Songwriting veterans Aimee Mann and Ted Leo joined forces as The Both Friday night at the 9:30 Club in a show that fell somewhere between an episode of The Best Show on WFMU and VH1 Storytellers.
This weekend the Black Cat invited old D.C. music stalwarts and promising new bands to celebrate the club’s 20th anniversary. Across the board, the performances from the weekend were spirited and the joy and reverence for the space, genuine. However, throughout the weekend-long party a few moments stood out.
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of D.C.’s favorite punk venue, we created this Spotify playlist. Enjoy!
While seeing the phrase, “playing The Tyranny of Distance in its entirety” on the Black Cat website under a very active artist like Ted Leo initially felt jarring, the show’s energy was purely celebratory.
This was the show Positive Force has wanted to put on for years: Ted Leo‘s return to his once-home further solidified how important he remains to the landscape of current punk rock.
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, Ted 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.
We’ve got a thing for Ted Leo, it’s true. (Really, how can you not love a guy who can so adroitly perform “Everybody Wants to Rule the World“?)
By DCist contributor Sarah Sherman Let’s face it. On Monday night, if you walked away from the 9:30 Club disappointed, you’re a heartless bastard. At the very least, you learned a little something about one of DC’s best music venues, with a cavalcade of talents sharing memories all night. But really, you should have savored the 13 acts celebrating the 30th anniversary of a club built on bleeding fingers, beating hearts and aching muscles. And…
In a year that saw its fair share of Springsteen-inspired punk, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists might be one of the few bands that can hold their own in such weighty lineage. If Springsteen mesmerizes tens of thousands as a workhorse of the arena, Leo’s gregarious charisma and sweat-drenched performances are entrenched in the glory of packed, low-lit clubs. Over the course of a marathon 20+ songs at the Black Cat on Thursday, Leo even…
Windy City pride was on full display pretty much everywhere this weekend, but it was perhaps no more rampant than at the Big Shoulders Ball, hosted jointly by the Hideout nightclub in Chicago and the Black Cat, benefitting the Future of Music Coalition. At the top of the bill were some big names like Andrew Bird and Ted Leo, and some legendary Chi-town music scene vets, like Eleventh Dream Day and the Waco Brothers.
