Ted Leo

Wednesday night I was the beneficiary of Ben’s status as local music guy (host of SHiNDiG, CiTR radio show host, ONLY magazine contributer, etc, etc, etc) and got to see Ted Leo at The Red Room.

Opening for the Ted were The Yoko Casionos, and, um, some band from Chicago whose name I sadly never caught.

The YC’s were decent & fun, but I feel strangely betrayed that there was nary a Casio in site. Nor were there any curiously brilliant experimental artists. Sigh….

So this next band, the Chicagoans, were really good. Peppy & Poppy & cute with a sweet-voiced female lead, they really seemed to win over the crowd (Although Ben, jaded as he is these days, was less impressed then perhaps others ;). So, if this unnamed band (oh please someone, post a comment with their name) comes back to town, definitely give them a look.

And then of course, was the main even: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. I’d never seen Ted Leo before – not even a photo – so all I knew of the man was his music. And from his music, I imagined an older, perhaps greying, slightly unkempt & gruff looking guy. But no, not at all. Ted Leo is this young, endearingly cute guy, who reminds me strongly of a young Elvis Costello in mannerism. And then he opens his mouth to sing, and it’s almost unnervingly jarring. But he & his band were fantastic, and played all the hits and then the ones I didn’t know, and kept up with some witty banter between songs and then when the show was over, they took a quick break and then played another 4 or 5 songs, much to the chagrin of the bartenders, but to the delight of the rest of us. So a most enjoyable, excellent show.

6 Replies to “Ted Leo”

  1. The Chicago band is called The Reputation.
    I thought they were okay, but occured to me then that if it was 5 years ago I would have loved them.

  2. The Chicago band is called The Reputation.
    I thought they were okay, but occured to me then that if it was 5 years ago I would have loved them.

  3. The Chicago band is called The Reputation.
    I thought they were okay, but occured to me then that if it was 5 years ago I would have loved them.

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