Staff Blog
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Dec. 6, Starlight Ballroom
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| Photo | Matt Hotz |
If you stand front and center at a Ted Leo and the Pharmacists show, an airborne tambourine might nearly miss you. If you distract the band while setting up, Ted himself might mercilessly mock you. Shouting out a request might cause him to reenact an entire Bugs Bunny cartoon. And if you laugh at the drummer’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia reference, the band might just play "Day Man."
Thursday night at the Starlight Ballroom, they did all of the above. Ted Leo and his band mates always excel in a smaller venue, utilizing the charisma of the lead singer to diffuse unappealing situations like a broken snare, a rowdy group of hecklers or a faulty sound system. They also used the smaller crowd as an opportunity to play older material on this, the second leg of the band’s post-Living with the Living tour. Songs like "Biomusicology" and "I’m A Ghost" made the play list, as well as most of 2004’s Shake the Sheets.
Toward the end, Ted Leo thanked opening acts The Party Line and Kristeen Young and announced that they would not be returning on tour indefinitely due to a long-needed break. This was the cause of the heckling. Because without a regular visit from The Pharmacists, any fan starts to go through withdrawal.
I love Kaitlyn Foti. She is such an awesome writer. I wish I knew her in real life. She’d probably be my best friend.