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DEC. 1, 2005
THE SADIES
Schubas

There hardly exists a better band than the Sadies, and they proved it yet again with this show. They had no new album to plug. And for once, they were playing on their own as the headliners (though Mekon Jon Langford joined them for three songs). All the more reason for the Sadies just to do what they do best — incredible guitar rock... the kind you don't hear often enough these days, with intricately composed and skilfully played melodies on the guitars. And while the Good brothers are not known for their vocals, their singing sounded strong, too, with Travis in particular baring his teeth in caveman-like expressions as he let loose some powerful notes.

In addition to their own material, the Sadies played some obscure blues and country covers, and the encore culminated with a fantastic take on Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere," followed by another great one, the Flaming Groovies' "Shake Some Action." Wow. One of the year's best concerts.

SEE PHOTOS OF THE SADIES.

NOV. 27, 2005
JIMMY SCOTT
The HotHouse

I'd almost forgotten that Jimmy Scott was playing in town last night, part of a tour celebrating his 80th birthday. It's reportedly more than five years since the last time he played in Chicago, so this was a can't-miss show.

I first became familiar with Scott when he provided that strange song, "Sycamore Trees," to David Lynch's TV series "Twin Peaks." (The song actually appears on the soundtrack to the film, "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.") Who was this singer with that elusive, androgynous voice? Adrogynous doesn't really do it justice as an adjective. Otherwordly, maybe. I'm still not that familiar with Scott's discography (though my purchase of The Essential Jimmy Scott last night should remedy that). He was the subject of an interesting documentary a few years ago, now out on DVD, and he made another weird cameo — singing John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" with Wilco as his backup band in the Ehtan Hawke film "Chelsea Walls."

The Lynch and Lennon songs were not part of Scott's show last night, but he did live up to his billing as "the Legendary Jimmy Scott." With a nice piano-bass-drums combo (the Jazz Expressions) playing behind him, Scott gracefully sang standards ("Blue Skies," "Embraceable You") and some of his past hits ("When Did You Leave Heaven?," "If You Only Knew").

Age has added an interesting timbre — and even more fragility — to Scott's voice. He looked a little fragile himself, but reasonably spry for being 80 years old. And he had a nice sense of humor, joking with his band between songs. Unfortunately, he probably wasn't joking when he said he hasn't made much money from all those decades of recording and performing music.

The concert was short, but it's hard to demand too much stage time out of a legend in his 80th year. The Chicago Gospel Keyboard Trio played a really nice opening set.

SEE PHOTOS OF JIMMY SCOTT.

THE BOTTLE ROCKETS
The Beat Kitchen

Those who know me as a fan of alt-country/Americana/roots rock/whatever music may be shocked to hear that I'd never seen the Bottle Rockets, who are stalwarts of the field, until last night. I actually got as far as driving to a Bottle Rockets show maybe 10 years ago, but it was sold out and I did not get in. Many times since then, I've planned to see them but one thing or another came up. I had no excuse last night... even with a Jimmy Scott concert earlier in the evening... and I discovered what I've been missing.

What a great band. The musicianship was tight, and the banter with the faithful fans in the crowd was fun. The old songs sounded excellent, and the group also played a number of songs from its forthcoming album on Bloodshot Records, which sounded promising. The title of the album is still to be determined, as Brian Henneman explained several times from the stage. Henneman remarked that the Bottle Rockets have been at it for 12 years now, finally reaching the point where they make... $12,000 a year. I hope they stick with it.

As for the opening band, the Siderunners... well, I guess I'm just not in on the joke. They were decent musicians of the rockabilly/twangy roots rock variety, and some of their songs seemed OK, but their sense of humor was just annoying.

SEE PHOTOS OF THE BOTTLE ROCKETS.

NEW FILMS AND DVDs

Some upcoming films I've seen:

"Memoirs of a Geisha" — sumptious, beautiful, likely to be popular, but I found myself a little skeptical about it all. I mean, while it may be well researched, it is based on a book by a white American guy, directed by a white American guy and starring mostly Chinese actors and actresses, all pretending to be Japanese and speaking in English. (One of my pet peeves pops up here, when all of the actors speak in English that is supposedly being translated into English for our convenience ... but then some Americans show up, and everyone is still speaking in English?!? Do these geishas know how to speak English? Or do the Americans speak Japanese? Who knows? You can't tell.) Plus, World War II seems very peripheral to the life of the Japanese people in this story, which is a little hard to believe. Still, the acting is good and the story's pretty strong.

"Brokeback Mountain" — Beautifully filmed, well acted, a little long and slow but very good overall. I'm not sure if homophobic mainstream audiences will go for this movie, but it's another good one from Ang Lee.

"Match Point" — The best Woody Allen in quite a while, and perhaps the best totally serious film he's ever made. (I still have to catch up on Woody's last two movies, "Anything Else" and "Melinda and Melinda," though I can't muster much enthusiasm after all of the tepid reviews they received.) The themes are similar to "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors," but it doesn't feel like he's borrowing any more from Bergman, Fellini and other directors. It was probably a good idea for him to seek out a change of scenery, filming in London with Caruso music on the soundtrack instead of his typical jazz. The movie always felt real to me instead of mannered (like some of Woody's movies), and it gets progressively more painful to watch (in a good way) as it goes along.

Strangely enough, it occurs to me that two of 2005's best films are disturbing tales of guilt: Woody Allen's "Match Point" and Michael Haneke's "Cache (Hidden)." I wouldn't have expected to pair up Allen and Haneke.

A few DVDs I've caught up on recently:

"White Diamond" — interesting documentary by Werner Herzog. For better or worse, the film meanders... that gives it the feeling of an idiosyncratic, personal film, but it also means it's not quite as dramatic as I'd hoped.

"Memories of Murder" — South Korean police procedural about the hunt for a serial killer. Pretty standard stuff as far as police movies go, with the odd feeling that American cop cliches apply in Korea as well. It's fairly entertaining and enjoyable to watch, but nothing groundbreaking.

"Turtles Can Fly" — I really liked this movie. Very mysterious, feels simultaneously realistic and supernatural. The film offers a real window into the everyday life of Kurds. The ending is devastating.

A PROMOTIONAL PLUG FOR
DEVIN DAVIS

I beseech you: Buy Devin Davis' Lonely People of the World, Unite!

Or at least listen to some of the songs:
www.devindaviswebsite.com/audio.html

I love this record...

Click here for my interview with him.

Those of you who dislike Death Cab For Cutie, please don't be put off by the fact that Ben Gibbard is a Devin Davis fan (as mentioned in my story)... They don't really sound anything alike. Death Cab's gone all wimpy (in my opinion), but at least Gibbard can recognize some music that's kicking his ass when he hears it.

Devin's playing stuff that sounds like Village Green Preservation Society mashed together with the Shins, Matthew Sweet, early '70s Bowie, "Baba O'Riley" and Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage." And the lyrics are brilliant — funny and occasionally apocalytpic. He played almost all of the instruments himself and released this record by himself.

Did I mention you should buy his record?

NOV. 19, 2005
THE REIGNING SOUND
and THE DETROIT COBRAS
The Double Door

An excellent double bill, with Reigning Sound frontman Greg Cartwright doing double-duty as guitarist for the Detroit Cobras. Both bands were great, but it's the Detroit Cobras who had the better stage show, thanks to Rachel Nagy's charisma... The first band of the night, Vee Dee, was pretty good, playing melodic pop-punk songs with some impressive guitar licks (maybe a little too much guitar virtuosity was on display, as a matter of fact).

SEE PHOTOS OF THE REIGNING SOUND AND THE DETROIT COBRAS.

NOV. 11, 2005
KONONO NO. 1
Logan Square Auditorium

One of the stranger recent concerts... Konono No. 1's from Congo, playing thumb pianos and banging on some sort of cowbells, all amplified through primitive equipment including big speakers like the one above... The rhythmic songs are long (like, half an hour long) and highly repetitive. The grooves are great, but after a while the repetition starts to wear thin... and then you come back around again and feel it all moving to another level. Maybe. They've been compared to electronic dance bands. Think of it as Kraftwerk with really primitive equipment.

Other than the two dancing singers, most of the members of Konono No. 1 stood impassively on the stage, staring out at the strangeness of America. I wondered what they made of it all.

SEE PHOTOS OF KONONO NO. 1.

NOV. 9, 2005
WILCO KATRINA BENEFIT
Auditorium Theatre

Read my review for Pioneer Press.

OCT. 29, 2005
THE GO! TEAM
Metro, Chicago

The Go! Team once again earned its exclamation point tonight, with an incredible show of nonstop fun, mix-and-match musical styles.

Also worth noting: Opening act the Grates put on a fun show themselves. It's a drums, guitar and singer trio from Australian, and the singer was practically doing jumping jacks throughout the set.