weekend activities

the current run of chicago storms will almost surely affect the new orleans social club's free show at millennium park tonight, but i wanted to mention it anyways...i saw these guys on austin city limits a couple months ago & they were great...formed by leo nocentelli (guitar) & george porter jr. (bass) of the meters, organist ivan neville (who also plays the beat kitchen on saturday), piano player henry butler & drummer raymond weber, mere months after hurricane katrina devastated their city...they're playing tonight with special guests irma thomas, john boutte & chicago's own koko taylor among others...not sure what will happen with the weather, but if you don't mind getting a little wet & you want to get down, check out this show, & check out the curtis mayfield cover below from their 2006 album, sing me back home...& visit home of the groove for more great music from the crescent city.

mp3: the new orleans social club ft. cyril neville - this is my country

elsewhwere in chicago tonight, magnolia electric co. playing the empty bottle, as mentioned, or if you already got your $15o tickets, you can see kanye west at the house of blues...tomorrow, the north mississippi allstars play the jamband heavy riverview music festival (steve kimock's new group plays sunday), dr. lonnie smith is at andy's jazz club, & rufus wainwright is at ravinia...& sunday, rock the bells comes to chicago, featuring wu-tang clan, nas, talib kweli, mf doom, pharoahe monch & others at charter one pavilion...also, two highly anticipated engagements are going on sale tomorrow at noon...the first, ween at the aragon, we already talked about...the second is a two night halloween run by the hold steady at the metro that i'm sure we'll talk about in the near future...in the meantime, get your tickets.

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last weekend's activities: apparently, tracy morgan was at the improv last weekend...he's hilarious.