list.in.to.chicago this week: 03.09.2015

Finally went on a bit of a concert ticket buying spree last week, because these empty recaps were starting to bug me.

Pick of the week
Highly recommend seeing Dry The River on Tuesday night at Lincoln Hall if you have the chance. Really good band. Helmet (Friday at Double Door) and Torche (Saturday at Empty Bottle) will likely be pretty darn good, and will definitely be pretty darn LOUD, but they're both sold out.

list.in.to.COZ
Saturday night is the annual St. Paddy's Parade Day show for Diver at Fado. They've gotten much more strict about capacity in recent years, so it's not quite the shit show it was early on in our run of playing the date. Plus, we're going to have a special guest. And then there's Vaughan's on Tuesday night.

Recap
For the first set of Saturday's gig, it seemed like nothing we did quite connected with the audience, but they're not necessarily there to see us, so if you asked, they probably enjoyed it. They came around a bit in the second set, so we didn't have to resort to just amusing ourselves and bringing them along for the ride. Hey, they can't all be as hot as the previous Saturday's show.

3.10   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
Threw some new songs (Queens of the Stone Age, Spoon and Elvis Costello) at the wall last week, so this is the week where I follow up to see which ones stuck.

Dry the River with Horse Thief (Lincoln Hall)
Still one of my favorite new band discoveries of the last couple of years. A bit of the post-Mumford folk-rock vibe, but a lot more than that. Lots of charming, British-accented banter between songs, too.

Von Ether with Wes John Cichosz, Circle of Machines (Martyrs')   FRIENDS OF COZ!
So, the headliner's full name appears to be "Kari Von Ether and the Obdurate Masses," and the Kari in question is Kari Nelson Chronopolous, who you may recall from Brother Brother, Tributosaurus and Ladies of the Canyon. Then there's Wes, who is one Chicago's great underrated songwriters.

3.11   wednesday
Mr. Russia with mtvghosts, Le Tour (Schubas)
I've been meaning to call attention to the new "100% Off Bands" weekday series at Schubas, which is, as you might have guessed, a series of at least one or two free shows featuring local bands every week.

3.12   thursday
Ben Ottewell (Old Town School of Folk Music)
By total coincidence, I played something from Gomez just last week at the open jam, and now one of the guys in the band--who hasn't released anything in going on four years now--is coming through town on a solo tour.

Echosmith with The Colourist (Metro)   SOLD OUT!
So after all the bands with animals in their names, it seems the latest trend is bands of siblings. First Eisley, then Haim, and now this L.A. indie pop band, who apparently have a single that hit #13 on the Billboard charts at some point in the last two years.

Marcus Miller (SPACE, Evanston)
Arguably one of the biggest, baddest bass players and producers in that space where jazz and pop (and rock and R&B) collided at the end of the 80s.

Brazilian Girls (Thalia Hall)
If you're at work, and you're checking to see what the band Brazilian Girls is all about, you may want to avoid just entering "Brazilian Girls" in the search box. Also, not to be confused with CSS, which is a band made of up girls from Brazil. No one from this band is from Brazil. Most of them are not girls, either.

Elder with Mos Generator, Of Wolves, Bloodletter (Reggie's Rock Club)
Lots of references to Mordor, metal and prog rock in the Reader preview for this one.

3.13   friday
Of Montreal with Deerhoof (Metro)
With everything that gets written about Of Montreal, I really figured this one would be sold out. The new record is...okay. Decent enough songs, and decent enough sonics, but nothing really grabbed me.

Helmet (Double Door)   SOLD OUT!
This 90s band who broke through with In The Meantime probably did more for the phrase "jackhammer guitar riffs" than any band before them. The man behind those riffs, Page Hamilton, remains the only original member of the band, and it's been a bit of a revolving door even since the band reunited back in 2004, having cycled through three bassists, two guitarists and two drummers.

Gang of Four with Public Access TV (Park West)
In what's becoming a bit of a theme for the night, guitarist Andy Gill is the only remaining original member of the British postpunk outfit, and at least one critic at the Reader sees that as part of the reason the band's new record manages to bypass their earlier body of work for something more mid-period alternative.

3.14   saturday
DIVER (Fado Irish Pub)   SEE COZ LIVE!
Not only is it parade day, but there's also Six Nations Rugby in the morning, and it's the once-a-century version of Pi Day! To deal with all of that, we may just have to invite a certain former lead singer back up on stage with us to deal with all the madness. If you're wondering, yes, we get hazard pay for this annual gig.

Torche with Nothing, Wrong (Empty Bottle)   SOLD OUT!
Another of the standard-bearers for modern heavy metal. I had this queued up in a playlist after the new Dan Deacon record, so that transition was a bit jarring. In a good way.

Swervedriver with Atlas Sound, Lumerians, Oren Ambarchi, Heat Leisure, Vision Fortune, Christines, Gateway Drugs (Thalia Hall)
Night two of something called "Levitation Chicago" features probably the biggest shoegazer band of the early 90s that wasnt' called My Bloody Valentine, and they're supporting their first new record in 15 years.

Alabama Shakes with Songhoy Blues (Chicago Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
They're a pleasant enough listen on record, but I'm still stung by that one live show I saw at the Riviera where they just seemed like barely ordinary blues deemed safe for hipster/millennial consumption.

Sylvan Esso with Flock of Dimes (Metro)   SOLD OUT!
The electronica duo had a well-received new release in 2014.

Big Wig Mechanic, Superbig, Very Loud, Western Automatic (Double Door)
I've recognized Superbig a few times over the last few years, but not since late 2012. And every time, it occurs to me that I think URT played shows with them on one more occasions. One of these days I'm going to find all of those promotional e-mails, the end of which was one of the reasons this whole list got started in the first place.

3.15   sunday
Awolnation (Cubby Bear)
Free show. That still might cost too much for the current Q101 mainstays.