list.in.to.chicago this week: 12.04.2006

If you're going to replace friends of mine with other people, you can expect a longer-than-usual entry holding you under the microscope for it. Also, an ignominious honor is bestowed.

Pick of the week
I will atone for forgetting them last time and recommend you see Soma Star (with Reform Euphoria) on Thursday at Subterranean. Also, Army of Anyone (Tuesday at Metro) and The Dears (Friday at Metro) look particularly interesting.

list.in.to.COZ
We're trying again with the movie theme at Vaughan's on Tuesday, and then Wingman takes the stage up at Emerald Isle on Northwest Highway on Saturday.

Recap
This is truly a special occasion. On Saturday night, I may have witnessed the worst band I've seen in the history of this newsletter. They're called Whitestarr, Google be damned, and as near as I could figure, someone with too much money and not enough taste bankrolled a bunch of poseurs from L.A. to pretend it's 1975. Everything about them was annoying to the point of being offensive. Poorly imitated 70s riffs -- oh, yes, there was a cowbell, poorly imiated 70s looks, even poorly imitated 70s onstage banter and, from what I heard, recreational drug use. At best, they sounded like a cut-rate Steppenwolf, but using the word "best" in any proximity to this band might accidentally give someone the wrong idea.

This made Juke Kartel, the Australian band featuring Rock Star: Supernova's Toby Rand seem like the greatest band in the world by comparison when they took the stage afterwards. One of the things I like about bands that break out of scenes halfway around the world is that they have a certain sense of having worked like hell to get where they are, which was also a refreshing change from the band that preceded them. I can't say this for certain, but I think most of Juke Kartel's songs struck me as better than -- or at least more catchy than -- what I've heard from the Rock Star Supernova record. And the acoustic intro to the tune Toby played on the TV show was awfully cool.

12.04   monday
Wes John Trio (House of Blues)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
The main man behind the e-mics will be playing the Back Porch Stage for a late set following some singer/songwriter showcase. And now I may actually remember to check MySpace blogs and bulletins before I write these things.

12.05   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
So we pushed back the movie theme to this week. I'll tip my hand and let you in on the fact that I've got "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" from Monty Python on tap, so bring your whistling voice. Also, it's Grinch time!

Army of Anyone with The Steepwater Band, Escape From Earth (Metro)
This is the new project from Filter frontman Richard Patrick, the DeLeo brothers from Stone Temple Pilots, and a guy who played drums for David Lee Roth at some point. It sounds pretty much as you'd expect it to, which is to say, still a lot like Filter at times, but without that gut-punch of Geno Lenardo's guitar sound. I haven't given the lyrics a hard listen to see if the change of musical scenery has allowed Patrick to avoid the inevitable lyrics about forgiveness and redemption that follow a stint in rehab. And maybe this is me assuming righteous indignation for my friend Steve so he doesn't have to, but I don't think they put as much care into the drum sound as he did on the last Filter record, part of which meant that Steve's over-the-top fills on that record felt like they worked much better with the song.

12.06   wednesday
Tributosaurus (Martyrs')   FRIENDS OF COZ!
This month's installment is Supertramp. I used to have this very odd fascination with "The Logical Song" when I was a kid, maybe because Roger Hodgson's voice is just so darned odd, at least to a nine-year old boy. But that may be more a reflection of this distinct memory of choosing to watch some music special I had already seen that included a performance of the song over some other movie, maybe The Bad News Bears. And yet I can't remember calculus.

12.07   thursday
Soma Star with Reform Euphoria, Chapter Zero, Mason Proper (Subterranean)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
After I missed their previous "last show before going into the studio," the good folks in Soma Star have decided to give me another chance. This is their last show before going into the studio. Until the next one, anyway. As if that weren't enough, Reform Euphoria is the new band from former Cassius Clay and 2 Ton Levy frontman Jayh Johnson, and I've been told this is actually their debut performance.

The Lemonheads with Vietnam, The Hymns (Double Door)
Let's face it, Evan Dando just isn't going away. We need to accept that and move on. This is not a commentary on his relative merit, just his ostensible permanence. And yes, now I've used "ignominious" and "ostensible" in the same post. Maybe I got a thesaurus as an early Christmas present, not that it's any of your business.

Twisted Sister with Rev Luv (House of Blues)
At this point, I'm overwhelmed by possible punchlines, so just make something up. If you're feeling adventurous, post it to the comments -- those are on the web version of the newsletter, if you're wondering how to comment on an e-mail.

12.08   friday
Goo Goo Dolls with O.A.R., KT Tunstall, Mat Kearney (Chicago Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
The Goo Goo Dolls are one of those bands I tend to like better when I'm playing their songs than I do when I'm listening to their songs. And is it just me, or does Johnny Rzeznik seem to always be in Chicago for some combination of Christmas and New Year's? The band formed in Buffalo, so maybe that explains why the weather doesn't scare them off, anyway. Finally, I would have never guessed that the band got it's start on Metal Blade Records.

The Dears with Young Galaxy (Metro)
Taken in the context of being from Montreal, the synthesizer intro on their latest record starts off sounding just a little bit like something you'd hear from the organist at a hockey arena before shifting into a bit more of an slightly orchestral indie-pop vein. It's pretty good, actually, sort of sneaking up on me as I write this.

Low with The Astronomer (Old Town School of Folk Music)
I'm not sure if putting the notable Minnesotan purveyors of slow, somnabulent sound (big words AND alliteration! I'm on fire!) in a seated venue is a good idea or a bad idea.

The Ex with DJ Rupture, comorevi-ButtErfLy (Empty Bottle)
All I know about this Dutch band is that they collaborated with Tortoise once, but that's good enough for me.

The Lemonheads with Vietnam, The Hymns (Double Door)
See Thursday's listing.

12.09   saturday
Wingman (Emerald Isle)   SEE COZ LIVE!
This is your last chance to see the band in calendar year 2006. There will be a few more chances, however, to see us in fiscal year 2006, I think. Do we get to define our own fiscal year, or does that actually end before December in all cases? Anyway, it's not quite the northwest suburbs, it just feels that way.

Medeski, Scofield, Martin and Wood (The Vic)   SOLD OUT!
Being in the search engine business, I do wonder if John Scofield's record sales have benefitted at all from Prison Break's Michael Scofield character. There's probably a clever way to use paid search to piggyback on the success of similar names, if you can beat the relevance part of it.

Gov't Mule with Donavon Frankenreiter (Riviera Theatre)
To their credit, these guys don't strike me as a jam band in the vein of your Phishes and Widespread Panics. They have a certain Allman Brothers-esque feel about them. This is an XRT Concert for the Kids, which, if I'm not mistaken, means they would like you to bring a wrapped present.

In The Attic featuring Rachel Fuller and Pete Townshend (Martyrs')   SOLD OUT!
This would be the more obvious example of what I was talking about last week with regard to seeing big artists in small venues when they do side projects, but Townshend is maybe a little too big for that to sneak under anybody's radar.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Allstate Arena)
I still haven't figured out if these guys are to be taken seriously or ironically, because there's something at least mildly arresting about the bombast of Christmas music with electric guitars and drum solos. But I'm not sure it its something I should be particularly proud of.

12.10   sunday
Al DiMeola (House of Blues)
Way back when I didn't know how the music business worked, I actually asked the legendary fusion guitarist for a job. He was playing on campus, and the contact phone number was for a production company, in New Jersey. What I didn't get at the time was that his "production company" was essentially just him and his wife. At the time, I saw "company" and thought "employees." So I think I just ended up working at Marshall's and/or the music store in my home town that summer.