Photo by James Calder

It’s more than just a lack of drums and bass that differentiates a Ted Leo solo show from one of his shows with the Pharmacists. Admittedly, Leo is plugging in and playing many of the same songs that we’ve heard at the 9:30 Club and on the Black Cat’s mainstage, but solo shows are more intimate affairs peppered with extensive and eye-opening monologues. Here are a few things that Saturday night’s solo show taught us about Ted Leo.

He savors the opportunity to talk to the crowd. Ted Leo has long been one of indie rock’s most entertaining banterers, but at solo shows, his quips turn into outright stories. When one fan jokingly called out, “less talk, more rock,” the man on stage turned to his left and quipped right back. “This is a solo show,” said Leo. “You do know what you signed up for, right?”

He gives more credit to his influences. It’s not unusual for Leo to insert covers into his set. He gave one of the strongest performances on the A.V. Club Undercover series last year, his live shows have included covers of everything from Kelly Clarkson to Cocksparrer and he recorded a cover of Ewan MacColl’s “Dirty Old Town” on his (primarily) solo album in 2003. “Dirty Old Town” made an appearance in Saturday night’s set, but Leo’s covers of choice were “Fisherman’s Blues” by the Waterboys (which he dubbed “Celtic emo”) and “Do Anything You Want to Do,” by Eddie and the Hot Rods (“pre-punk pub rock”, by Leo’s description.) He also quoted KISS’s Paul Stanley, complete with vocal impersonation.

Photo by James Calder

He is more than happy to interact with his audience. Usually, “what’s going on?” is a rhetorical question that’s only meant to induce loud and unintelligible screams. Ted will actually oblige questions for awhile before ending the conversation with “you should probably e-mail me about that,” and actively encourages sing-a-longs. “You know that faint singing along that happened during that song and the past couple of songs?” he said after his performance of Living With the Living standout “Colleen”. “Always do that.” He also gave the audience a chance to sing along in a less faint fashion, stepping away from the microphone and pulling out an acoustic guitar for viral hit “Bottled in Cork,” letting the audience do just as much of the vocal legwork.

His guitar solos are extremely impressive. Yes, this statement goes into “Captain Obvious” territory, but without drums, keyboards and bass to draw the audience’s attention, the complexity of Leo’s riffs become all the more apparent. This is especially obvious during songs that he hasn’t recorded with the Pharmacists (and therefore doesn’t regularly play with them), such as “The Sword in the Stone.” What the performances of tunes like “Under the Hedge” lose in power from the added instrumentation, they gains in nuance — and songs like that seemed especially moving on Saturday.