chicago too many times in the last year or so, the larger venue, or maybe Metromix just not getting solid advance ticket sales information, but this visit doesn't seem to be sold out, which surprises me given the passion among Mountain Goats fans.

Mike Doughty with Kelly Buchanan (Black Orchid)   SOLD OUT!
Should be a very intimate performance from the former Soul Coughing frontman, and his fans seem to have realized that.

The Changes with Okkervil River, Kevin Devine (Schubas)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
You can see them now at Schubas, or you can see them this summer at Lollapalooza. Or both, but that doesn't really fit in with my little venue/big venue juxtaposition as well.

Sunday Morning Chameleon with Clearly and the Mainstream, Raised on Zenith, The Natives of the New Dawn (Elbo Room)
If you really wanted to go see Snow Patrol, but didn't want to fork over top scalper dollar, this local alternative is somewhere in the sonic vicinity.

5.14   saturday
Coz Sings! (Soldier Field)   SEE COZ LIVE!
I'll be doing the pre-game warmup in the concourse just inside of Gate 0.

Diver (Fado)   SEE COZ LIVE!
As Anto lazes -- or works, but let's be realistic here -- in the Jacksonville sun, the three-piece version of the band gets back on stage for the first of five shows over three consecutive weekends.

Bright Eyes with The Faint (Riviera Theatre)
With all the bands coming to town and selling out, and the fair amount of hype around Conor Oberst's pair of new albums, I'm a little surprised this one hasn't moved more tickets, but much like releasing two albums simultaneously, two dates might have overestimated demand by a bit.

Light FM with Textbook, The Strategy Game, The Assembly (Bottom Lounge)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I don't know if this is their last show before Josiah moves to the west coast, but it might be. If I didn't have a gig, I swear, I'd go this time.

Psychodots with Swinger, Epicycle (Martyrs')
One for the way back machine, as Oncle Julien opened for these guys -- who become The Bears when you add King Crimson vet Adrian Belew -- in 1996 at a bar in Lincoln Park called Otis', which I think is now Bar 3. The common thread is that the same guy who booked that room books Martyrs'.

Joe Jackson, Todd Rundgren (Cadillac Palace Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
Ben Folds last week and a double bill with eighties heavyweights Jackson and Rundgren makes me think it's a good time to be a piano tuner in Chicago.

Lifehouse with Rocco DeLuca (The Vic)   SOLD OUT!
When we started playing a couple of their tunes in Diver, I started to be intrigued by this band, but then I heard their latest album, which just isn't very good.

5.15   sunday
Bright Eyes with The Faint (Riviera Theatre)
The whole two albums/two shows thing makes me wonder if one of these concerts will be the acoustic singer/songwriter stuff and the other the more electronic stuff. That would be mildly intriguing.