list.in.to.chicago this week: 04.20.2015

What happens if you buy a ticket for the world, but have to pick it up at will call?

Yeah, okay, I wanted to open with a lyrical reference joke, but found it hard to write the next line.

Pick of the week
Classic rock fans have both Todd Rundgren (Wednesday at The Vic) and Michael Schenker (Thursday at Concord Music Hall) to choose from this week, although Rundgren's appeal might actually overlap a bit more with Zappa Plays Zappa (Tuesday at Concord Music Hall). Plus, you have your annual chance to see Telstar on Wednesday at Red Line Tap, but with a 30 minute set, if you blink you might miss it.

list.in.to.COZ
I don't want to alarm you, but there is no Diver show this week. Still regular office hours at Vaughan's on Tuesday, which means the Hawks game will almost definitely go to overtime.

Recap
Saw an excellent, jazz-inflected local hip-hop band on Friday called Sidewalk Chalk, on that CIMMFest bill with Bailiff, whose guitar-based rock came out of the gate with a bit more of a Celtic vibe than I remember. And I heard Spike Lee was at Double Door earlier in the evening, but was gone by the time I got there.

It turns out that Billy Cobham wasn't playing Spectrum front to back on Sunday night as much as he was playing with the band that he put together previously to do that. Still hit most of the tracks from the record, even if they only made a slowed-down, partial reference to "Quadrant 4." That doesn't mean the band slacked off at all, which is particularly impressive when you consider the drummer turns 71 this year. I said this on social media after the show, but Dave Matthews Band fans should note that there is no Carter Beauford without Cobham. Period. It's a pretty straight line of influence.

4.20   monday
Lasers and Fast and Shit with Oozing Wound, Melkbelly (Empty Bottle)
A band name that always gets a smile and a nod, but I haven't ever actually seen them. Oozing Wound, meanwhile, seems to have gotten a lot of local praise in the last year or so.

In the Valley Below with Molehill, Save the Clocktower (House of Blues)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I really do wish we could have tapped into the promotional mojo that Save the Clocktower has going on, but it might be as simple as Jimmy being a really friendly guy. This is a local band shocwcase from Q101 that will be streaming online as well. And I can't shake the feeling that we saw In The Valley Below open for somebody recently, but I can't find any evidence of it.

English Beat (City Winery)
It's been mostly General Public and Dave Wakeling solo shows lately, as far as I can recall, so I guess an English Beat show was overdue.

4.21   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
On the one hand, the Blackhawks don't start until 8:30pm, so we probably won't be ready to go on time. On the other hand, the bartender is a die-hard Red Wings fan, so she may unilaterally decide that Hawks fans don't get audio.

Zappa Plays Zappa (Concord Music Hall)
I really should have been all over this one, as Dweezil Zappa continues to really inhabit his father's music with this project, but it's going to be impossible to top the experience of seeing the band, winning a guitar in a raffle, and getting to play it on stage, which actually happened when I saw them back in 2008.

Kory Quinn (Hideout)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
The April residency presumably only has two weeks left, but Quinn has been pretty ubiquitous around town in 2015 so far. Unless he's heading back to Portland, that will likely continue.

4.22   wednesday
Viaducts with Rocketboat, Terriers, Telstar, Drew Neely & the Heroes (Red Line Tap)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
It's once again time for the International Pop Overthrow Festival, celebrating the legacy of midwestern power pop, and that means we get our annual allotment of Telstar, which is Diver and Andrew Fraker & Sons lynchpin Tony Calderisi's solid contribution to the genre.

Todd Rundgren (The Vic)
The new record from the iconic artist and producer has some sublime gems on it, but also some heavy-handed attempts to sound relevant to modern audiences. A lyrical reference to Miley twerking? Really, Todd? You're better than that.

Stone Temple Pilots with Dreamers (House of Blues)
Other than the high-profile departure of singer Scott Weiland, the grunge-era heavyweights are still intact. Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington has been filling Weiland's shoes since 2013, and the band released an EP with the current lineup in that same year.

4.23   thursday
Michael Schenker Group with Enuff Znuff, Gundriver (Concord Music Hall)
Based on another show this weekend out in the suburbs, this might actually be Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock and not the Michael Schenker Group proper. So, you know, plan accordingly, because someone somewhere might be interested in the guys in the band who are not Michael Schenker.

Oceans of Titan with Sun God Ra, Marinoan (Burlington)
Shadow of the Titan with Runaway Five, Colin Morris (Martyrs')
I think I'm detecting a new trend in band names. Might start a band called Shadow of the Oceans of Titan just to fuck with them.

4.24   friday
Sufjan Stevens with Little Scream (Chicago Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
Part of me wants Stevens to screw with people and release a death metal album, but until then, we've got another intimate and deeply personal album of introspective chamber pop. It's a very pleasant listen, and pretty much exactly what you would expect.

Milky Chance with Mighty Oaks (The Vic)   SOLD OUT!
This current Q101 mainstay is from Germany, which makes me think their name is some sort of terrible translation.

Delta Rae with Greg Holden (Metro)
For throwback blues played by hipsters, I like these guys a lot more than Alabama Shakes.

Yoko and the Oh No's with Van Go, Waiflike, Too Much Saturn, Sean Michael, Kylie Hughes (Red Line Tap)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Not sure if former Diver bassist Avi Kopernik is still with Waiflike for this one, as two Red Line Tap shows in one week (including Wednesday with Telstar) might pose scheduling problems for his main gig. Last year they were both on the same IPO bill.

4.25   saturday
Jay Farrar with Rhett Miller (Old Town School of Folk Music)
As good of an alt-counrty bill as you're going to get, with the principals from Son Volt and the Old 97s. As of this writing, there was exactly one seat remaining for the Saturday show, and four for Sunday.

Spandau Ballet with Matthew Harvat (House of Blues)
I'm putting the ratio of people who just want to hear them play "True" to serious fans of the band's deeper cuts at about 10-to-1 on this one. And the odds of that song being played somewhere before the last song of the main set are about a zillion to 1.

Farewell Captain with Smug Brothers, Big Baby (Reggie's Rock Club)
Another local band that, if memory serves, called it quits and has now resurfaced.

Madeleine Peyroux (City Winery)
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for singer Peyroux, who I don't think I've ever actually heard, purely because of that one time some online music site called her a "chartreuse" instead of a "chanteuse." Missed it by that much.

Sufjan Stevens with Little Scream (Chicago Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
See Friday's listing.

Milky Chance with Mighty Oaks (The Vic)   SOLD OUT!
See Friday's listing.

4.26   sunday
Tuck & Patti with Vance Gilbert (SPACE, Evanston)
At this point, possibly better known as "that band that St. Vincent's uncle is in."

Jay Farrar with Rhett Miller (Old Town School of Folk Music)
See Saturday's listing.

Madeleine Peyroux (City Winery)
See Saturday's listing.