list.in.to.chicago this week: 08.31.2009

It's Steely Dan week! It's Jazz Festival weekend! Why am I using so many exclamation points?!

Pick of the week
If you're a Steely Dan fan, this is a good week for you, with four shows from Monday through Friday at the Chicago Theatre, taking Wednesday off. The Dave Holland Big Band will certainly be worth the price of admission (hint: it's free) on Saturday night at the Jazz Festival in Grant Park. And I'll probably be at Martyrs' tonight for Booty Movement Coalition.

list.in.to.COZ
It's going to be just Vaughan's on Tuesday night for a couple of weeks. I know, it'll be hard for me, too.

Recap
Monday night didn't seem much better or worse to me than the two other times I've seen Pearl Jam. They do their thing, do it well, and past that, I have a hard time pulling out any nuance from song choices, etc. I did notice one Tony Williams-esque drum fill from Matt Cameron during the extended guitar solo on "Evenflow," which was cool.

Nine Inch Nails had a bit more impact on Saturday night, but it was a smaller venue, the band is just a bit more intense, and it's more of a full audio/visual spectacle. It seemed like a good show for the hardcore NIN fan, because there were a whole lot of songs I didn't recognize. I'm not sure if that was a factor in the high point for me actually being a David Bowie song ("I'm Afraid of Americans"). Openers Mew had by far the strangest videos accompanying their music that I've ever seen, and I've seen Tool a lot, so that's saying something. I liked their set, though, and was probably one of few people in the audience who was actually looking forward to it, and not just to it ending.

In between those two was the big Andrew Fraker & Sons show at the Double Door, which we think rocked pretty hard. I was cranky because one of the other drummers had adjusted my setup more than is customary in these drumkit-sharing situations, but I think that both he and the guy who played my drums after we finished were just young and didn't understand how these things are supposed to work. The upshot is that I tend to play with a lot of intensity when I'm in a bad mood, so that may have contributed to the energy.

8.31   monday
Steely Dan with Sam Yahel (Chicago Theatre)
Playing albums in their entirety seems to be the new black among some artists as of late, and Donald Fagen and Walter Becker get in on the action with four shows in five nights this week. The first of these will feature their 1976 record Aja, which contains the hits "Peg" and "Deacon Blues," along with the Steve Gadd tour de force that is the title track.

Booty Movement Coalition (Martyrs')
Almost forgot that it's the last Monday of the month, which means two sets of improvised music rooted in funk and R&B, but usually ending up somewhere quite different.

9.01   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
After Saturday's NIN show, I have half a mind to try arranging "Head Like A Hole" for acoustic guitar, but there's a pretty good chance that won't happen.

The Allman Brothers Band with Widespread Panic (Charter One Pavilion)
You know how some nights, the smell of chocolate from the Blommer factory spreads across the Loop? I get the feeling we'll sort of have that on Tuesday, but with patchouli and pot.

Van Ghost (Welles Park)
I feel like I've heard of these guys, but a quick trip to the website sets off no memory cues. They do call themselves "Chicago's Americana Rock Band," which makes me wonder how they stack up against the Fraker band. Not that I'm competitive or anything.

Steely Dan with Sam Yahel (Chicago Theatre)
Same deal as Monday night, with the second full-record feature being Gaucho.

9.02   wednesday
Tributosaurus (Martyrs')   FRIENDS OF COZ!
It's a rare week when we get the last Monday of one month and the first Wednesday of another in the same week, so it's a banner week for recurring Martyrs' gigs. One of these days, I'll ask these guys if I can sit in again. This month, Jimi Hendrix.

The Allman Brothers Band with Widespread Panic (Charter One Pavilion)
See Tuesday's listing. And I had no idea Widespread Panic still existed, but they never had a compelling reason to exist in the first place, so why should it be any different now? To continue a private conversation I had last week in public, I have a certain amount of respect for the Allman Brothers among jam bands, mostly because they've been doing it since back before it got all trendy in the early 90s, with a bit more edge than, say, the Grateful Dead.

9.03   thursday
Chicago Jazz Ensemble (Pritzker Pavilion)
It's an early evening start for the local repertory big band, who will be playing the music of Benny Goodman this time out. I'm guessing this may serve as a sort of unofficial kickoff to the Jazz Festival.

Steely Dan with Sam Yahel (Chicago Theatre)
After a night off, it's The Royal Scam, with special guest Larry Carlton on guitar. I think this is the only show he's playing of the four.

9.04   friday
Chicago Jazz Festival (Grant Park)
Mainstage acts on the first night of the 31st annual celebration include vocalist Madeleine Peyroux and pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and his quintet. I remember seeing Rubalcaba play solo on the Petrillo stage about a million years ago at the Jazz Fest. Local guitarist and member of Tortoise Jeff Parker opens up the Petrillo Music Shell lineup at 5pm.

ZZ Top (House of Blues)
Either these guys have fallen pretty far, or there's some sort of promotional tie-in. The Texas trio is rooted heavily enough in the blues that they probably age much better than other bands you might remember from MTV when you were a kid, and that's not really a fair characterization of them, anyway. They just sort of ran with it when it happened.

The Hood Internet with Blane Fonda, Panda Riot (Metro)
This is the 6th anniversary party for Gapers Block, one of the oldest group blogs in and about Chicago. Free admission if you get there before 9:30pm, or so I've been led to believe.

Steely Dan with Sam Yahel (Chicago Theatre)
The last night of the run will feature the band playing requests solicited over the Internet.

9.05   saturday
Chicago Jazz Festival (Grant Park)
The Dave Holland Big Band headlines the second night of the festival. And it seems like the music scene slows down a bit for the Labor day weekend, because there's not much else to choose from that's particularly notable. If I'm missing something, feel free to let me know.

9.06   sunday
Chicago Jazz Festival (Grant Park)
Nobody jumps out at me out of the day three lineup, but if the weather's nice, you could do a lot worse than hang out on the lakefront listening to jazz.