Brightest Young Things

all words: Andy Hess
all photos: Jane Briggs

Ted Leo might be calling Jersey home now, but it sure felt like a homecoming for him and the Pharmacists Thursday night. Armed with a set list that reads like a greatest hits record and Ian MacKaye (!) as a guitar tech, Theodore F. Leo brought it. With the Black Cat swollen to capacity, Leo and the Pharmacists ran through a marathon length, career spanning set list of 28 songs including six new songs from his upcoming March release The Brutalist Bricks (Matador).

The standards were there -- "Timorous Me", "Me and Mia", "Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?" -- but gone was a live favorite "Ballad of the Sin Eater" (*sad face*). Other newish songs like "The Mighty Sparrow" and "Where Was My Brain?", which have been played live for some time now fit perfectly in rotation with the classics. The new material seems hit-or-miss, but I'm never sure about those songs until I've heard them on an album. Lead single "Even Heroes Have to Die" is a perfect piece of power pop and "One Polaroid A Day" has be reworked with a full Pharmacists' treatment since being premiered on MSNBC. "Cork and Bottle" sounded great, even with the slightly muddy sound at the Black Cat on Thursday.

It's actually quite hard to be critical of someone like Leo. The dude's a charmer. He even takes Twitter requests. To quote someone who has said it better: "Call me a booster rather than a critic, but I love Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and seriously want this band be, like, fucking huge. But at the same time, and call me old-fashioned, it's honorable the way Leo has opted to grow his audience and his songwriting talent organically-- and watch both increase exponentially, on his own terms. I like that he's got ethics and ideals that go beyond lifestyle choices. I like that he sees writing the most compassionate song possible about eating disorders as a political act, because it is. And with its airtight rhythm section and the crackling energy of its bug-eyed frontman in his Conflict T-shirt, no rock band currently touring puts on a better live show than the Pharmacists." Indeed.

As much as I am a fan-boy of Ted Leo and co., I was a little reluctant to see the opening acts. Having never heard Title Tracks or Radio 4 (edit: Oh, wait! They had that song in Grandma's Boy! They also didn't play it.), I got to the Black Cat early to be the line. Title Tracks were good. Their set length was perfect. Their music set the stage for a night of palm mutes and barr chords. And their new record, which most of their set came from according to frontman John Davis, is something that I will definitely pick up when it's released in February.

I can't say I loved, or even enjoyed Radio 4. They should have been billed first and the one song I thought I knew of theirs, they didn't even play it. Dance punk has seen better days. Though I will say, their last four songs were much better than the rest of their set that seemed to last for an eternity. I like angular guitars, block-rockin' bass and a slick drum beat as much as the next guy, but Radio 4 sounded stale. Sorry dudes.

Previously in Live DC:

• 2/13: LiveDC: George Clinton & The Parliament-Funkadelic @ 930 Club
• 2/13: LiveDC: Veronica Falls/ Brilliant Colors @ Black Cat
• 2/13: LIVE DC: Steve Aoki/ Datsik/ Alvin Risk @ Fillmore
• 2/13: LiveDC: The Darkness @ 930 Club
• 2/9: LiveDC: Theophilus London @ 930 Club
• 2/9: Best Weekend Bets
• 2/8: LiveDC: Kathleen Edwards @ 930 Club
• 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
• 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
• 2/7: LiveDC: Demetri Martin @ Warner Theatre