list.in.to.chicago this week: 05.15.2006

Pearl Jam, Live and Alice In Chains all in the same week? Bust out those flannel shirts you've had in storage since 1993 or so.

Seriously, though, there's a metric assload of good shows this week.

Pick of the week
Where to start? How about Martyrs', where you've got two shows each from Thomas Dolby (Tuesday, Wednesday) and Alejandro Escovedo (Thursday, Friday). And then there's Wolfmother (Thursday) and Mogwai (early show Friday) at Metro.

list.in.to.COZ
I was getting all psyched up about three shows in three days, but apparently forgot to confirm the first of those, so it's just two in two days for Diver this weekend. First at Cullen's on Saturday night, and then kicking off the summer festival season with an afternoon performance on Sunday at the Lake View Mayfest at Ashland and Barry.

Recap
The thing that struck me most about Gomez -- aside from their most frequent lead singer looking like Anto's friend George -- is that they don't ever really seem spectacular, but rather maintain this very consistent level of being very, very good. The show was very enjoyable, but I don't know that there are any particular points where I would say "whoa."

Friday's Wingman show was an exercise in Murphy's Law, but at some point you just sort of give in, order a shot of whiskey, and roll with it. And now Trip can join the Coz Sings! Heckler Hall Of Fame for asking "what did you do?" right before I got to the chorus of "I Ran" last night at Redmond's, forcing me off the mike as I struggled to stop laughing. He shares that honor with a guy in a dog suit.

5.15   monday
Dick Dale with Slingerland Ride (Double Door)
Have you noticed how surf guitar legend Dick Dale seems to only play Chicago on Monday nights, and then only at Double Door? I feel like this has been going on for two or three years.

Fall Out Boy with All American Rejects, From First To Last, October Fall, The Hush Sound (UIC Pavilion)   SOLD OUT!
The suburban emo superstars have to be the most successful band whose name is a reference to a Fox TV show since Eve 6. Bonus points if you can tell me what Eve 6 was named after without cheating.

5.16   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
I'll be at the Pearl Jam show earlier in the evening, but I'll try to swing by later and take another crack at "She Blinded Me With Science," for obvious reasons.

Pearl Jam with My Morning Jacket (United Center)
No, I don't know why they put an avocado on the cover of the new record, either, but I guess it's getting people talking.

Thomas Dolby with Cary Ott (Martyrs')
From the reports I've read, Dolby is actually doing some really interesting things with music and technology right now. Which is quite a recovery, considering that he was hit by that very same technology -- and failed in both geometry and biology -- back in the 80s. Science!

Live with Michael Shapiro (The Vic)   SOLD OUT!
Would it be too obvious to say that, as of at least five years ago, I had just figured they had changed their name to "Dead"?

5.17   wednesday
Pearl Jam with My Morning Jacket (United Center)
See Tuesday's listing.

Thomas Dolby with Cary Ott (Martyrs')
See Tuesday's listing. Science!

HIM with Aiden (Congress Theatre)
What I don't get about this artist is that it's portrayed very much as angst-ridden goth kid music, but I don't think the actual music supports that imagery. At least based on the couple of listens I've given it.

5.18   thursday
Alejandro Escovedo with Stephen Yerke (Martyrs')
I'm still digesting Escovedo's new record, which was produced by John Cale of the Velvet Underground, and so far, it sounds pretty stellar. That, plus all the extra-musical parts of his story -- recent health problems and ultimate indie cred being foremost in my mind -- makes me think he's a shoe-in for a lot of year-end top ten lists.

Eleventh Dream Day with Red Eyed Legends (Empty Bottle)
It's hard to imagine that this band has been around in Chicago for going on twenty years. I had a University of Chicago Beat Club t-shirt that they signed from 1989 or 1990 after playing Ida Noyes Hall. Or maybe it was the Reynolds Club. Wow, that was a long time ago.

Wolfmother with Deadboy and the Elephantmen (Metro)
Lots of buzz in the past couple of weeks since the Australian band's major label debut hit stores. They seem cut of the same cloth as The Darkness, in that there's a certain unironic throwback sensibility about their hard rock, but they don't really sound like The Darkness.

Erasure (Park West)   SOLD OUT!
This is billed as a special acoustic performance, but I think the band is going to be in for a rude awakening when they realize that their synthesizers don't make any noise when you don't plug them in.

5.19   friday
Marigold Engine with Fun Club, Luster, Luke Mueller (Elbo Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Newer readers may not know this, but I subbed on drums for this band while their regular guy was off doing a boat gig a while back. Has it been two years already? Definitely more interesting stuff than your standard rock fare.

Alejandro Escovedo with Backyard Tire Fire (Martyrs')
See Thursday's listing. I'm kind of surprised these shows aren't sold out, to be honest.

Mogwai with Torche (Metro)
As much as I like this band, I don't know how well their atmospheric approach will hold up live. Good thing its the early show on Friday night, because if the band didn't hit until 11pm or later, with an audience that has, in part, worked 40-plus hours over the week, all of that texture could lull the whole crowd to sleep.

Twilight Singers with After Hours, Jeff Kline (Metro)
That being said, some of the reviews I've seen so far of former Afghan Whig Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers paint a sort of modern noir picture that could be equally tough to hold one's attention late at night on a Friday.

5.20   saturday
Diver (Cullen's)   SEE COZ LIVE!
I've been told that, at a recent Cullen's gig, we played something by Pat Benatar, if by "Pat Benatar," you mean "Gloria Gaynor as done by Cake." Hey, we like our audiences drunk. It makes us sound better.

Wingman (Gin Mill)   SEE COZ'S OTHER BAND, BUT WITHOUT HIM!
The downside of being busy, I guess. At least now we've got a P.A.-on-a-stick gig under our (the Imperial "our," as I'll be at Cullen's) belts before this one. Got to find your silver linings somewhere, right?

Liftpoint with Shades of Fiction, Blackout, Duna Hill, State of Madison (Metro)
Haven't seen a show coming out of the more underground, all-ages scene in a while. Of course, that may just be because I'm notoriously out-of-touch with that scene because I can drink beer legally.

Sunday Morning Chameleon with Them vs. Them (Subterranean)
These guys seem to have gotten into a groove with the Wicker Park club, which is to say I think this is two consecutive shows there, but I may be wrong.

5.21   sunday
Diver (Lake View Mayfest)   SEE COZ LIVE!
We're the first band to hit the stage at 2pm. In what can only be described as a purely Spinal Tap moment, we'll be following on the heels (paws?) of a "pet parade" sponsored by Higgins Animal Hospital.

Alice In Chains (Metro)   SOLD OUT!
I guess I had heard that there was some sort of quasi-reunion -- as much as you can have when key band members are no longer with us, and I don't mean in the Syd Barrett "retire to an estate deep in the woods" sense -- in the offing, and there was even mention of it last week in Doonesbury, but it never quite registered as something that was actually happening.

Miles Long Experience featuring Malcolm-Jamal Warner with Lorenzo Owens (HotHouse)
Yeah, I did a double-take, too. It's Theo from The Cosby Show. What he's doing, exactly, I'm not sure.