list.in.to.chicago this week: 09.29.2014

It's almost October already, and while that means summer is over, it also means concert season is starting to heat up in Chicago.

Pick of the week
Well, Robert Plant is sold out on Thursday at the Riv, so if you can't get aftermarket tickets for that, you can console yourself with Judas Priest (Friday at The Venue in Hammond), The Wood Brothers (Saturday at Thalia Hall) or Warpaint (Sunday at Metro). Also, Martyrs' has Tributosaurus as The Police on Wednesday, and then the first of two solo Terry Bozzio shows on Sunday.

list.in.to.COZ
Tuesday at Vaughan's, and then Diver on Saturday at Fado.

Recap
As tempting as last week's prog rock/fusion extravaganza was, I resisted. Nothing else to report.

9.30   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
I have at least printed lyrics for a bunch of new songs. We'll see if I feel good enough to try them out.

Steve Nieve (City Winery)
Not sure what to expect from a keyboardist known primarily for accompanying Elvis Costello when he's on his own, but he's definitely a force to be reckoned with as a sideman.

Storm Large (The Promontory)
I know she's "Storm Large from Pink Martini" these days, but I still wanted her to win Rockstar: Supernova once Hoffer got the boot. That's my reference point and I'm sticking with it.

Lily Allen with Lolawolf (Riviera Theatre)
You know that her brother is Theon Greyjoy on Game of Thrones, right?

Mø with Holychild (Concord Music Hall)
Yet another electropop band that had a bunch of buzz this year.

10.01   wednesday
Kasabian with Bo Ningen (Metro)
Part of a wave of British bands with a slightly bratty post-punk sound, and with names that start with "Ka," along with Kaiser Chiefs. Metro says tickets are running out.

Tributosaurus (Martyrs')
They've done The Police before, so I assume this is part of the year-long anniversary.

La Roux with Midnight Magic (Concord Music Hall)
The pop singer's most recent record just got tabbed by Brent DiCrescenzo at Time Out Chicago as one of his favorites of the last couple of months, and he's a local music writer that I trust.

10.02   thursday
Robert Plant & the Sensational Space Shifters (Riviera Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
The new record from the iconic Led Zeppelin singer has the world music and trip-hop influences you would expect given his collaborators, who have been key players in those scenes.

Fleetwood Mac (United Center)
Christine McVie is back in the fold for this tour, and they sounded pretty damn good a year or so ago when she wasn't involved.

Nick Jonas (Bottom Lounge)
Are all of the Jonas Brothers solo artists now? That's a lot of Jonases.

10.03   friday
Judas Priest with Steel Panther (The Venue, Hammond, IN)
The legendary metal band is touring in support of Redeemer of Souls, which came out in July. Save for K.K. Downing, who retired three years ago, the lineup has been mostly intact since before singer Rob Halford departed and then rejoined the band.

Twenty One Pilots (Aragon Ballroom)
The lowest-common denominator "alternative" rock band sold out the Riv back in April. I am also clearly not in their target audience, as about twenty-one seconds of listening to them back in the spring made me want to stab my eardrums out with a pencil.

Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys with Red Elvises, Kory Quinn (FitzGerald's, Berwyn)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I'm friends with him on Facebook, and it's getting difficult to figure out just where Kory Quinn is residing, as he seems to be playing Portland one week, and Chicago the next.

JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound with Barrence Whitfield, Savages (Mayne Stage)
It's been a little while now since the local pop-funk band released their debut, and they may need to shake things up to re-engage Chicago's short attention span, which seems to have since landed on The Orwells as the next big thing.

The Sea & Cake with Friends of the Italian Opera (Empty Bottle)
One of the bands that put Thrill Jockey records on the map some twenty years ago.

B.B. King with Hamish Anderson (House of Blues)
He's blues royalty, but this is still Buddy Guy's town, so I have to wonder if Lucille will be paid a visit by a certain black and white polka-dot Stratocaster.

Charlie Daniels Band with Mallary Hope (Joe's)
The devil was planning to go to Georgia, but his flight got cancelled, so he's opting for the densely populated North & Clybourn area instead. While it's a bit surprising they're not playing the suburbs, Joe's has a pretty long history of getting both mainstream and country acts.

Erasure with All Hail The Silence (Chicago Theatre)
80s synth-pop that was synthier and poppier than new wave wasn't really my thing at the time, but if you know who Erasure is, you don't need me to explain them to you.

Lee DeWyze (SPACE, Evanston)
At some point, people were telling me I looked like the American Idol runner-up from the suburbs. If this is as big a room as he can fill in his own backyards, I'm guessing maybe his fifteen minutes are up.

10.04   saturday
DIVER (Fado Irish Pub)   SEE COZ LIVE!
Last time, I think we only actually played one U2 song. Not sure how that happened, but we're trying to mix things up a bit.

The Wood Brothers (Thalia Hall)
Really bummed to miss this one because of the Diver gig, as these guys have such an engaging, energized take on folk-pop that is totally independent of the post-Mumford wave, and Thalia Hall is proving to be a wonderful venue, and well-suited for this kind of act.

Tove Lo with Linus Young (Metro)
I'm convinced that Sweden has more female pop singers per capita than any other nation on Earth. I vaguely remember hearing good things about the latest one.

Erasure with All Hail The Silence (Chicago Theatre)
See Friday's listing.

10.05   sunday
Warpaint with Guy Blakeslee (The Vic)
The two all-female rock bands making noise this year both have names that are a little misleading. While Dum Dum Girls seem like they should be more Ramones-esque, Warpaint gives off a heavier vibe, when in truth, both bands are in a vaguely psychedelic indie-rock/dream-pop space.

Terry Bozzio (Martyrs')
This is a bit different in that it's an actual solo tour, and not wrapped up in a drum clinic environment. But it's still Bozzio and his gargantuan diatonic drumkit. Over/under for women at the show that are not Martyrs' staff is twelve.

Tennis with Pure Bathing Culture (Lincoln Hall)
This band has settled into a decent niche of playing in that Schubas/Double Door/Lincoln Hall range of venues. Not sure they're destined for anything much bigger than that, but as an electronic indie duo, they've probably got really low overhead, so it may work for them.