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Chip
Away
By
John Brodeur
Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Tigers & Monkeys
Valentine’s,
July 19
In
presenting a new song from his upcoming album Shake the
Sheets (due in October), ex-Chisel frontman Ted Leo mentioned
that a friend, upon hearing a demo of the song, referred to
it as “kind of like Irish punk Rush dub.” That phrase might
well be the best way to sum up Leo’s entire oeuvre—part Shane
MacGowan, part Feargal Sharkey, a little Geddy Lee, and a
lot Joe Strummer—and all of his roots were on display throughout
his hour-plus set with the Pharmacists at Valentine’s.
Our boy Ted is a productive fellow, with three full-length
records and a handful of EPs to show for his five years since
taking on the Pharmacists as a backing band, and it’s easy
to see why: The band are an accomplished bunch, dedicated
to serving Leo’s mod- and two-tone-flavored tunes. The three-piece
version of the Pharmacists (Dave Lerner on bass, Chris Wilson
on drums) that came to town July 19 was lean and mean, absent
the shrill keyboards of tours past that made the inevitable
Attractions comparisons more than apt. They revisited material
from each of their releases during the set, including two
of Leo’s finest, “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?” and
“Timorous Me,” both of which revealed another stylistic forebear,
classic rock; more specifically, Thin Lizzy.
While they were less flat-out stunning than they were the
last time out, the group maintained a fluid vibe that suited
the new songs well, especially the thunderous jungle beats
of “Little Dawn” and the warp-speed Costello-isms of “Me and
Mia.” Leo’s demeanor was that of a cool, well-read older brother
to the indie-rock throng who shook their scruffy thangs down
in front. More amiable and talkative than in previous area
appearances, he used anecdotes to introduce songs like “I’m
a Ghost,” which he explained was about “alienation from the
political process” (as opposed to drinking with dead folk).
The vaguely political vibe extended to a reverent, set-closing
take on the Stiff Little Fingers classic “Suspect Device”
and a solo encore of Ewan McColl’s “Dirty Old Town,” although
in Ted Leo’s hands, the lyric “I’m going to make a good sharp
axe, shining steel tempered in the fire, will chop you down
like an old dead tree” sounded less like a rallying cry than
a manifesto for his own brilliant, yet largely unappreciated
career.
Tigers & Monkeys, led by indie-rock hottie (sorry, couldn’t
resist mentioning that) ex-Ultrababyfat singer Shonali Bhowmik,
opened with a sleazy, bluesy, and appropriately underrehearsed
set that landed them somewhere between the White Stripes and
Helium (that would be somewhere around Buffalo?). Better said,
they were a lot like Le Tigre, plus instrumental talent, minus
the agenda. It took a while for the sound to get ironed out,
and the kick drum never sounded much better than the ass end
of an oil drum, but the shitty sonics actually seemed to benefit
tunes like “Vampire in a Dirty City” and the cranked-out “Stray
Cat Strut” vibe of “Fire Escape.”
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