list.in.to.chicago this week: 12.10.2007

As you read this, the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin will have probably just finished their first show since Live Aid, depending on your definition of "just finished."

Cool.

Pick of the week
If you dig both local and somewhat experimental music, the Thrill Jockey Records 15th Anniversary Celebration (Friday and Saturday at Logan Square Auditorium) seems like a pretty good bet. And if you can find tickets, Motion City Soundtrack (Saturday and Sunday at House of Blues) puts on a good show. As for me, you're most likely to find me checking out Sybris on Friday at Empty Bottle.

list.in.to.COZ
Having visited the southwest suburbs, it's time to give the north suburbs some love, as Diver plays Cubby Bear North in Lincolnshire on Saturday.

Recap
I actually pulled off a doubleheader on Saturday, checking out The Redwalls and Jonathan Rice at Metro -- I got there too late for The Whigs -- before heading over to Schubas for the late show from Jonathan Coulton with Paul and Storm.

Apparently Rice is (or was, I forget) joined at the hip with Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis, but what stood out more than his songwriting was his lead guitarist when he would play slide. A friend said he was from L.A., I think, but the songs drew more from the SoCal desert than the city. The Redwalls had a good sound -- they seem to be making the shift from sounding like their influences to sounding like themselves, but with influences -- but I'd be hard-pressed to remember any of the tunes. And if someone can tell me I'd be a better drummer if I had cooler hair (true story!), I can say that I would like the lead singer better if he wouldn't accessorize quite so much.

Schubas was probably the nerdiest audience I've ever seen in my life, and that includes all the Zappa- and Crimson-related shows. This was a different kind of nerd, in that you have a lot of bloggers and programmers, instead of the "basement dwellers" of prog-rock fandom. Paul and Storm seemed almost painfully nerdy, but I found myself laughing at their songs and musical parody interludes pretty loudly. And Coulton is stunning in his ability to weave pretty much anything into a lyric that is both evocative and witty. I'm not creative like that at all.

12.10   monday
Dizastro with Tim Cummings (Elbo Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Between Steve Frisbie and Ben Zastro, I seem to know more people with peculiar last names that inform the names of their bands than most people.

12.11   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell you this, but there's a "Customer Appreciation" party immediately preceding this week's open jam with free food and drinks. That might help tip the scale for me actually showing up instead of going and playing soccer.

Aimee Mann's 2nd Annual Christmas Show (The Vic)
Apparently, this is a really low-key, sort of freewheeling event, featuring the likes of comedian Paul F. Tompkins in support.

The Lemonheads with Racoon, The New Rivals (Double Door)
Evan Dando refuses to go away, and now he's apparently got two guys who used to be in The Descendents playing in the band. Fans of URT might remember that The Descendents were one of several touchstones for that band, in that Gene was a really big fan.

12.12   wednesday
Silverchair with Silversun Pickups, Strata (House of Blues)   SOLD OUT!
This is the only night of Q101's "Twisted Christmas" that I'm teasing out this week, if only because Silversun Pickups is pretty good, and to point out that Twisted Christmas has gone from three nights at the Aragon a couple of years ago to three nights at House of Blues. That's about an 80% reduction in capacity, so feel free to start opining about the continued death of the "active rock" format.

Mt. St. Helens with Ozark Cousins, Driftless Pony Club, May Or May Not, Sleep Out, Kris Racer, Dialogue, Post Honeymoon (Schubas)
Isn't this an awful lot of bands for a Wednesday night? I hope anyone who goes to this one is wearing comfortable shoes.

The Lemonheads with Racoon, The New Rivals (Double Door)
See Tuesday's listing.

12.13   thursday
The Bon Mots with The Gnomes, Le Concorde, DJ STV SLV   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Part of the reason Frantisak gets so many unseen shout-outs is that he's in about eighteen different bands. I'm paralyzed by all the choices. Yeah, that's it.

Shellac with The Bitter Tears (Hideout)
Chicago's favorite malcontented studio rat is doing a whole string of shows at the Hideout, and I know that the "online tickets" sold out a while ago. I don't know how many non-online tickets exist, and whether or not they're still available.

Tautologic with Sean Hanna (Wise Fools Pub)
Good to see Ethan still plugging away with his prog rock, assuming this is the same Tautologic that started up in the mid-90s.

12.14   friday
Sybris with Headlights, Reds and Blue (Empty Bottle)
The stars may have aligned and I'll actually get out to see this band. Those of you who have been reading this list for a long time might remember that I caught about a song and a half of an opening set at Metro more than three years ago, and have been meaning to see them ever since.

Thrill Jockey Records 15th Anniversary Celebration (Logan Square Auditorium)
What, no Tortoise? Day 1 features Arbouretum, Archer Prewitt, Bobby Conn, Brokeback, Fiery Furnaces, Fred Anderson, School of Language, The Sea and Cake and Thalia Zedek.

J. Davis Trio with Sidewalk Skolaz (Abbey Pub)
Another one of those venerable Chicago acts that seem like they've been around forever. Otherwise, they wouldn't really be venerable, would they? Anyway, J. Davis' particularly sparse, almost laconic acid jazz represents one of the very few remaining acts from that acid jazz period in the late 90s in Chicago.

Duran Duran with Pat Monahan, Sara Bareilles (Chicago Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
The new record from the new wave poster boys is getting savaged pretty badly, but if you're basing your decision to see Duran Duran on the quality of their new material, you're distinctly in the minority.

Shellac with Tight Phantomz (Hideout)
See Thursday's listing.

12.15   saturday
Diver (Cubby Bear North)   SEE COZ LIVE!
I'm pretty sure this is a trio show up in Linconshire, and I have nothing else remotely witty to say about it.

Motion City Soundtrack with Mae, Anberlin, Metro Station (House of Blues)   SOLD OUT!
I enjoyed these Warped Tour veteran pop-punkers quite a bit at Lollapalooza this past summer, but I'm not quite as crazy about them on record, which puts them in the same category as LCD Soundsystem. Aside from not sounding anything like them.

Randy Brecker (Andy's Jazz Club)
I don't know if his tenor saxophonist brother Michael's death gives the jazz trumpeter's show more or less urgency, as I would like to think that it was more of an isolated incident than an indication that even the jazz luminaries who came in post-Bitches Brew are starting to leave us as well.

Thrill Jockey Records 15th Anniversary Celebration (Logan Square Auditorium)
Day 2 features ADULT., Eleventh Dream Day, Frequency, Pit er Pat, Califone, Trans Am and The Zincs. I'm guessing Tortoise just couldn't make the schedule work, as they'll be here at the end of the month with Umphrey's Magee.

The Verve Pipe with Michael McDermott, Ryan Powers (Double Door)
Not to be confused with The Verve, the band that brought us one of the landmark albums in the Diver canon, Urban Hymns, along with the hit "Bittersweet Symphony." That Verve was supposed to be reuniting for a UK tour, but I don't know what ever happened there.

Shellac with Allroh, Bearclaw (Hideout)
Actually, an early and a late show, with Allroh on the matinee and Bearclaw on the nightcap.

12.16   sunday
Ozzy Osbourne with Rob Zombie (Allstate Arena)
I actually saw some TV spots for this show, and Ozzy seemed much more lucid when he was singing than I would have expected giving his speaking voice, but then again, the same could be said of Shane MacGowan, right?

Randy Brecker (Andy's Jazz Club)
See Saturday's listing.

Motion City Soundtrack with Mae, Anberlin, Metro Station (House of Blues)   SOLD OUT!
See Saturday's listing.

Shellac with Helen Money, Quatre Tete (Hideout)
See Saturday's listing, as it's another pair of shows with different openers. I guess maybe Steve Albini has a bunch of married friends with kids now, as the start time is listed as noon for those early shows.