list.in.to.chicago this week: 04.25.2011

Maybe it's just me, but I wanted Arcade Fire to cover The Fratellis last night as an encore, seeing as how the Blackhawks put it away pretty late in their set. And you know they had it on backstage.

Pick of the week
Kind of a good week for post-rock, with Maserati at Empty Bottle on Monday and then Mogwai at Metro and El Ten Eleven at Bottom Lounge, both on Friday.

Despite the fact that I'm going to see two others this week (The Foals at Metro on Tuesday and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart at Lincoln Hall on Thursday), the one show I'd pick out if I could only see one is Femi Kuti on Saturday night, except that I can't go to that one because of a gig.

On the local front, the CD release from Cameron McGill and What Army on Friday night at Schubas is shaping up to be kind of a big deal, but that may be because I'm friends with a strong advocate of his on Facebook who has been promoting the crap out of it.

list.in.to.COZ
Unless you're attending a Casino Night fundraiser on Saturday Night -- and I know some of you are -- you've just got Wednesday night at The Globe this week, and maybe Tuesday at Vaughan's, if we're not all just watching hockey.

Recap
Okay, so when I said I didn't see any shows last week, I totally lied. I did catch Ghosts of Eastwood at Stanley's on Thursday night, which was basically an acoustic revue of 90s alternative rock, with that kickass acoustic version of "Dead Man Walking" from David Bowie thrown in for good measure.

And the big show this past week was last night at UIC Pavilion with Arcade Fire and The National. I've seen the latter already, so I don't think I learned anything new about them in a vocal-heavy mix that muddied up most of the rest of the band.

The headliners were very good, but nothing short of transcendent would get them close to the level of hype about their live show. They almost got there at the end of the main set, with the urgent, primal groove of "Neighborhood #3" bleeding over into "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" as a set-closer and then informing the postlude of "Ready to Start" as the first song of the encore.

4.25   monday
Booty Movement Coalition (Martyrs')   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Last Monday of the month, and now it's probably been close to a year since I went to see the improvised funk/rock/soul/hip-hop collective. I suck.

Maserati with Twin Tigers, Brontosaurus (Empty Bottle)
Apparently the post-rock band lost their drummer recently, but released his last record with the band and are soldiering on without him in support of it.

Arcade Fire with The National (UIC Pavlion)   SOLD OUT!
I would add that it's a neat trick that this band seems to successfully pull off the unlikely role of earnest hipsters. Maybe because they're Canadian?

4.26   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
There's a better than average chance that I'll drop by after Metro, in which case I may need to brush up on "Chelsea Dagger," just in case. Probably a non-zero chance they bag it for the hockey anyways.

The Foals with Freelance Whales, The Naked and Famous (Metro)   SOLD OUT!
I've had tickets to see this trio of up-and-comers since well before the NHL playoffs started, but on the plus side, it's all-ages, so with the Blackhawks playing in Vancouver, I should still get to see most of Game 7.

4.27   wednesday
Sing Along With Coz (The Globe Pub)   COZ SINGS!
Last week we moved the proceedings up to the front bar, which seems like it may happen more often than not when there's low turnout of both performers and weeknight drinkers.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart with Twin Shadow, Weakness (Lincoln Hall)
Like everybody else, I had this band pegged as twee indie-pop, so all the shoegazer-ish distorted guitars on the new record definitely threw me. But in a good way. First of two shows, and this one is all ages.

4.28   thursday
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart with Twin Shadow, Weakness (Lincoln Hall)
The 21 and over show of the two-night stand is inexplicibly omitted on Metromix, which is a bit of a concern, as I rely on that site more than anything else in compiling this list.

James Blunt with Christina Perri (The Vic)
The singer-songwriter's show has been moved from the Riviera. I guess the Riv too close to one side of the street while the Vic is closer to the middle of the road, where Blunt is most comfortable. Yes, I stole that joke from Craig Kilborn.

4.29   friday
Mogwai with Errors (Metro)
Apparently, the atmostpheric Scottish quintet scored a film several years ago that was just footage from 17 cameras all trained on Zenedine Zidane during a soccer match.

Cameron McGill and What Army with Miles Nielsen, Adam Arcuragi (Schubas)
His early efforts tacked a bit too hard towards the sad-sack singer-songwriter, but that was upwards of ten years ago, and McGill's been steadily improving since then, to the point where some people are really starting to talk about him as a breakthrough local artist.

Chris Buehrle Band with Mer, Soulfix (Cubby Bear Wrigleyville)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Andrew Fraker & Sons have shared bills with Buehrle before, I think, and it's also a rare sighting of Soulfix bringing the rock. And maybe even the "rawk."

Nicholas Barron and the Transient Sound Players (Morseland)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Love "the Transient Sound Players!" I'm guessing Steve and Vijay, at the very least.

El Ten Eleven (Bottom Lounge)
Now this is a guitar and drums duo I can get behind, seeing as how they'll use bass/guitar doublenecks, loop pedals, electronic drums and all sorts of other clever tricks to build out their sound.

4.30   saturday
Femi Kuti and the Positive Force with DJ Wrap (Metro)
The son of the late Femi Kuti has put out some solid Afropop records of his own over the past decade, and you know how much I love Afropop. If I didn't have a gig, I'd almost will myself into a bad mood so this show could cheer me up.

Battles (Lincoln Hall)   SOLD OUT!
They split with one of their main guys -- nominally their "vocalist," and you'll understand the qualifier and the quotes if you've heard them before -- at some point after the first full-length record, but I don't think that's going to slow down the tripply, angular, math-rock riffs and propulsive drumming, the latter courtesy of former Helmet drummer John Stanier. And Gary Numan is a guest on the new record?

Deftones with The Dillinger Escape Plan, Funeral Party (Riviera Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
Hands down, they're one of the few quality bands to come out of that dismal period of aggro, "active rock" that followed the alt-rock of the 90s.

Colin Hay with Chris Trapper (Park West)
Who can it be, playing at this show?

Brighton MA witih Dax Riggs (Beat Kitchen)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
So, the last time we played at Cubby Bear, the sound guy pointed out that not only did we know each other, but we had actually played some shows together many years ago. That sound guy is in Brighton MA.

Mannequin Men with E+, Sleepy Kitty (Empty Bottle)   FRIENDS OF COZ?
I know I've either talked to someone in this band at The Globe, or talked to someone who knows someone in this band at The Globe, but I can't remember for the life of me who it was.

5.01   sunday
Local H with The Weeks (Metro)
I told you about how I played one of those Potbelly's gigs at the Merchandise Mart years ago, and missed playing "Bound For The Floor" while Scott Lucas was in the room by about 15 minutes, right?

Nicholas Barron Trio (Temple Bar)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
So, I guess Shawn isn't at the studio often enough to be considered one of the "Transient Sound Players," although, for all I know, they changed the name here, too.