What Also Happened Two Saturdays Ago

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists played a bar gig at Skully's downtown in Columbus. Pat and Jonathan carpooled down with Jim for the road trip, because as you will know, Jim was in town for far better reasons. So, en route to the Arena District (you know, Neil Ave, best part of town?) we dropped Pat and Jon off at Skully's to waste an hour or so while Jim and I sped off to BD's (a Columbus tradition that Jim seems to always pay for...) and then "Weird Al." Well, around the same time Jim and I were finding seats on the grass, probably an hour and a half from when we left the boys off in the Short North, Pat texts us and the long and short of his message is:

Ted Leo doesn't really start playing until 11 or 12, you'll probably be able to make it.



Now, I've always liked Ted Leo, he was one of those bands that I picked up via proxy from Pat, Jon, Jim and Porter (see Hold Steady post to come). In fact, I'd go as far as to say, I really liked Ted Leo. Not as much as the others, who have crossed state lines more than once to see him play in Pittsburgh, or Philly for that matter. But I'd always been wanting to tag along. With no excuse, Jim and I finished up at "Weird Al," and crossed town to see The Pharmacists.

We were two or three songs late, but it was cool, the dude at the door let us in for half of the cover charge, and proceeded to get rocked. Old school punk kind of rocked. It was absolutely awesome; the sound was operated awfully, Ted Leo's guitar had broke earlier, and, well, so what? It was a dirty, bar, rock and roll kind of show, and that's what mattered.

Most of the fans were sort of boring, or bored maybe, but there were a few guys in the middle, including myself, who let the music carry them, fists towards the grungy roof jumping and shouting out the occasional lyric and just going crazy. It was awesome; it had been a long time since a good old fashion rock show for me, and it was totally worth it. And when the band ripped into "Colleen," my favorite Ted Leo track, off of the album one before "The Brutalist Bricks," I went nuts. Ted was shouting lyrics, the crowd was shouting back, and the whole place was a big explosion of sound.



People often ask me why I spend so much money on concerts. That is in no way true, but if they did, I would try to give them this kind of feeling: loud, unquestionable moments of complete perfection, where the audience and the bands, the vocals and the guitars are fist-fighting with the amps, it's just too good to pass up.

And the only way to know how that feels is to see some shows.