list.in.to.chicago this week: 05.08.2005

If I'm uncharacteristically terse and/or pithy this week, it's because my brain is fried from counting the number of U-Haul small boxes it takes to contain roughly half of my non-furniture stuff. There may be an apartment-warming party at some point, but probably not until I finish unpacking. I'm thinking maybe 2008.

Pick of the week
Go see Gomez on Thursday the Vic. Secret Machines on Saturday at Metro looks promising, too. Tool is a no-brainer, but also a no-available-ticketer. What's with the Auditorium Theatre all of a sudden?

list.in.to.COZ
You've gotcher Wingman on yer Friday night up by da Goose Island over by Wrigley, and den you gots yer Coz singing on Mudder's Day up by Wrigley, too, but a little furder sout. And den der's always Vaughan's on Tuesday.

No, I don't know why I'm talking like that, either.

Recap
One of the things I noticed early on about Ivory Wire was that frontman Chuck Gladfelter seemed to be having fun, where Dovetail Joint seemed, to me, much more serious. Then, I think he got away from that again, but for their Friday night Chicago swan song at Elbo Room, the big grin came back as the band pummeled through their set for the last time within the city limits. And I really, really want to like Absent Star. All the pieces are there, but I haven't found a way in as a listener, which puts me at odds with most of my friends who have seen them, and subsequently loved them.

5.08   monday
Talent Magnet Mondays (Stadium West)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Dana rocks the house down along with whatever local singer/songwriters she's found on MySpace this week.

Brian Jonestown Massacre with Bright Channel (Double Door)
I heard they're going to have Dashboard Confessional set over at The Note and play real loud. If you caught the band's set at Lollapalooza last year, you know what I'm talking about.

5.09   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
It's a fair bet I'll be there this week, avoiding those boxes I mentioned in the open. I'm sure one of them only has the extra screws you get when you buy a piece of assemble-it-yourself furniture, 'cause that's the kind of packrat I am.

Elefant with Sound Team, Aberdeen City (Metro)
How many heavily Joy Division-influenced bands from New York City are there, exactly? And I like the one song I've heard from Aberdeen City.

Sigur Ros with Amiina (Civic Opera House)
This is probably the closest I'll come to Iceland, ever. At least since I stopped stalking Bjork. And I'm way too lazy right now to find the HTML code for the little dots over the 'o', but I'd imagine it's the first question answered in any fansite FAQ.

5.10   wednesday
Long Count Quartet (Stadium West)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Jeff wants me to tell you to go see Steve and friends play jazz. Tell him I sent you. Which him is entirely up to you.

Coheed and Cambria with Avenged Sevenfold, Eighteen Visions (Aragon Ballroom)
This band gets lumped in with The Mars Volta as some sort of new vanguard of progressive rock, but where The Mars Volta sounds at times like King Crimson, Coheed and Cambria sound more like Dream Theater or maybe Queensryche. Not quite the same thing.

5.11   thursday
Gomez with David Ford (The Vic)
The thing I like most about this band is that they don't seem to subscribe to any of the big, NME-hyped trends from across the pond. They just release consistently interesting records and tour behind them, without all the fluff. The one time I saw them live, they struck me as what a British jam band might sound like, in that they sounded absolutely nothing like the American version of that label.

Depeche Mode with She Wants Revenge (Allstate Arena)
Wasn't She Want Revenge just here? Huh.

5.12   friday
Wingman (Goose Island Wrigleyville)   SEE COZ LIVE!
I think the Cubby Bear North gig went fairly well a few weeks ago, so we'll see how we do striking while the iron is hot.

Ashoka with V Sparks, The Accord (Martyrs')   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Avi from Diver holds down the bass for this band, which fashions itself in a sort of modern hard rock vein that's different from the bullshit "active rock" format that was so pervasive in Chicago before the Zone flipped to oldies and Q101 bought an iPod. That's a good thing, by the way.

The Bon Mots with Brad Peterson, The 1900s (Metro)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Chris Frantisak probably holds the all-time record for LITC references with some tag about how I really need to go see the band, and then I don't. Now the Bon Mots take over where Light FM left off.

5.13   saturday
Tool (Auditorium Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
I've been listening to 10,000 Days a lot in the last week, and there's this central axis of songs and weird soundscapes that absolutely makes the record, including this bizarre, fast-paced spoken word thing that gives me goosebumps. And if I find out that you had an extra and didn't offer it to me, I may have to hurt you.

The Secret Machines (Metro)
I've heard these guys mentioned in the same breath as Spoon so often, that I'm having trouble telling the two bands apart. This is a late show with no opener, which means you'll get stuck in line waiting for them to clear out the room from the early show. For your sake, I hope it doesn't rain.

5.14   sunday
Coz Sings! (Redmond's)   SEE COZ LIVE!
With the Cubs playing that afternoon, the crowd is either going to be easy to please by 8pm or so, or they're going to be shouting for Skynyrd after every song. If you're taking your mom out to dinner for Mothers' Day, come on by afterward. Heck, bring mom!

Dearborn with NYCO, O'Neill and Wean (Schubas)
Surprisingly potent local lineup for a Sunday night.