Rock on the water, Ted Leo in the sky

City sponsored concerts don’t seem like the kind of place you’d find a kind of band like this. Flanked by Pizzeria UNO and a stop for the water taxi, Ted Leo and the crowd of hipsters and outcasts they drew stuck out like a sore thumb on the touristy Pier 17. Which is what made the show that much better. In the overcast night with the Brooklyn skyline glittering in the background, I bet the cars speeding by on the FDR wished they were down for the party.

Openers DC Snipers warmed up the crowd with a moderate show of fuzz guitars and tight jeans. It was enjoyable, toe-tapping rock, but nothing too out of the ordinary for these deceivingly-not-from-DC guys. Coming into this show, I didn’t know much about Ted Leo. I had liked what I heard but hearings were sporadic and often in the background of various parties. But I was always interested, and it was a free show in my home city so I figured I should make an appearance. If anything can be said about Ted Leo + the Pharmacists live is that they are fucking tight. Going through the clean, swaying riffs of “Biomusicology” or the clangy chords of “Dial Up,” they play perfectly together, which is especially hard to do outside. No one was wanting for more vocals or less bass, and everyone was having fun. And in a crowd of jaded New York hipsters, who take pride in their inability to be impressed, this is quite an accomplishment. By the time they came around to “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?” (with the irresistibly sing along-able “ooh eee ooh eee ooh” falsetto that sounds oddly like Josie and the Pussycats) no one could help but dancing. God knows how they kept it up for over two hours, but they did, never slacking off but sometimes robbing the crowd of their desire to sing along by testing out new songs. They played with the punk rock ethic of Leo’s past but with a cooler and more evolved sound. It’s punk rock for the liberal-arts major crowd.

A band like Ted Leo will probably never have a hit, but will always have a devoted following. Theirs is the name that will pop up in bar conversations in between who’s playing at NorthSix and unfiltered Lucky Strike breaks outside. But their fan base is wider than you’d think. There were teenagers and 40 year olds of all walks of life enjoying the scene outside, and probably more wandering in to see what all the noise was about. Maybe they’ll go home and look through the back catalog of all their albums, or maybe they continued on to the Sharper Image. But that night the fans didn’t want to be anywhere else.