Countless musical artists think that going solo means going acoustic. While there isn’t anything wrong with the coffee house approach (Ben Folds and Jackson Browne have been perfecting the me-and-my-piano-against-the-world thing for years), it shouldn’t hinder an artist from busting out their more rocking tunes. Still, many musicians tend to play it safe, so I had reason to believe that a Ted Leo solo show would mean a setlist chock full of his slower, acoustic ballads (i.e. “The Gold Finch And The Red Oak Tree”) or faster album tracks that only featured him and his guitar (a good deal of material off of Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead).

Boy was I wrong.

While the audience at AV-Aerie did get a handful of tracks that retained their studio solo structure, we were mostly treated to songs normally supported by Leo’s crack band The Pharmacists, as well as a hefty number of mostly obscure, jaw-droppingly enjoyable covers, none of which were solo performances in their original versions.

Before we go any further, a huge thanks is due to the folks at AV Aerie, who provided the audience with one of the most entertaining, casual, and welcoming concerts I’ve ever attended. The venue, the third floor of a gutted office building nestled in the industrial district of Chicago’s West Loop, was the size of a large classroom, and even with a sold out crowd, it never felt cramped or claustrophobic. The tickets were dirt cheap, the staff was incredibly friendly, everything started on time, there were no grating promotions littering the walls, no one was pushy – I could go on and on about everything they did right. The stage was a basic platform, the only scenic dressing a large canvas draped over the performance area like a canopied mosquito net. The bare bones approach was most appropriate for a solo show, especially one from Ted Leo, who has to be the most unpretentious guys on the indie rock scene.

But yeah, AV Aerie, you guys rock. Seriously. Phew. On to the review.

Leo nonchalantly stepped up to the stage with his deep brown, electric Gibson Les Paul (the guitar he would use for the entire night), quickly did a soundcheck that consisted of nothing but a few bars of “Magic Man” by Heart, and went into “To Whom You Were Born”, a cover song originally by Baltimore punkers Lungfish. Shy, quirky opening act Tim Kinsella opened his set with a Lungfish cover as well, in what Leo described as a failed attempt to “bookend” the performances.

Leo’s first original song of the evening was the ironically titled “You Could Die (Or This Might End)”, the closing number off of 2001’s The Tyranny Of Distance. His pipes were pitch perfect from the get go, his vibrato-tinged, near falsetto nailing every note, a quality of his that often gets lost within the live cyclone of bass and drums from The Pharmacists. It was a pleasure to hear him flex his vocal chords in such an exposed environment.

Like “You Could Die”, the studio versions of the next few songs only featured Leo and his trebley strings. They fit right in with a solo outing. Although they were beyond expertly executed, the first huge surprise of the evening came with “The High Party”, a choice cut from 2003’s Hearts Of Oak normally defined by its fuzz bass, organ, and Chris Wilson’s madman drumming. Although the band was absent, Leo performed it as if they were right there with him, refusing to lower the volume on his guitar or the furious energy of his vocals, yet still hitting all the proper tweaks for a solid performance. He bounced around the stage, spastically jerking through full band live staples such as “Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?” and “Me And Mia” like a kid playing broomstick guitar in his bedroom.

He didn’t just stick to power chords either. Leo’s axe was a one man band, soloing as a substitute for the tin whistle on “Bottle Of Buckie”, acting as both lead and bass on a cover of Mark Mulcahy’s twisted yet heartbreaking descent into adulthood, “Fathering”, and crunching through the nervous pace of “Bleeding Powers”. The audience even served as the percussion’s entrance for the classic “Timorous Me”, knowingly clapping for each snare drum snap that introduces the end of the song.

Not everything was perfect of course. Leo struggled with some of the more difficult solos (his guitar noodling eventually had to transform into whistling on “Bottle Of Buckie”), but it was completely within the raw feel of the evening. It added to its intimacy. It let us know that we were watching a guy onstage give his all with nothing but his voice and guitar. A flawless performance would have been boring.

The remainder of the setlist was a fan’s dream, Leo unearthing forgotten gems like “(none),” a diamond in the rough of his dynamic, yet wildly uneven debut, tej leo (?), Rx/pharmacists. Despite being sandwiched between a flurry of experimental dub tracks on its original release, “(none)” sounded right at home with his newer, more cohesive material; a bittersweet song about a girl with a dash of Leo’s trademark politics thrown in for good measure. He introduced a brand new song that was similar in tone, giving the audience some insight into his writing process. “This was another failed attempt to write a love song that got mixed in with all the other shit going on in my head.” But then again, that’s what makes his music so compelling. It’s political enough to satisfy the revolutionary in all of us, but sentimental and carefully crafted enough to appeal to us romantics.

He kept the stage banter loose, talking after nearly every song, but not in a way that was cheeky or contrived, cracking sheepish (which made them hilarious) jokes about sweating and his guitar being “wet,” a term that became a sort of running gag throughout the rest of the evening. Whenever he went on about his nervousness concerning solo shows, a challenge he hasn’t taken on since before he first formed The Pharmacists, the crowd gave him their full support. At one point during his rambling, an enthusiastic fan screamed “you’re among friends!” Leo smiled, musing “right on,” launching straight into his next song, letting the audience know that was all he needed to here.

For his final cut, Leo gave the audience a choice between one of two “New Jersey folk songs.” After the audience went with choice B, but then demanded that he play both, Leo chuckled and said “fuck you guys, I’m doing A,” before launching into his best cover of the night, “Union City Blue” by Blondie. The secret to its success was Leo’s sincerity. He wasn’t performing the song to be ironic or funny. He was doing it because he really loved the song. It didn’t sound like Ted Leo covering Blondie. It sounded like Ted Leo doing Ted Leo. After an earthquake of applause filled the room, Leo decided to go ahead and play choice B anyway, the fan favorite cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark”. Nuff said.

As he stepped off the stage as unglamorously as he had entered to talk to some adoring fans, the rest of us ventured out into the brisk night, marveling at the rarity we had just witnessed: a rocking show that didn’t leave your ears bleeding.

“A Bottle of Buckie” (Live at AV-Aerie)

Setlist:
“To Whom You Were Born” (Lungfish cover)
“You Could Die (Or This Might End)”
“Nothing Much To Say”
“Nobody’s Driving” (Amebix cover)
“The Sword In The Stone”
“The High Party”
“Bleeding Powers”
? *
“The Nice People Argument”
“Fathering” (Mark Mulcahy cover)
“Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?”
“Colleen”
“Bottle Of Buckie”
“Do Anything You Wanna Do” (Eddie And The Hot Rods cover)
“Pigsville” (The Waco Brothers cover)
Untitled new song
“The Ballad Of The Sin Eater”
“(none)”
“A Heart Needs A Home” (Richard Linda Thompson cover)
“Me And Mia”
Timorous Me”
“Union City Blue” (Blondie cover)
“Dancing In The Dark” (Bruce Springsteen cover)

*Note: I didn’t recognize the eighth song in the set list and couldn’t find the lyrics online. If anyone knows what it is, please say so in the comments section