Although I’ve seen TED LEO play live 3 times now, until this show all of those occasions had seen Ted performing with his band as TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS (a review of a show from South Street Seaport in August 2005 can be found here). Therefore, this was my first time seeing him solo. I’d been anticipating this show for months, as it’s been almost 2 years since I’ve seen Leo play live and since the solo footage (from Pianos in New York) on the superb DVD Dirty Old Town as well as the solo tracks from the equally superb EP “Tell Bulgeary, Bulgeary is Dead” (which includes his covers of THE JAM’s “Ghosts” and SPLIT ENZ’s “Six Months in a Leaky Boat”, among other tracks) are all excellent.
And sure enough, he came off like a young BILLY BRAGG or ED HAMMELL (i.e. HAMMELL ON TRIAL), a one-man band absolutely rocking harder with just his voice and electric guitar than most full bands and full of political insight (though he’s never one to beat you over the head with polemics), humor, warmth and intelligence. As my wife said afterward, he pours his soul into everything he does and it cements the connection with his rabid fanbase. The setlist mixed new, previously unheard songs with material on his last 4 (all very good to excellent) albums with The Pharmacists and a bunch of great and generally unexpected covers.
Of his original material, the highlights were an incredible, rousing version of “The High Party” (from 2003’s incredible Hearts of Oak), an equally rousing version of “Where Have All the Rudeboys Gone?” (also from Hearts of Oak), a soaring “Me and Mia” and “Bleeding Powers” (both from 2004’s Shake the Sheets) and “A Bottle of Buckie” (from last year’s Living with the Living).
And did I mention the covers? I was absolutely on cloud nine when he launched into a version of THE MISFITS classic “Angelfuck” that sounded as if he’d written it himself (well not the lyrics). After performing this song, he told a story of how he’d let a friend borrow The Misfits compilation Legacy of Brutality (released in 1986) back when he was in high school, which prompted him being called into the principal’s office. Additionally, a clever audience member spotted part of an AMEBIX cover in this medley as well and also pointed out their upcoming reunion show here in Philadelphia. Leo then expressed his ambivalence towards reunions, but said that he would go see them if he had the chance.
We also got to hear the classic EDDIE AND THE HOT RODS tune “Do Anything You Wanna Do”, a true unexpected treat, which prompted a fellow audience member to tell Leo that Eddie and the Hot Rods have also reunited, but stated that he would go see them as well.
Finally, he treated the audience to a cover of BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’s “Dancing in the Dark” and after one more song, we all went home dazed at the awesome show we had just witnessed.
Opener CALE PARKS (who is touring with Leo and is also in ALOHA and WHITE WILLIAMS) is a one-man laptop-pop act. I’m not usually into this sort of thing (although THE BLOW, who were amazing last year at the Sasquatch Festival, are a notable exception) and this was no exception. Although he’s clearly enthralled with the early ‘80s intersection of post-punk and synth-pop, he didn’t have the tunes or the vocals to pull it off.
