list.in.to.chicago this week: 07.23.2007

Apparently the second Deep Purple show at House of Blues, scheduled for tonight, has been canceled. If you can somehow spin that into a "Smoke On The Water" joke, either via e-mail or in the comments below, you could win a list.in.to.chicago t-shirt, if such a thing existed. I reserve the right to deem any and all entries "not funny."

Also, I've got an extra ticket for Incubus on Wednesday night. E-mail me if you're interested.

Pick of the week
The show I'd be most interested in seeing is the one I am seeing, and that's Incubus at Northerly Island on Wednesday, which will be my first time at that venue.

list.in.to.COZ
It's been nearly a month since our last Diver gig, and we break that silence with a Saturday night appearance at Fado.

Recap
A sweaty, energetic and entertaining show from Maximo Park started the week, with lead singer Paul Smith reminding me a bit of a young Bob Geldof and the songs reminding me a bit of a less obtuse Futureheads. Probably the best thing I can say about opening act Monsters Are Waiting is that they did not sound at all out of character covering Stone Roses.

The Zappa Plays Zappa show on Friday was fantastic, with an eminently capable band faithfully recreating over three hours of Dweezil's dad's music. Frank was such an archivist that they were able to use isolated video and audio tracks to effectively have the late composer join the band for about half a dozen songs. Dweezil's guitar playing has grown by leaps and bounds, and special guest Ray White was in fine form.

Last night I caught Cowboy Mouth at Sheffield Garden Walk, and if you have to ask the audience to scream and clap along for every song, you may be covering for some inadequacies in the material that the addition of former Daily Show correspondent Vance Degeneres (brother of Ellen) can't overcome. And there's no doubt in my mind that the drummer/lead singer of the group has a history in musical theater.

7.23   monday
Sounds of the Underground (Congress Theatre)
Even if I had gotten this week's edition out on time, this show would have been half-over by the time you read this. Or half-begun if you like seriously heavy music. With Gwar, Shadows Fall, Chimaira, Every Time I Die, Mushroomhead, Necro, Job For A Cowboy, Darkest Hour, Amon Amarth, The Acacia Strain, The Devil Wears Prada, Heavy Heavy Low Low, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Goatwhore, This Is Hell, 2 Cents.

7.24   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
So, David Beckham made his brief and largely inconsequential debut with the Los Angeles Galaxy over the weekend, not that there's been any news coverage or anything. So bonus points for anything from Beck, Jeff Beck, or that one XTC tune with the line "all the world is football-shaped."

Adema with Royal, ADD, Turning Point (Double Door)
I distinctly remember this hard rock band playing at Double Door about three or four years ago. I don't think it's a case of them being on the way up and now on the way down, but rather that this is just where they are and where they'll continue to be. Not everybody gets to be a superstar.

7.25   wednesday
Incubus with Simon Dawes (Charter One Pavilion)
The California rock band's star seems to have waned a bit since the breakout hit "Drive," and I'll admit that their most recent record, Light Grenades, was pretty uneven, but I still think they are head and shoulders above most other hard rock out there. They've become pretty solid songwriters.

Ben Kweller (Schubas)   SOLD OUT!
No surprise that this show is sold out, as Kweller was clearly a big selling point for those two shows with Gomez back in March, and The Vic is four or five times the size of Schubas.

Jimmy Eat World with Maria Taylor (Park West)   SOLD OUT!
Have I told you the story of the overnight train in Korea during the World Cup where we woke up to some radio program that was explaining the lyrics to "The Middle"? I have? Okay.

Michael Bublé (Auditorium Theatre)
Would it be wrong to say I've seen this guy's name "bubbling" around the music world? It would? Okay. In retrospect, I felt like I was unfair to Harry Connick, Jr. when he first came on the scene, seeing him as too derivative of Frank Sinatra, but I guess you've got to start somewhere, so I'll give this new guy the benefit of the doubt. For now.

Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo with Lennon (House of Blues)
Where did bands from the 70s and 80s play in Chicago before we had the House of Blues?

Grinderman with Digital Primitives (Metro)
When is Nick Cave and Bad Seeds not Nick Cave and Bad Seeds? When they're Grinderman, apparently.

7.26   thursday
Marc Ford with Steepwater Band, The Sleepers (Double Door)
I've been told that I would be remiss if I didn't mention Ford, the former lead guitarist for The Black Crowes, and apparently the kind of thing you'd like if you're a Crowes fan.

Colin Hay with Down The Line, Mark Minelli (Abbey Pub)
This month we get the lead singer from Men At Work. Next month (I think), we get the lead singer from Wall of Voodoo at Double Door. Gotta love it.

Kill Hannah (Metro)
On the one hand, it gets increasingly incongruous for this band to sing about things that resonate with teenagers. On the other, I have a hard time seeing fans growing old with them, but the Chicago band had confounded me for a while now.

O.A.R. with Augustana (Charter One Pavilion)
It's going to take a minor miracle to disabuse me of the notion that this band is anything more than boring, bland frat rock. Now that I've annoyed or offended fans of Cowboy Mouth and O.A.R. -- and I'm guessing there's overlap -- let's move on to Friday, shall we?

7.27   friday
Smoking Popes with You Am I, Four Star Alarm (Double Door)
Given the amount of local love for the reformed Popes, especially following their Lollapalooza turn last summer, I would have expected them to play a somewhat bigger room than Double Door.

The Thermals with The Dials, Patience Please (Subterranean)
I've written about The Dials before, who are the undercard on this bill with The Thermals, another one of those ubiquitous local bands I don't think I've ever seen.

Ghostface Killah with Rhythm Roots All-Stars, DJ Ayres (Metro)
I thought the Wu-Tang alum played Pitchfork last weekend, but apparently he played Intonation last year, which I didn't attend, and Coachella this year, which I also didn't attend.

Colin Hay with Down The Line, Mark Minelli (Abbey Pub)
See Thursday's listing.

7.28   saturday
Diver (Fado)   SEE COZ LIVE!
It's not like you're going to learn anything new about us as a band, but Fado shows tend to be fun in and of themselves, just because you get some of that freakish River North scene. Seriously, I walked around there after Dweezil on Friday, and it's like a whole other universe from what I'm used to. Plus, everything else seems to be sold out.

Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival (Toyota Park, Bridgeview)   SOLD OUT!
If you were able to get a ticket to this all-day event, you should be getting a heck of a bang for your buck. I just don't know how a slate of artists that includes Clapton, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Sheryl Crow, Los Lobos and others is going to work if anyone is going to play for more than 15 minutes. And you may want to drop by Buddy Guy's Legends later in the evening, just in case.

High On Fire with Don Caballero, Indian (Subterranean)
Remember back when stoner rock was going to be the next thing? And how the notion of motivating stoners to get off their couches and buy records seemed kind of silly at the time?

The Swell Season with Catherine Irwin (Old Town School of Folk Music)   SOLD OUT!
If you've seen the critically acclaimed movie Once, you've heard The Swell Season, which is the collaboration between Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, who also play the lead roles in that movie.

The Headhunters with The New Mastersounds (Double Door)
This is the fusion band originally associated with keyboardist Herbie Hancock and best known for the jazz/funk standard "Chameleon."

7.29   sunday
Nicholas Barron's Hyperactive (Long Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Jason, one of the owners of Long Room, was recently profiled as one of Chicago's hottest singles or some such in Chicago Magazine. Whether you take this information and congratulate him, make fun of him or hit on him is your decision.