Monday, Aug. 24, 2009

On Monday, Aug. 24 I had the pleasure to see one of my all-time favorite artists, songwriters and bands at San Francisco's best live music venue.

(Bottom of the Hill - 17th Street, San Francisco)

I discovered Ted Leo & The Pharmacists mostly by word of mouth. I've heard his name a bit and finally saw the "Me & Mia" video on HavocTV.

Naturally, that x-mas, I had to have "Shake the Sheets".

Fast-forward to last summer. I see TL is playing with Against Me! at the Warfield in San Francisco. I ordered a pair of tickets at $30+ each from Ticketscammer. The day of the bleeding show, Ted announces his show is cancelled due to a personal emergency. My appeals to Ticketscammer were nil, since he wasn't the headliner.

So, round June, I discover he's coming to SF for two shows at the BOTH and I immediately buy a pair of tickets for the show.

I'd not be disappointed. It was easily the best show I've ever seen. Even my friend - a Ted Leo neophyte - agreed that the energy was unmatched. From the moment he hit the stage playing "Little Dawn" to the 90 minutes later when he played "CIA" he was still playing at the same intensity.

Ted, I should mention, will be 39 next month.

From Bullying the Jukebox

(bass player... no idea of his name, maybe Marty Key? "Jason?")

Ted played most of his best-known, best-written songs along with a slate of new ones, which all were really, really good.

I was disappointed that there was no performance of "Sons of Cain," "High Party," or "Ballad of the Sin-Eater." However, the surprise of songs like "The One Who Got Us Out," "Heart Problems," "Under The Hedge" and "CIA" totally worked.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how the place exploded when he played "Counting Down the Hours" and "Biomusicology." "Me & Mia" brought a wave of "hey, I know this song" from the crowd.

He played until about midnight and that included THREE encores. For the first one, he didn't even leave the stage. He set his guitar down, then turned around and said "you guys aren't going anywhere, huh?"

The band took a break so drummer, Chris Wilson could get a bandage and Ted played a cover of a recently passed "punk pioneer" (sorry, can't remember the name!) song.

He kicked into "Timorous Me" and the rest of the band joined him for a couple more songs before they closed with new song "Last Days."

Right around the time when I thought it was time to leave, the band jumped back onto the stage to play one more song which was a request. Suitably - since there's all kinds of news regarding the CIA's torture program - he played "CIA:"

And when we were late in getting in,

We couldn't say where we'd been.

But maybe you knew,

Like you sometimes do -I've got no need to pretend.

But C.I.A.,Only you
know what you've done.

(the only photo I got of Ted himself, that looks like a person.)