Ted Leo at Union Pool (photo by Ray Rusinak)

 

Williamsburg music venue, Union Pool, has been hosting a weekly free concert series every Tuesday and this week’s artist was Ted Leo with opening support act Tami Hart. With early sets and free drink tickets at the door, these Tuesday nights have been a perfect way to get out on a weekday night and have some fun. (You can read about last week at the Pool with Downtown Boys and Oceanator right here.) It looks like these shows will continue through at least the month of February as well, so if you find yourself with nothing to do on a Tuesday evening, do yourself a favor and head on over to the corner of Union and Meeker.

 

I arrived shortly after 7pm and not surprisingly found the line to get into the room wrapped around the outside patio area. Fortunately, the line moved quickly and I was inside in almost no time. The trouble was, so were another 200 or so people.  The words “packed crowd” are often used exaggeratedly to describe a venue for a show, in this case I use no hyperbole.  The room was shoulder to shoulder, “one can barely move” packed.

 

Tami Hart and her band (Adrienne Lloyd on bass and Kate Ryan on drums along with Hart on guitar) took the stage promptly at 8pm. Quite a cute touch was the presence of Ryan’s two pre-school children waiting in the wings stage right. Hart and her bandmates proceeded to provide us with an enjoyable set of indie flavored country rock. As a former southerner presently residing in New York City, Tami’s set certainly presented a fitting cross section of both down home country mashed up with the grit and dirt of city life. The bulk of the set consisted of songs from the upcoming EP, Thanks For Saying Hi, out in April.

[Editor’s note: I saw Tami Hart play numerous times in the early aughts as a “baby gay” and her two albums, 2000’s No Light In August and 2002’s What Passed Between Us remain personal favorites to this day. Both are available on Bandcamp and I highly recommend them- KH.]

 

 

While setting up his equipment on stage, Leo joked with the crowd about various subjects, one of which was the ominous temperature in the room. Upon completing his stage crew duties he informed us that he would be right back after he changed out of his mock turtleneck and sweater. Returning shortly thereafter in just a button down short sleeve shirt, Leo prefaced the evening with a warning to the crowd that he had no idea where things were going to go but since this was a free show, we were going to have to live with the results. He then jumped right into it with his usual set opener, “Nothing Much To Say.”

 

Ted Leo

 

Leo proceeded to share numerous stories and anecdotes throughout the evening since, as he explained, the crowd was being so respectful and quiet while he tuned, and the silence on stage drove him crazy, so he felt obliged to ramble on. Of course nobody in the very hot room minded all that much. At one point, I believe after “Building Skyscrapers in The Basement,” he stressed how much of a fan he was of the Irish folk tradition, going as far to say that it might be the biggest influence on his songwriting style. That and whiskey drinking of course.

 

Moving forward, he offered up a choice to the crowd, the set could go forward in a more traditional Ted Leo kind of way, or it could venture deep into “the well” of weirdness. In any event, almost unanimously the crowd chose the latter. And since we were pre-warned, he delved into a traditional Irish folk song about an Irish labor leader done acapella and in full Irish brogue.

 

The rest of Leo’s set was a career spanning retrospective replete with numerous Pharmacist songs, solo efforts, covers and even a Chisel tune (“The Town Crusher”) thrown in for good measure. One particular highlight for me was his performance of “Counting Down The Hours” from 2004’s Pharmacist album Shake The Sheets. A song which he rarely plays and one which he stated he’d never done without a band before, he was somewhat concerned about the more raucous lead guitar parts, but to these ears (at the very least) he nailed it.

 

 

Upon the completion of one of his newer songs, “I’m Like You,” he stated that this was the part of the show where he would normally leave the stage since the show was technically over, but in this case he was just going to hang on for one more. Offering up a cover version of Scottish artist and activist Hamish Imlach’s “Cod Liver Oil and Orange Juice”.

 

All in all, it was a fantastic set of new, old, familiar and not so much. Leo provided a perfect combination of both musicianship and levity to make for a well spent Tuesday evening in a sweltering hot and cramped room of friends and strangers.

 

Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Ray Rusinak)

 

TAMI HART

 

TED LEO