Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2010 > April > 01 > Entry
Live Review: Ted Leo & Pharmacists
(Stephen M. Keller AMERICAN-STATESMAN)A lot has been made of Ted Leo’s roots in New Jersey. The New York Times recently placed him in a Jersey continuum involving Bruce Springsteen on one end and Titus Andronicus at the other. Even Leo acknowledged it during his stellar Wednesday night show at Emo’s, dedicating “Even Heroes Have To Die” to openers Screaming Females — not just the best band to come out of New Brunswick possibly ever, but perhaps the most slept-on rock band touring clubs today — noting that the song was about growing up in Jersey.
But I will always think of Leo as a Washington, D.C., talent. After time in New York hardcore bands, Leo formed the neo-mod act Chisel in D.C. in 1990, a band which lasted for most of the decade. Leo’s long-time band the Pharmacists include D.C. punk veteran James Canty (Make-Up, Nation of Ulysses) on guitar and organ as well as one-time Richmond, Virginia bassist Marty Key on bass and Philly-based drummer Chris Wilson. What’s up, Mid-Atlantic punk lifers?
In spite of Leo’s tendency towards long sentences in his complex, specific lyrics, his songs tend towards the fist-pumping. After five albums and five EPs, they’ve accumulated a mess of high-octane scorchers, power poppy songs that owe as much to the Jam as Fugazi.
And live, the band blends the energy (and sound) of the two brilliantly, Canty’s thick SG chordings and vertical pogo-ing blending with Leo’s frantic strumming and occasional full-body leaps. From the terrorist attack in “The Mighty Sparrow” to the body-as-battleground in “Me and Mia” to ahrd-strummed, vaguely Irish “The Sons of Cain,” this was Leo and the band at their most anthemic and energetic. Opener (and Austinite) Sally Crewe joined in for some refrains of “tell the bartender that I’m falling in love” on “Bottled in Cork.” Much like Fugazi’s “Glue Man” or “Reprovisional,” the set’s almost-closer “Stove by a Whale” took a simple, circular riff and turned into a free-fire, anything-goes punk jam, a rush of guitar chug that turned the stage into a temporary autonomous zone. In true punk fashion, that vibe spilled over into the hard-dancing crowd.
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By james
April 1, 2010 4:11 PM | Link to this
It was really lame that this show got moved last minute to emo’s. I was looking forward to see it at the parish.