Drink it Dowowown
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists in D.C.
Fernando Vazquez
Issue date: 9/12/06 Section: Life & Leisure
- Page 1 of 1
"You drove four hours just to see a concert?" "You're obsessed." "That's sort of a waste."
I've been getting this a lot since I drove down to D.C. with my girlfriend and my friend Yonki to see the mighty Ted Leo & The Pharmacists play down at American University last Thursday.
I feel bad that I had to miss three classes to see this show (to any of my professors reading this, I'm sorry) but it's Ted Leo, how could anyone deny seeing this amazing live show?
Plus I'm still young, if I don't do something like this every now and then I could grow up to be dull and boring with no social skills or sex life…I'd be a Republican, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
The four-hour drive down to D.C. was pretty brutal. Not for me, for my girlfriend. She had to sit in the backseat while Yonki and I went back and forth like Agassi and Becker arguing about insignificant punk rock trivia about bands and artists ("Dude, Bob Mould could never be greater than Blake Schwarzenbach. I mean 'Zen Arcade' was an incredible achievement but there isn't a piece of music in the world that as a whole is better than 'Bivouac'." Yea she actually had to listen to this crap. I don't know why she dates me either).
After getting onto the radically different from R-N American University campus early, we caught some lunch and talked to a couple radically less diverse than R-N students. The campus was straight out of a movie set: central quad, kids reading on the grass, hackey sack, Frisbee, for me it was…well…weird. I'd take the courtyard and the crackheads over that any day.
Finally 4 p.m. rolled around and we went to the show. I always said that Ted Leo & the Pharmacists is a band that you should watch outdoors. I saw them for the first time at an Operation Ceasefire anti-war rally in D.C. about a year ago and at the South Street Seaport a few weeks ago in New York City. The music just resonates in the air and is layered so beautifully you can almost taste it. But seeing them inside a dark, dingy club (or dark, well-kept University cafeteria) doesn't take away from the experience.
The boys opened with the anthemic and energetic "Little Dawn" from their 2004 album "Shake the Sheets." Instantly my head bopped, my mouth sang, and my body went into full on "groove" mode (which with my lack of any actual dance skills looks more like a man with wild ants in his trousers).
The rest of the show was a great mixture of old, recent, and brand new songs off the newest album due out later this year (or early next year, who knows?) like "Army Bound," and "Some Beginner's Mind." The songs are intelligent, political and a great mixture of pop, indie, punk, folk, and a little bit o' dub. They closed the set with a cover of "Suspect Device" by Stiff Little Fingers.
After the show I talked to Mr. Leo, took a picture with him, and he called me his "Celtic Brother." Yes, I made little fanboy faces and asked little fanboy questions. Ted Leo comes back around these parts on 10/26 to Upper Darby, Pa. (only a two hour drive this time). That Bloomfield-bred Jersey boy's gonna have to start playing shows closer to Newark to make this shit easier on me.
After we left campus we got in my car and Yonki drove us out until Jersey, where I took the wheel still psyched from the show and meeting one of my (living) musical heroes.
Fernando Vazquez is Life & Leisure editor.
I've been getting this a lot since I drove down to D.C. with my girlfriend and my friend Yonki to see the mighty Ted Leo & The Pharmacists play down at American University last Thursday.
I feel bad that I had to miss three classes to see this show (to any of my professors reading this, I'm sorry) but it's Ted Leo, how could anyone deny seeing this amazing live show?
Plus I'm still young, if I don't do something like this every now and then I could grow up to be dull and boring with no social skills or sex life…I'd be a Republican, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
The four-hour drive down to D.C. was pretty brutal. Not for me, for my girlfriend. She had to sit in the backseat while Yonki and I went back and forth like Agassi and Becker arguing about insignificant punk rock trivia about bands and artists ("Dude, Bob Mould could never be greater than Blake Schwarzenbach. I mean 'Zen Arcade' was an incredible achievement but there isn't a piece of music in the world that as a whole is better than 'Bivouac'." Yea she actually had to listen to this crap. I don't know why she dates me either).
After getting onto the radically different from R-N American University campus early, we caught some lunch and talked to a couple radically less diverse than R-N students. The campus was straight out of a movie set: central quad, kids reading on the grass, hackey sack, Frisbee, for me it was…well…weird. I'd take the courtyard and the crackheads over that any day.
Finally 4 p.m. rolled around and we went to the show. I always said that Ted Leo & the Pharmacists is a band that you should watch outdoors. I saw them for the first time at an Operation Ceasefire anti-war rally in D.C. about a year ago and at the South Street Seaport a few weeks ago in New York City. The music just resonates in the air and is layered so beautifully you can almost taste it. But seeing them inside a dark, dingy club (or dark, well-kept University cafeteria) doesn't take away from the experience.
The boys opened with the anthemic and energetic "Little Dawn" from their 2004 album "Shake the Sheets." Instantly my head bopped, my mouth sang, and my body went into full on "groove" mode (which with my lack of any actual dance skills looks more like a man with wild ants in his trousers).
The rest of the show was a great mixture of old, recent, and brand new songs off the newest album due out later this year (or early next year, who knows?) like "Army Bound," and "Some Beginner's Mind." The songs are intelligent, political and a great mixture of pop, indie, punk, folk, and a little bit o' dub. They closed the set with a cover of "Suspect Device" by Stiff Little Fingers.
After the show I talked to Mr. Leo, took a picture with him, and he called me his "Celtic Brother." Yes, I made little fanboy faces and asked little fanboy questions. Ted Leo comes back around these parts on 10/26 to Upper Darby, Pa. (only a two hour drive this time). That Bloomfield-bred Jersey boy's gonna have to start playing shows closer to Newark to make this shit easier on me.
After we left campus we got in my car and Yonki drove us out until Jersey, where I took the wheel still psyched from the show and meeting one of my (living) musical heroes.
Fernando Vazquez is Life & Leisure editor.
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