list.in.to.chicago this week: 03.27.2006

Someone, somewhere is going to fall for it.

Pick of the week
Piquing my interest on Friday are former Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard (Metro) and Either/Orchestra (Green Mill), and then there's NYCO on Saturday (Elbo Room) on the more local front, and Cracker with Dearborn that same night in the 'burbs (Durty Nellie's, Palatine).

list.in.to.COZ
Still on full band hiatus until Tax Day at The Globe, so Vaughan's is where it's at for the next couple of weeks.

Recap
Food poisoning left me mostly out of action last week, but one intrepid list.in.to.chicago operative reported that -- contrary to my expectations -- there actually were a respectable number of men at the James Blunt show on Saturday at the Riviera, and that they were all very, very sensitive. Okay, that last part is just conjecture, and this story is sort of evidence to the contrary. Said report also included no less than four exclamation points to describe the awesomeness of the show.

3.27   monday
Talent Magnet Mondays (Stadium West)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Hostess with the mostess Dana Lawrence is celebrating a birthday this week, and the open mike format is such that you can serenade her with whatever inappropriate song strikes your fancy. I'm thinking "Time" from Pink Floyd if I have enough time to get home and learn it.

3.28   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
Last week was just weird, and that was before my stomach started with the gymnastics that would make Cirque du Soleil proud.

Joey DeFrancesco Trio (Jazz Showcase)
It looks like the shorter stints at the River North jazz house were just a seasonal thing, as organist DeFrancesco is in for the standard Tuesday through Sunday stretch.

3.29   wednesday
Long Count Quartet (Stadium West)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I'm guessing the odds are pretty good Dana is still celebrating the birthday two nights later when Steve's up there drumming. I was fully prepared to finally catch the band last week after my rehearsal, except that I ended up mostly curled in a fetal position from whatever it was that I ate on Tuesday.

3.30   thursday
Coldplay with Richard Ashcroft (United Center)
Tonight is an exercise in extremes, as you've got the super-mainstream, arena-friendly sounds of Chris Martin trying to unseat U2 as the biggest band in the world on the one side...

Korn with Mudvayne, 10 Years (Allstate Arena)
...and the dark, broody riffs of one of the few actual good bands to come out of the "nu-metal" movement on the other.

3.31   friday
Gooey with The Record Low, Mr. Gnome (Hideout)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I think I mentioned this before, but Gooey -- celebrating a CD release here -- wins the award for most individual e-mails I get plugging a gig, on account of my knowing two people in the band and finding my way on to the official e-mail list.

Dana Lawrence with Dyna, Old Dog Music (Uncommon Ground)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Although Dana comes in a close second, if only because she's friended at least three of my MySpace identities.

Robert Pollard with The High Strung (Metro)
I find it odd that Guided By Voices would sell out shows rather routinely, but Pollard on his own doesn't. Although that may be the extended GBV hangover from their Chicago swan song a little while back.

Neko Case with Martha Wainwright (Vic Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
The moniker of "chanteuse" gets abused in the post-Norah Jones world -- my favorite was when this one blogger called some singer a "chartreuse" instead -- but Case is one of the few who deserve that label in the most generous sense. While I tend to prefer the sugary pop of her work with The New Pornographers, her country-soaked solo material is pretty widely acclaimed.

Either/Orchestra (Green Mill)
I think the music critic-approved thumbnail sketch of this act is that they're a "venerable Boston-based jazz collective," which is going to score you some serious points if you're playing Buzzword Bingo, Music Critic Edition. The scary thing is that I seem to remember when they were a brand-new Boston-based jazz collective.

Coldplay with Richard Ashcroft (United Center)
Also worth noting is that the opening act on this tour is the former singer of The Verve, whose Urban Hymns is one of those thematic touchstones for Diver's existence, in that we keep threatening to cover about half of the record.

The Paramours with Alex and Doug (Cubby Bear)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I haven't thought terribly hard about it, but this may be my favorite cover band that I'm not actually in.

4.01   saturday
Led Zeppelin (Double Door)
It seems that a truce has been called between Robert Plant and Jimmy Page on the one side, and John Paul Jones on the other, that has resulted in a super-secret club tour of the rock legends. According to sources, the deal was brokered by local scribe and JPJ fan Jim DeRogatis, who is rumored to be playing drums on several of the dates, particularly this one. Because this date is important.

Cracker with Dearborn (Durty Nellie's, Palatine)
There was a bit of a showdown recently between the band and their former label, which decided to arbitrarily release a greatest hits compilation a few months before the band dropped its new record. As a counterstrike, the band then recorded new versions of their greatest hits and released that. The band's CD, last I heard, it outselling the label's CD, while the album of new material waits in the wings.

NYCO with Otter Petter, Ely Sound, Katie Todd Band (Elbo Room)
Some of these guys stopped in at Vaughan's once and sounded pretty good, and I later came to realize that the band features the old drummer from now defunct local favorites Cassius Clay.

Ray Davies (Vic Theatre)
The Kinks frontman hits Chicago on his first solo tour ever, which likely means the first tour he's been on where there's little or no risk of a fistfight with the lead guitarist. Oasis stole that, too.

Webb Wilder with Braam (Fitzgerald's, Berwyn)
I've got to take any chance I get to recite the Webb Wilder Credo: "Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard, grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em." Wise Fools Pub actually has a signed poster of this on their wall, which is very, very cool.

Either/Orchestra (Green Mill)
See Friday's listing.

4.02   sunday
Steve Smith and Vital Information (Martyrs')
If there was any justice in the world, drummer Steve Smith would get at least a teeny bit of press and attention for having played drums on that song that had us all completely transfixed back in November as the White Sox won the World Series, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". Instead, he'll be working in relative obscurity with his longtime jazz group while said Sox open their season on national television.

Ray Davies (Vic Theatre)
See Saturday's listing.

Joey DeFrancesco Trio (Jazz Showcase)
Final day of the run that started on Tuesday.