list.in.to.chicago this week: 06.18.2012

So, yeah, apparently I've decided Mondays are optional.

Pick of the week
My recommendation for this week is to clone yourself so you can see more than one of the shows this Sunday. Yikes.

Failing that, Foster the People (Wednesday and Thursday) should be as fun a time as you can have at the Congress, anyway. And prog rock fans have both Marillion (Friday and Saturday at Park West) and the Crimson Projekct (opening for Dream Theater on Saturday at Chicago Theatre).

list.in.to.COZ
Did you know that almost the whole point of this list was for me to promote shows I'm playing without making it just about me, me, me? To that end, Diver is at Fado on Saturday. Regular office hours should be in effect, although tonight may be a game-time decision.

Recap
Very little time for shows last week, as I was neck-deep in work and then only narrowly escaped to Virginia for a long weekend with the family. I did manage to see Patton Oswalt do stand-up, though. He was about as funny as I expected. Not gut-busting, but still good.

6.19   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
So, we may have to acknowledge that Styx/REO Speedwagon show happening at the end of the week.

Laura Marling with Willy Mason (Athenaeum Theatre)
If the name sounds familiar, you may have seen her open for Florence & The Machine on this last go-round. Or you might know someone who did.

M13 with the Ryan Shultz Quintet (Quencher's)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
As drummer Tom Hipskind so aptly put it over on Facebook, "come for the jazz, stay for the jazz!"

6.20   wednesday
Sing Along With Coz (The Globe Pub)   COZ SINGS!
Last week I remembered that if attendance thins out over the course of the night, I need to start messing around with my loop pedal. And not just to make it seem like someone is still playing while I go grab a beer, although that's an obvious perk.

Foster The People with Tokyo Police Club, Kimbra (Congress Theater)
This has to be the concert of the moment for sure, between the ubiquity of "Pumped Up Kicks" and Kimbra singing on "Somebody That I Used To Know." Of course, outside of that, I have absolutely no idea who Kimbra is. Her inclusion on that song, at least on paper, did not move me one way or the other.

Mogwai with Balam Acab, Umberto (Metro)
I went on a major post-rock kick about ten years ago, at which point I loaded up on bands like Mogwai, Maserati and Pele, but haven't been giving that kind of stuff as much attention lately. Maybe it deserves another listen.

The Romantics with The English Beat (House of Blues)
Okay, so the English Beat is no surprise -- Dave Wakeling plays Chicago at least four or five times a year. I'm almost surprised we haven't seen more of The Romantics on the 80s nostalgia circuit, seeing as how they rather famously signed away the rights to their music and barely made a dime off of their two biggest hits, if I remember correctly.

Valient Thorr with Holy Grail, Royal Thunder, Kickass (Double Door)
If you were going to go to a show this week based on band names alone, this would have to be the one. With monikers like these, you absolutely have to deliver on the promise, don't you?

Lisa Marie Presley (Bottom Lounge)
Yeah, I don't know what to make of this one, either.

6.21   thursday
Japandroids, Cadence Weapon (Lincoln Hall)
I figure we've got another good three or four years of largely indistinguishable lo-fi garage rock duos until we collectively get tired of it. Thanks, White Stripes and Black Keys!

Bootsy Collins with DJ Nostalgia (Cubby Bear)
On August 21, 1993, longtime P-Funk bassist Bootsy Collins went for a stroll through the crowd at the China Club back when it was an actual club, and not condos, and he gave me a high-five. It was pretty awesome, albeit an hour or two shorter than the P-Funk show I saw at the same venue. Thanks, Google, for the details!

Skid Row with Downtread (House of Blues)
This can't be a coincidence. Thanks, "Rock of Ages!"

Foster The People with Tokyo Police Club, Kimbra (Congress Theater)
There might be tickets for one of these, but probably not both. Thanks, Wednesday's listing!

6.22   friday
Marillion with Sun Domingo (Park West)
There was something about the Fish-era band that kept me at arm's length when he was replaced by Steve Hogarth all the way back in the late 80s, but the prog band has managed to carry on successfully without me, and is about to release their seventeenth studio album. I'll come around eventually.

Motion City Soundtrack with Henry Clay People, Front Bottoms (Lincoln Hall)
I really enjoyed the high-energy pop-punk these guys were dishing out when I saw them three or four years ago, but on record, all the rough edges seem to have been buffed out, leaving it sounding just a little too blatantly commercial.

Keane with Patrick Watson (The Vic)
The English band has been hit or miss with their last couple of records, but there are a few keepers on the new one. I also think that the drum tech who died in the stage collapse at that Radiohead show over the weekend may have teched for Keane as well, as I read that they paid tribute to him at a show a day or two ago.

Dinosaur Jr. with Innkeepers (Subterranean)
Piggybacking off of their Green Festival appearance, it's one of the grunge era's more accomplished guitarists in J. Mascis.

Aerosmith with Cheap Trick (United Center)
I thought Steven Tyler and the band weren't speaking to each other? Or have I not been keeping up in the comings and goings of classic rock bands and singing contest judges?

6.23   saturday
DIVER (Fado Irish Pub)
We have this tendency to learn songs on the spot lately, which keeps things fresh, and opens up the potential for massive train wrecks, which are fun to watch.

Raveonettes with Secret Colours (Subterranean)
Also in advance of their Green Festival appearance. I have a friend who has seen this band at least a dozen times, so I'm curious if he's making it to both shows this weekend. They originally seemed like a novelty act, on account of that one album entirely in B minor, but the songs have been reliably catchy throughout.

Green Music Fest (Damen between North and Schiller)
The street fair is billing itself as very eco-friendly. There's a joke about Dinosaur Jr. becoming extinct and eventually turning into oil in here somewhere. Don't recognize any of the other Saturday bands, to be honest.

Dream Theater with Crimson Projekct (Chicago Theatre)
Okay, between Dream TheatER playing the Chicago TheatRE and the Crimson ProjeKCt -- the combo of Adrian Belew's band and Stick Men featuring Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto -- opening the show, there are a lot of weird lettering things going on here. And some serious prog rock.

Crocodiles with Devin, Slushy (Reggie's Music Joint)
I feel like this band was on the cusp of something some four or five years ago. That, or they have a name that's easy to remember.

Marillion with Sun Domingo (Park West)
See Friday's listing.

6.24   sunday
Magic Box with Mimi Betnis, Merchants of Moonshine (Reggie's Music Joint)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Somehow Steve Gillis has been in this band for over a year now, and I haven't checked them out. Bad, bad Coz.

Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers (Ravinia Festival, Highland Park)
I usually skip/miss Ravinia shows in the listings, but I'm finally going to see one after living here for twenty years.

Styx with REO Speedwagon (Charter One Pavilion)
To this day, I can't listen to "Come Sail Away" and not hear Eric Cartman's version of it. Mind you, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. For the record, Styx may have been my first "favorite" band way back around the time Paradise Theater came out, but I've never seen them live.

Steve Smith & Vital Information (Martyrs')
More from the North Center venue's long-running relationship with electric jazz, this time featuring one-time Journey drummer Steve Smith, who has anchored different configurations of this band all the way back to when he still was *in* Journey, I think.

Booker T. Jones (SPACE, Evanston)
He won a Grammy for lifetime achievement, and you can see him in a room that fits maybe two hundred people. Or you could if you jumped on tickets, as this had to have sold out.

Scissor Sisters with Rye Rye (The Vic)
Pretty sure they've scored some prominent soundtrack tunes lately. And I mean "scored" as in an expression of triumph. They're not suddenly following in the footsteps of Stewart Copeland, Trevor Rabin and Mark Mothersbaugh and actually scoring films.

Destroyer with Sandro Perri (Metro)
I know he's supposed to be the "artiste" among the pop songwriters in the New Pornographers, but I've never really warmed to Dan Bejar.

Green Music Fest (Damen between North and Schiller)
Raveonettes headline the second day, with Apteka, Viceroy and Oh My God also on the bill.