​Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers is quite possibly the most beloved power-pop album of all time, and certainly the most poignantly morose, a heartbreaking state only exacerbated by frontman Alex Chilton's death last year. Now comes word of a full-album live tribute with a crazy all-star cast, all trying their damndest to turn "Holocaust" into a celebration.

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​The full lineup for "Channeling Chilton," per City Winery's site, is a beast, full of friends, admirers, and longtime cohorts, including Big Star drummer Jody Stephens, now the last remaining member of the power-pop gods' original lineup in the wake of bassist Andy Hummel's death last week. Proceeds benefit the Gulf Restoration Network; the show kicks off at 8 p.m. and features the following luminaries:

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On the left, in the back of a car.

​Only one member of the quartet that fashioned Big Star's 1972 debut, #1 Record -- very possibly the greatest power-pop record ever made -- is still with us. Andy Hummel, the Memphis band's founding bass player and very occasional lead vocalist for both Record and its nearly equally beloved follow-up, 1974's Radio City, died of cancer Monday in Forth Worth, Texas. He was 59. Hummel, who didn't participate in the band's most recent reunion shows, but did reprise his role at SXSW in Austin this year to commemorate the passing of his old bandmate, Alex Chilton. It's been a hard year for fans of the band, who remain legion.

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So as it turns out, he did not die in Memphis. But nonetheless, over the next few days, as devout fans grieve his death (at 59, of an apparent heart attack, in New Orleans), latecomers to Alex Chilton the musician (as opposed to Alex Chilton the song subject) will need recommendations on just where to begin their education. Beginning it is the only easy part.

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Mr. Chilton, still serenading those September gurls. Pic by Lindsey Budjinski

​Big Star
Brooklyn Masonic Temple
Wednesday, November 18

This show seems half-assed in a way that everyone is frankly really pleased with, most of all Alex Chilton, of course, a blithely nonchalant power-pop deity loping amiably through a clutch of '70s hits with the aid of a couple '90s alt-rockish power-pop dudes who deified him (Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, they of the Posies) at a late 2009 show at a Masonic Temple in Brooklyn, ostensibly to promote a box set. And why the hell not. "We love you Alex!" some dude yells, after a raucous, ragged-guitar-solo-besotted "Don't Lie to Me." "Welcome to New York!" someone else yells. "It's not New York--it's Brooklyn!" some lady corrects. "You too, Jody!" a fourth dude adds, making sure Mr. Stephens, behind the drums as always, also feels welcome. And then it's off to "When My Baby's Beside Me," and everybody's suddenly feeling super good about themselves.

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