list.in.to.chicago this week: 05.17.2010

There was a weird convergence of topics this week, as a former classmate of mine has been posting videos on Facebook of our high school marching band. It just so happens that we had one band fundraiser where we were able to get a free record as a reward for our participation, and the album I picked was The Last In Line from Ronnie James Dio. Rest in peace. A moment of silence would be totally inappropriate.

Pick of the week
I'll be at Them Crooked Vultures at the Aragon on Tuesday and Metric at the Vic on Thursday, and tickets are still available for the latter. Also, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings at The Vic on Friday may be as close to a sure thing as you're gonna get.

list.in.to.COZ
Playing with Tony again Saturday night at one of the more traditional Irish pubs I've seen in Chicago, by which I mean they have a fireplace and no TVs.

Recap
So, I couldn't go to that Stick Men show on Saturday, but I did see Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto walking down Lincoln Avenue as I was heading out to The Curragh. I thought about honking and waving before I remembered that, just because I have records they play on, it doesn't mean they know who I am.

5.17   monday
Robbie Fulks with Jim DeWan (Hideout)
The residency continues for Fulks, but DeWan is a name I probably haven't heard in at least ten years. Now I just have to figure out why. All I can find online is a connection to the Old Town School of Folk Music, but I know he used to be in a local band.

5.18   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I'm going to be at the Aragon, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't stop in and say hi to Tony, Monica, and whoever else is along for the ride this week.

Them Crooked Vultures with Alberta Cross (Aragon Ballroom)   SOLD OUT!
The one word a lot of people like using when describing this "supergroup" is swagger, and it's a pretty good word to use. Somehow, combining Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age gives you something that sounds like a slinky version of Cream. I've also heard that they seem to be having a whole lot of fun when they play live, so I'm looking forward to that.

Nickelback with Breaking Benjamin, Shinedown, Sick Puppies (Allstate Arena)
If you're going to this show, we can't be friends anymore. I'm sorry. Unless you're bringing pickles to throw at the band. In case you weren't on Facebook last year, somebody created a page called something like "I bet this pickle can get more fans than Nickelback." And it did. It also wrote much better songs.

5.19   wednesday
Sing Along With Coz (The Globe Pub)   COZ SINGS!
The name might make you think it's karaoke, but it's really just an open mic. Although it could be karaoke if you wanted it to. Even if you don't play an instrument or sing, you get to hear me stretch out the songbook and play bunches and bunches of songs that weren't really meant for acoustic guitar. And yet I find some way to make it work.

Shuttle with Clique Talk, Bear and Bell, ANR (Empty Bottle)
This is notable because I only just read about a genre of music called "dubstep" for the first time about twenty minutes ago, and then I stumbled across a description of this show from the drummer of the indie band Passion Pit that put it in precisely that category.

5.20   thursday
Metric with Bear In Heaven (The Vic)
Female-fronted, well-written and a bit synth-heavy could also be used to describe It's Blitz from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and to be fair, this Canadian band is sort of a streamlined, slightly new wave version of that same kind of sound. I suspect that Emily Haines won't be as over the top as Karen O, though.

Miles Nielsen with Gary Louris (Lincoln Hall)
The son of Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen comes in from Rockford to open a show at the Lincoln Park venue.

Chaka Khan (Harris Theater)
A lot of people my age might only know Chaka Khan from her more straight-up disco material, and not realize the role she played in the serious R&B from the seventies. The show in the Millennium Park space is an hour, followed by a reception of some sort.

5.21   friday
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, The Heavy (The Vic)
I almost didn't make it to see Jones at Lollapalooza a couple of years ago, but I'm so happy I did. With a bunch of younger musicians backing her up, there's a slight fear that the band might just be aping the soul bands of the sixties and seventies without really capturing the essence of the music as it was meant to be played, but that fear goes away almost immediately once they get started. This is the real deal.

Maybenauts with Sonnets, Safes, Penthouse Sweets, Gidgets Ga Ga, TAFKA Vince, Tenniscourts (Darkroom)
I've said some nice things about The Maybenauts in the past, and got a very nice e-mail in return. The really easy parallel to draw with them, if I remember correctly, is X. There's certainly a bit of a noir post-punk thing going on. This is a CD release party with a whole bunch of other notable Chicago bands, and should be a solid night all around.

Voxtrot (Lincoln Hall)
This is apparently the farewell tour for the Austin band, which is already described in the past tense on Wikipedia.

Susan Voelz with Helen Money, Peg Simone (Hideout)
I'm not sure if she actually lives in Chicago, but she's here often enough that the violinist/songwriter might as well. Her website says there's a new record coming out soon with arrangements of Prince tunes, but with her last blog entry on the site being in 2008, I'm not sure how up-to-date the bio page is. The teaser for this gig lists it as "strings, loops, voices." Sounds good to me.

5.22   saturday
Tony and Coz from Diver (Celtic Crossing)   SEE COZ LIVE!
So, I've consulted with some people who think Tony and I constitute "Essential Diver," while Tony and Anto are "Acoustic Diver." I'm not sure that I'm more essential than Anto. And it's mostly been the case that we still call the three-person versions just "Diver." Yeah, I think about this way too much.

Crash Test Dummies with Rob Morsberger (Martyrs')
This band has the honor of being the band with the highest ratio of people who know the band compared to people who remember the name of the band. If you don't believe me, steer any conversation towards bands with singers that have really deep voices, because it will inevitably result in "oh, and what was that one band with that 'Mmm Mmm Mmm' song?"

Big Science with Bailiff, Poison Arrows (Subterranean)
I'm going to repeat my assessment that these guys sorta remind me of The Cure, particularly with their guitar sound, until I get around to seeing them again.

5.23   sunday
Imogen Heap with Geese (Riviera Theatre)
The British electronica singer is pretty well-regarded, and I think she sold out a show in a smaller venue within the last six months or so.

Midlake with Jason Lytle, John Grant (Lincoln Hall)
This is one of those indie bands that lots and lots of people were talking about either last year or the year after that, but I didn't really think lived up to the hype. Usually, that means they go too far in either the electronic direction or the lo-fi direction. Not sure what happen if you tried to go in both those directions at once.