It will always be cool to see members of a band setting up their own equipment, which is why the Metro crowd freaked out last night when Ted Leo came out to do his own sound check on his guitar. Of course, it begged the question: how was there going to be any suspense for the show? He walked off after making sure his guitar was tuned, then five minutes later the lights went off and he came back out. As Yo La Tengo broke down the fourth wall by casually interacting with the audience, Ted Leo breaks it down by refusing to make a big deal out of being Ted Leo, even though he’s one of the most recognizable personas in the indie rock music scene.
Anyways, the show was almost identical to the one he played this previous April at the Metro – every song he played now he played then, albeit with a few omissions. After opening with the raucous punk stomper of “Sons of Cain” he blew his hit song wad by doing “Me and Mia”, which of course got the crowd going because it’s probably his most recognizable song. At first, he didn’t talk to the crowd at all, not even pausing to stop in between songs, the first half hour just a constant segue to different tracks. Later on, he loosened up and admitted he had been in a bad mood, which had been quickly negated by how awesome the Chicago crowd is.
Important to note is that Ted Leo passes the sweat test with flying colors: As a general rule of thumb, the more an artist sweats in concert, the more effort they’re putting into it, which means it’ll be more enjoyable. When Ted Leo swings his head, a sweat pattern is left floating in the air – after fifteen minutes, his shirt was drenched even though his light show wasn’t abrasively bright most of the time. Now, the sweat test is not a guarantee – exceptions are made for musicians who are naturally sweaty (like Built to Spill, because they’re fat and middle-aged) but when it works, oh does it work.
For me the highlights were the nostalgic ska-shout out “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?” which is the only song that’s halfway made me consider that perhaps ska is not the worst music genre of all-time and “La Costa Brava” off his most recent record Living with the Living, which is a beautiful Spanish-inflected rumination on the little things that make life worth living, a song that Chekhov could have written if he had an ear for punk rock (see a great solo version in the Youtube video below). Generally speaking, all the songs were enjoyable because Leo plays faster in concert in order to fit in as many songs as possible, which means that even when the melody was lacking there was still a lot of energy to be had.
Leo is also very good at making dull studio tracks into killer live tracks. On record, the song “The Unwanted Things” is a plodding pseudo-reggae number that goes on for far too long – in concert, it’s quicker, funkier, and fun to dance to. On record, “Bomb.Repeat.Bomb” is loud and annoying, but in concert the intensity is conveyed when you see Leo whipping around the stage floor like a charged Tesla coil, screaming like it’s the end of the world. He’s the type of artist that makes you love his records more after going to the show, and that is the best sort of lasting memory.
The lesson is that if you ever have the chance to see Ted Leo in a club, you should do it because he never gives less than 110%, in fact he is the person such motivational clichés were invented for.
Best line of banter: “You want the blues? Alright, I’m going to give you some blues…actually, did I just say that? Can we make a pact here amongst all of us to not let that show up on Youtube?”
Set list (what I took down, anyways):
The Sons of Cain
Me and Mia
Army Bound
Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
Unknown new song dedicated to
Bomb.Repeat.Bomb
Counting Down the Hours
Colleen
A Bottle of Buckie
The Unwanted Things
La
Who Do You Love?
Encore:
Timorous Me
Walking to Do
Suspect Device (Stiff Little Fingers cover)
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