list.in.to.chicago this week: 05.01.2006

I know what you're thinking. Why, if this week's edition didn't come out until Tuesday, does the date in the header still refer back to Monday? Shouldn't it say the 2nd?

To which I reply, maybe you should find other things to worry about. And forward this on to your friends.

Pick of the week
Easy ones this week. Ivory Wire's final Chicago show on Friday (Elbo Room) and the neo-prog rock of Spock's Beard on Sunday (House of Blues). Throw in your monthly dose of Tributosaurus as the Kinks (Wednesday, Martyrs') and you've got yourself a good, solid schedule.

list.in.to.COZ
Just Vaughan's tonight. On the radar is Wingman on Friday the 12th at Goose Island Wrigleyville and then a trio of Diver shows the following weekend.

Recap
I think the funniest part of Friday's Diver/Wingman double bill was the young woman trying to persuade Tony to play more songs at the end of the Diver set up until the exact moment she noticed his wedding ring. The less funny part was, allegedly, food poisoning.

5.02   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
The solo show from last week gave me a good idea as to what songs in the big book of lyrics I can't remember need attention, so I'll hopefully have the discipline to cycle through those in the next couple of weeks.

Eric and the Implants with Enuff Z'nuff, others (Double Door)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I know I said I was going to punt on most of the International Pop Overthrow festival, but since Vaughan's regulars Eric Howell and Andrew Fraker are participating in this bill, with about seven or eight other bands including the irrepressible Enuff Z'nuff, I'll make an exception. You might remember Howell from about half of the White Sox parody songs played on XRT during the playoffs last year.

Alkaline Trio with Against Me! (Metro)   SOLD OUT!
One of these days, I'm going to listen to this local emo/punk-pop band done good, and then to Aluminum Group, so I can stop confusing them with each other. But not today.

5.03   wednesday
Tributosaurus (Martyrs')   FRIENDS OF COZ!
This month, the Kinks get the Tributo-treatment. No word as to whether or not Jon Spiegel will join brother and lead dinosaur Matt onstage and proceed to get in a fistfight to complete the homage.

Cisco Pike with Scott Lucas (Horseshoe)
This seems to be a home away from home for the local band, who, in my estimation, sound better in the more subdued context. Lucas -- who plays keys and rhythm guitar in Pike -- is opening up the show solo, which might be an interesting counterpoint to the big sound of Local H.

Alkaline Trio with Against Me! (Metro)   SOLD OUT!
I haven't learned anything new about this band since writing the blurb for Tuesday.

5.04   thursday
Nicholas Barron's Hyperaktive (Elbo Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
The band was recently out in Los Angeles playing a couple of shows, but I haven't heard anything back as to how that all went.

Alkaline Trio with Against Me! (Metro)   SOLD OUT!
Oh, and Aluminum Group is from Chicago, too. See what I have to deal with here?

5.05   friday
Ivory Wire with Absent Star, Down and Above, The Hard Lessons (Elbo Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
This is both a CD release party and swan song for Ivory Wire, which will make it a bittersweet yet rocking affair. Also on the bill are recent major label signees Absent Star, who owe some of their fortunes to the Wire, as Chuck and Rob produced the band's most recent recordings.

Dave Tamkin and Co. with Seven Day Run, Motil, Bascom Hill Band (Double Door)
Tamkin, who will be celebrating a CD release as well, has the dubious honor of being the first person I hadn't ever met requesting to be my friend on MySpace. And no, that's not quite enough to confer "Friends of Coz" status in the listing itself.

Greg Osby Four (Green Mill)
Osby came out of the same "M-Base Collective" in New York that produced the likes of Steve Coleman, David Gilmore (note the spelling and lack of Floyd-ness) and Me'Shell Ndegeocello. According to Wikipedia, M-Base stands for "macro-basic array of structured extemporization," which seems like a very roundabout way to say "jazz."

Elf Power (Subterranean)
The burning question is, could Elf Power defeat Cat Power?

Pretty Girls Make Graves with Giant Drag, The Joggers (Metro)
This is one of those bands you tend to notice on account of their name, which comes from either a Smiths song or from Jack Kerouac.

5.06   saturday
Ice Cube with Clipse, Tha Dogg Pound, Jiggolo (House of Blues)
Which so much emphasis on acting lately, I'm curious as to whether or not Ice Cube can maintain his street cred as a rap artist. Being in NWA and being in "Are We There Yet?" are pretty far apart, and while I'm not saying he can't pull off the highwire act, I'm interested in seeing how he goes about it.

Violent Femmes (Cubby Bear North)
The nice thing about this gig is that, after playing the Wrigleyville instance of the club on Friday, this is sort of on the way home for the Milwaukee band.

Riviera with Dustworks, Dundrearies (Beat Kitchen)
Again, one of the ulterior motives of this list is to give myself reminders of bands I've been meaning to see, sometimes for years.

Zep 2 - The Live Experience (Martyrs')
Members of Yakuza and Busker Soundcheck have been doing this Zeppelin thing for a while now, which means that people must be coming to check it out, which subsequently means it must be pretty good, but I'd have guessed that from the participants in the first place.

Greg Osby Four (Green Mill)
See Friday's listing.

5.07   sunday
Spock's Beard (House of Blues)
This is one of those bands that sometimes struggles to see progressive rock as a concept where you continue to move forward and one where you look backward at bands that were moving forward ten and twenty years ago. Like Porcupine Tree, they seem to incorporate "classic" prog rock notions into more contemporary songwriting, and do it fairly well a fair amount of the time.