Sensory Overload!

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 26, 2006 6:53PM

From the standpoint of the local talent buyer the month of January sucks. There aren’t many national tours in effect, and most that are do their best to avoid the usually frigid Midwest, folks are still reeling from the holidays are less likely to spend their dough taking in live music. To combat this, the month has unofficially become “Local Talent Month” since local bands are, for once, in high demand and are often offered plum spots that would be unavailable to them at other times of the year. The huge bonus in this equation is that scads of local groups get a chance to shine and, providing they pack a room or knock a talent buyer right the fuck out with their musical prowess, local groups can lift themselves to the top of the short list for higher profile shows later on in the year.

Sometimes this deal just blows up in everyone’s faces though. Often it’s difficult to find one or two decent shows on any given evening in Chicago, but tonight offers no less than five different bills around town featuring excellent local talent. This offers quite the conundrum since any one of these shows would usually warrant our full-fledged endorsement…but how do we pick between five?!

At The Metro Chicagoist favorites (and participants in Chicagoist's first CTRL-ALT-ROCK showcase next month) The Assembly are plying the masses with their massive Brit-inspired arean-rock. Across town at Schuba’s glam-poppers The Ladies & Gentlemen will be doing their best to turn the back room into a sweaty, sexy dance party. In the Wicker Park area Milk At Midnight, surfing the waves of recent praise, joins the line-up for the CD release of the Live From The Sweat Box music compilation at Subterranean. Across the street at Double Door punk rockers Dummy churn out their muscularly solid tunes on a bill that sees the debut of Giant Step frontman Geoff Sabin’s new projest, Colombian Monkey Knife Fight. We love that name. Finally local smut-mod collective The Modernist hosts a live performance at The Darkroom with pop-punkers – but by pop-punk we do not mean they are in any way similar to those sell-outs in Fall Out Boy – Mexican Cheerleader.

Whew!

Where will we be? We have no idea. We still can’t decide! The only thing we know for sure is that you can't go wrong with any of these shows.