Live Preview - Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

It’s a good week to be a Chicagoan! On top of having a three day music/arts festival pull up down the block from me this weekend, I’ve also been graced with not one but two visits from punk torch-carries Theodore Francis Leo and his Pharmacists.


In the best use of taxpayer money in the history of the world, Ted and the boys will be playing a free show Monday Night at architectural and sonic gem Millennium Park as part of the city's Downtown Sound series. Tuesday night however, I won’t have to do anything more than hop on the #74 bus for The Fireside Bowl, a classic Chicago punk club/bowling alley that Ted has been playing for over a decade.

I’ll have reviews later in the week. Meanwhile, here’s your sweet taste below.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Ted’s first full band album, The Tyranny Of Distance, an all-time great album that Jess Harvel once described as “the sound of R.E.M.-style jangle stretched tight until it turned to punk.” The band played the album in its entirety earlier this month at the South Port Seaport Festival. Are treasures such as My Vein Ilin, Parrallel Or Together or St. John The Divine in store this week?

If not, never fear, this is a band that remains Spoon-like in its album consistency and the new one is shaping up nicely. You might be treated to the first full band look at “The Smug Little Supper Club,” a clever and catchy send-up of snobs worthy of Elvis Costello.

Why aren't you buying Ted Leo music right now?