list.in.to.chicago this week: 11.14.2005

If you enjoy reading this half as much as I enjoy writing it, I'm having twice as much fun as you are. Also, you should maybe recommend l.i.t.c. to a friend. As we'll see in a moment, I'm kinda dwelling on the size of the list.

Of course, I've been told it's not the size of the list that matters...

Pick of the week
Gotta go with The Roots tonight at House of Blues, if by "gotta go," I mean "dammit, I can't go." Friday boasts both OK Go (Metro) and King's X (Martyrs'), but I can't make those, either. Damn this hectic lifestyle!

list.in.to.COZ
I'd say you get to hear me play percussion in a unique acoustic environment on Thursday at the Pontiac Cafe with SomaStar, except that I play percussion in that environment pretty much every Tuesday. So maybe by "unique environment," I mean "Wicker Park," where I don't think I've played my djembe before. So there.

After that, it's Diver on Friday at Cullen's, doing that thing that we do. I'm a little worried at the attrition rate on the mailing list for that band after I switched over to the web-based thing. As a percentage of total subscribers, it was much worse than this list, and this list was pretty bad. That said, I think about 1 out of every 4 people who was on l.i.t.c. before the switch actually left town. Simply unsubscribing would have been much easier, I think.

Recap
I've said it before, but it bears repeating. If you go see a show, and want to see your comments immortalized on the web -- with or without that pesky attribution that always seems to get me in trouble -- send them along. This week's contribution comes from a l.i.t.c. operative attending the Lt. Dan Band show at Joe's, who texted me "great cover band -- mediocre famous bass player."

As for your humble correspondent, I was thoroughly impressed with Isis at Metro on Saturday night. The cross between metal and atmospherics put them in roughly the same category as Chino Moreno's Team Sleep, but with maybe a bit less song structure, a bit more math rock, and a bit more aggro. For a bunch of songs that you can't exactly hum along to, they threw down.

I think this was the first time in about two and a half years that I've seen headliners Tortoise indoors. While they were up to their usual tricks -- which they're very, very good at -- I was looking for them to surprise me somehow. I don't know if it was the opening set, the promise of an album of cover songs, the late hour or just burnout, but I didn't get it, so I left after five or six songs. I've been told they got stronger later in the set.

7.12   monday
The Roots (House of Blues)
I've missed these guys so often that I'm now living in fear that the band is going to break up, just to rub in the fact that I'm never able to make the time to go see them.

Front 242 with Grayarea (The Vic)
What is it about industrial bands that compel me to start any listing with "I'm surprised these guys are still around?" Front 242, KMFDM, Ministry -- they all seem surprisingly resilient, and I would have maybe expected otherwise.

Kanye West with Fantasia, Keyshia Cole (UIC Pavilion)
I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention George W. Bush's biggest fan as he tours in support of his latest.

7.13   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
A lot of the songs I pick to sing are borne out of convenience. It seems that the material from artists I really care about is either too difficult, or too sacrosanct for me to try, although I've taken stabs at the likes of King Crimson, Frank Zappa and Mike Keneally. Anyway, what I'm eventually getting to is that I found a song I really dig from an artist that I really dig that I can actually pull off well with some clever transposition. Find out what it is if you come out and stand before me, all that fur and all that hair...

Ladies of the Canyon (Martyrs')
If memory serves, this band is tangentially related to Tributosaurus, also offering up evening-long tributes to different artists, only from a more female perspective. This time they're covering Heart, which could be alternately very cool and wince-inducing, but Wingman is covering "Alone," so I probably shouldn't talk.

7.14   wednesday
Hanson with the Pat McGee Band (House of Blues)
I can't believe I'm actually going to defend Hanson, but I happened into a free acoustic show of theirs about two years ago at this very same venue, and it wasn't half bad. Nothing to make me start hanging posters of them in my bedroom or anything, but not bad.

Gooey with Record Low (Hideout)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I think I've already received three different e-mails from three different band members about this one. I've definitely gotten two in the space of about twelve hours. Thorough, these Gooey kids are.

7.15   thursday
SomaStar with Rebecca Wickens, Ronnie Criss (Pontiac Cafe)   SEE COZ LIVE!
It's an acoustic set from the new original project I'm playing in. I'm somewhat dreading Wickens realizing who is playing percussion in our band and beating me up for certain things I said about her in this space that she, um, disagreed with. Maybe I'll play in disguise. At least I won't have the kick drum with "NOTABBOTT DOT COM" emblazoned on it in big letters, 'cause that would be a dead giveaway.

The Bish with Absent Star, Rabbit Fighter, Idle Hands (Double Door)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
A friend of the guy I know in The Bish was vigorously extolling the virtues of the band the last time I saw her, which is quite possibly the first time I've ever used the phrase "vigorously extolling." Go me. I'm curious to see how they mesh up with Absent Star, for reasons having little to do with the actual music being made. Ah, local music scene intrigue!

Badi Assad, Larry Coryell and John Abercrombie (HotHouse)
I don't know Assad, but Coryell and Abercrombie are two of your bigger heavyweights in the world of jazz guitar, so this should be a pretty cool evening in the South Loop.

Hanson with the Pat McGee Band (House of Blues)
Yeah, I defended them just now, but if you're Pat McGee, how hard are you going to promote a gig where you're opening for Hanson? That's gotta be weird.

7.16   friday
Diver (Cullen's)   SEE COZ LIVE!
Death, taxes and Diver at Cullen's once a month.

OK Go with She Wants Revenge, Giant Drag (Metro)
On some level, they're sort of Chicago's answer to Fountains of Wayne. On another, they'll probably get mad at me for writing that if they come across it. I still say they succeeded with a slightly poppier sound where URT failed, but the fact that the two bands hardly sound alike can be a serious obstacle toward convincing anyone of that. Oh, and Damian Kulash is guest blogging over at Coolfer.com this week. If one inquisitive fan gets their way, we may hear Damian's opinions on butter.

King's X with Mardo (Martyrs')
Very early on, these guys were branded as the "thinking man's hard rock," and I don't think it's a label they've ever tried to refute. And it only just dawns on me that the guys in Soulfix are fans, which should have been much, much more obvious.

7.17   saturday
Fareed Haque Group with Ernie Hendrickson And The MakeBelieve (Martyrs')
Interesting that Haque is coming through with his own band so soon after the Fareed-less version of Garaj Mahal. I'm not going to read into it or anything, but it's still interesting. Ships passing in the night and all that.

Stephen Lynch (The Vic)   SOLD OUT!
Every once in a while, I'll see a sold-out show where I don't know squat about the artist, and will investigate. As far as I can tell, this guy is perhaps a bit more of a comedian than singer/songwriter, with a DVD out last year, and a lot of college touring under his belt. That would maybe explain how he got 1,000 fans-popular without me knowing.

Elevation with Identity Crisis (Cubby Bear)
I was tough on these guys the first time I saw them, so it's only fair to note that they're sounding much closer to the objects of their affections these days. For a tribute band, that's a good thing.

7.18   sunday
Super Furry Animals with Caribou (Metro)
The British psychedelic pop group has always been a little too heavy on the ork of ork-pop (that's "ork" as in "orchestral," not as in Mork) for me, maybe too many spins of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds -- no pun intended -- but there's certainly a sizable following for that kind of sound. And you have to love Caribou as an opener. Maybe caribou are not quite super furry.

Wendy Debias with Missy Higgins (Martyrs')   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Okay, not a friend so much as the sister of the girlfriend of a friend, but if Friendster and MySpace have taught us anything (and I'm on both, feel free to look me up), it's that tenuous connections make the world go around.

Laurie Anderson (Art Institute of Chicago)
The longtime art-rock luminary benefits from a bit of a halo effect, as her contemporary Kate Bush just released a pretty great record.