list.in.to.chicago this week: 05.14.2012

There's this HoZac Blackout Fest, along with a whole lot of metal shows, and the NATO conference all in the same week. Coincidence?

Pick of the week
Thursday seems to be the highlight, with Mark Lanegan at Metro and Here We Go Magic at Empty Bottle. If you like Meshuggah, you're probably way ahead of me on Tuesday night's HOB show.

list.in.to.COZ
Just regular office hours this week. Next full drumkit show will be June 2 with Diver back at Fado.

Recap
The minute I started rationalizing that Maps & Atlases would probably play their hometown of Chicago two or three more times this year, I knew I wasn't going to go. So nothing to report from non-Coz gigs this week.

5.14   monday
Robbie Fulks (Hideout)
The motif this week is "Fountains of Wayne Hancock." Should be interesting.

5.15   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
Join us this week, as we may or may not play old Journey and REO Speedwagon tunes like we did last week.

Meshuggah with Baroness, Decapitated (House of Blues)
Okay, I just read that this particular metal subgenre is starting to be called "djent," because that's the sound the chunky, muted, distortion-laden guitars make. That's awesome. Everything I hear about this band tells me I should be paying more attention to them, but apparently my metal phase is long gone.

La Sera with Videotape (Township)
This is a solo project from one of the members of Brooklyn's Vivian Girls, which seems notable because back when it was Pancho's, I don't think the booking was quite so national. Or if it was, it wasn't quite as far up the food chain. So that's probably a good thing.

Steve Winwood (Chicago Theatre)
There's a certain quality to Winwood's voice on his best-known recordings that gives me slight pause at the prospect of seeing him live twenty or thirty years later. If he can't still hit the notes, it might be a bit painful.

5.16   wednesday
Sing Along With Coz (The Globe Pub)   COZ SINGS!
Last week featured a song about all the sex and nudity on Game of Thrones, set to the show's theme song. Describing it doesn't do it justice. This week I have it on good authority that the five-piece band with the violin and the banjo will be back.

Polyphonic Spree with Sweet Lee Morrow (Park West)
I think the relentless positive vibe of the band's music overcomes the lazy cynical dismissal one might make based on the notion that it's twenty-some-odd musicians and singers of hipster descent who look like they've joined some sort of cult. The thumbnail description would be to take an indie-rock collective like Broken Social Scene and add a choir. And dress them all in long robes, naturally. They were one of my favorite sets from Lollapalooza about five years ago.

Reggie Watts (The Vic)
This guy seems to be everywhere, and I have no idea why. I feel like he's wholly a creation of talking head pop culture shows on cable.

Cranberries with Vintage Trouble (Riviera Theatre)
I know Dolores O'Riordan and crew were coming back, but didn't realize they were already back on the road. Apparently the record came out back in February. Openers Vintage Trouble played at the creative agency downstairs from my floor at work, but I missed it.

5.17   thursday
Mark Lanegan Band with Sean Wheeler & Zander Schloss, Apteka (Metro)
Lanegan's lastest may not as good as his Gutter Twins collaboration with Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs, but that's an impossibly high bar to compare it to, and the record is still really good.

Here We Go Magic with Hospitality, Dolphins (Empty Bottle)
I saw this band open for White Rabbits a couple of years ago, and said at the time that "they had this neat angular, almost dissonant thing going on, but the lead singer seemed to be forcing his eccentricity." I've listened to the new record a few times, but it hasn't really moved me one way or the other.

The Wandering with Luther Dickinson (Hideout)
Two separate projects from one of the North Mississippi All-Stars.

I Know Everything with Absolutely Not (Quencher's)
Arguably the best pairing of band names since Ratt toured with Poison back in the 80s.

5.18   friday
Michelle Shocked (SPACE, Evanston)
My enduring memory of Shocked is when she headlined an Earth Day show at the U of C with Poi Dog Pondering, and the backstage phone rang while she was getting ready to go on. So, of course, she answered it. Needless to say, we remembered to turn the ringer off after that. Also, I think the environmental group on campus advertised the show all over the city despite us telling them that we were explicitly not allowed to do that.

Chris Trapper (Schubas)
I have a friend who swears by this guy, who plays Chicago in general, and Schubas in particular, fairly often. Wikipedia says he's most known as the singer for a band called the Push Stars, but "most" is relative.

Enrique Iglesias with Gym Class Heroes, the Wanted, B.o.B., Cobra Starship, and others (Allstate Arena)
I'm going to guess "festival show for a radio station I never listen to." And Cobra Starship is still a thing? I figured they'd get fifteen minutes of fame off the "Snakes on a Plane" soundtrack and we'd never hear from them again.

The Electric Boogaloo with The Delta Saints, Brown Bag, The Heard (Reggie's Music Joint)
Okay, Time Out Chicago had this one listed as The Delta Spirit, which seemed like a weird venue and slot on the bill for a band that good. Turns out I was right.

5.19   saturday
Bonnie Raitt with Marc Cohn (Chicago Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
Since she exploded on the mainsteam music scene with all those Grammys all those years ago, Raitt has pretty much been a shining beacon of musical integrity and authenticity. I wish that didn't seem like such an anomaly in this business.

This Land is Our Land: Tom Morello, Klezmatics, Holly Near, Toshi Reagan, Son Del Viento, Jon Langford, and others (Metro)
The Rage Against the Machine guitarist is putting on a tribute to the protest music of Woody Guthrie. I'm sure the timing is a total coincidence.

Ode with Wally Dogger, Geronimo! (Beat Kitchen)
It almost sounds like country- or folk-rock, and then you realize the country and the folk origins are actually more Eastern European than American. It's an interesting twist.

5.20   sunday
Roky Erickson with Human Eye, Estrogen Highs, Bare Mutants, Medication (Empty Bottle)
The former singer of the 13th Floor Elevators headlines the last night of the Blackout Fest.

Bonnie Raitt with Marc Cohn (Chicago Theatre)
See Saturday's listing. Tickets still available.