It's a credit to Ted Leo's ability as a performer that I wasn't really in the mood to go out last night and he still blew me away. Other than "Sons of Cain," I'm not really feeling the new record, which he delved into quite a bit last night, although "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb" sounded much better than the recorded version. The biggest cheers were for his older material, specifically "Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone" and "Counting Down The Hours." Also, the Pharmacists are a three piece now, so the sound as a whole was filled out much better than the last few tours. I'm still not comfortable seeing him in big spaces like the 9:30 Club though. I think his shows work best at tiny clubs with sweat dripping from the ceiling, but judging by the size of the crowd last night, those venues might be a thing of the past for Ted, at least in major cities.

Ms. Smith and I were beat, so we left a bit early, but I still had a good time and a smile on my face when I left the venue. Love of Diagrams were a pretty good opener. I loved their guitars but their singing was a bit rough. If you get a chance to see them on this tour, let me know what you think.

NPR webcast last night's show, so head over to All Songs Considered to listen or download the show. Joel was there taking photos, so I'm sure his slide show will be online soon if it's not already.

My photos of the night can be found here. I edited these in a hurry late last night, so I may post more photos later if/when I have time to go back through them.

My big night of concert hopping never materialized, as I didn't get Dean & Britta tickets. I was really looking forward to hearing "Moon Palace" and "Chinatown" but I couldn't really justify paying $30 for half a show. Especially when I'm off to Europe in less than a month. I'll just have to watch my Luna DVD over the weekend and hope they tour again soon.

Tuesday's Cold War Kids show was fairly craptastic. I hate to agree with Pitchfork, but they were all flash and no substance. I didn't like them at all. Actually I liked two songs, "Hospital Beds" and "Hang Me Up To Dry," you know - the ones with verses and choruses, but other than that I was bored to tears. Same with Tokyo Police Club and that other band that opened. Booooring. Also, I got screwed on my photo pass, so I wasn't exactly in the best of moods.

Back to the world of the NBA tonight. The Raptors are in town.

[via Kottke]

Hear me now, believe me later, the future is bright for The Changes. You don't create and perfect a sound that takes the Boo Radleys' song writing, adds in Teenage Fanclub's harmonies and some Marr-like riffage and stay anonymous very long. At least in my corner of the internets.

I had seen them once before, late last year at the Rock N Roll Hotel and was a bit underwhelmed, but only just. The band was a bit aloof on stage and the pacing of their set was a bit suspect. Well, they've improved both those things and their show on Saturday at the Recher Theater in Towson, Md. was well worth a trip to the land of people that don't drive so good.

The Recher is a larger version of the Rock N Roll Hotel that at first glance looks a bit worse for the wear, but it's a nice little room with a great soundsystem, tall stage and most importantly, an actual pro-level lighting rig!

The band put on a very energetic show, which was not easy to do seeing as that there were less than 40 people in attendance (and that includes the other two bands). And now that I've seen them twice, I don't think the band is necessarily aloof, they're just too busy switching instruments between every song to stop and chat with the crowd.

I think they played a new song to start out the set, but from there, they focused mainly on the material from Today Is Tonight, one of my favorite records of 2006. The pacing problems that plagued their previous show were fixed by moving the slower songs like "On A String" to the latter part of the set and working out a new, sped up arrangement of "Sisters" that kept everything moving along nicely. Smiths-ian tunes like "Water on the Gods" and "Modern Love" were full of jangly goodness and set closer "Her, You and I" brought the house down.

Consider me fully on board The Changes' bandwagon, that is, if there is such a thing. If not, it starts here. If you didn't catch them on this tour, fear not. After taking April off, they'll be back out on the road in May with The Cinematics. They'll be hitting the Rock n Roll Hotel on their way through D.C., so when I get the date, I'll be sure to let you know.

In the meantime, download some tracks from the band:
WOXY has a Lounge Act by the band available to download.
Daytrotter also has a set just waiting to be downloaded. I highly recommend "Her, You and I" and "Water of the Gods," the best stab at "This Charming Man" that I've heard in quite some time.
You can also stream some music on their MySpace page.

All my photos from the night are over on Flickr.

Friday I took my first ever trip up to American University to catch Snow Patrol, OK Go & Silversun Pickups play Bender Arena. For a basketball gym, it's not a bad venue at all. There's plenty of room to move around on the floor and there are an abundance of seats along the side and back of the gym, so everybody's happy. The sound was great too. Can we move all the shows at DAR up here ASAP?

As for the gig, I viewed Snow Patrol as a second rate u2 going into the show and my opinion hasn't really changed that much, but they were still much better than I thought they'd be. Gary Lightbody is a very capable front man and he's skilled at grabbing the crowd's attention and not letting go. Playing all those songs with big choruses that people love to sing along to certainly doesn't hurt. Crowd participation is a big part of their show, so I think seeing them in a big arena is the way to go. They stayed away from most of the stuff I know off of Final Straw, but all in all, not too bad.

I had seen OK Go once before, opening for Rufus Wainwright. I wasn't very impressed back then or with their set on Friday. Their songs sounded unremarkable and hooks were far and few between. The best thing they did all night was a cover of ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down." I think at this point it's safe to say I'm not a fan. However, I will give them propers for not dancing this time.

I've gone on record many times saying that I think the Silversun Pickups are bovs and they did not let me down. They were alloted a very short set, which was perfect for them because they played their five or six best songs and got the hell out of there. When I saw them last year, I predicted they'd be mega once they got a proper sound system behind them and I was right. They'll be ready to headline shows like this in a few years.

Related:
Check out my Silversun Pickups interview from last year.
Silversun Pickups on AOL's The Interface.
Silversun Pickups on Woxy's Lounge Acts.
Scroll down for all three Silversun Pickups performances at KEXP.

As far as I can remember, that was the first time I've had the opportunity to shoot an arena show and I was unsure as to how to go about it. I brought all four of my lenses and it took me a long time to figure out which one worked best. The SSPU's were lit by this searing blue light and red fills and OK Go was bathed in straight red and I had a hard time getting any good shots. Snow Patrol's set was easier because they relied more on their lighted backdrop and some straight flood lights. I always bitch about not having enough light to shoot shows, right? Well Friday I got what I asked for and I had a hard time coping. Every time I start thinking I'm getting good at this photo thing, I have a gig like this that sets me straight.

No rest for the wicked though. I have a very full week ahead of me. I might be going to see The Decemberists in Bethesda tonight(although I doubt the tickets will come through), then there's Say Hi To Your Mom and De Novo Dahl on Tuesday, Cold War Kids on Wednesday, Ted Leo on Thursday, Raps @ Wiz on Friday. Whew.

I put on a hell of a show last night at DC9 if I do say so myself. We had a good crowd considering there is a sheet of ice blanketing the U Street corridor. And while I would have liked it if more people showed up, the upstairs was pretty crowded and there were never more than three people at the bar downstairs during the show, so everyone that came out came to see the rock. And good lord did Pela bring it. Wow! You really need to go see them and be prepared to rock out when you do. I kept comparing them to a cross between the Old 97's and War-era u2 before the show, but they reminded me more of The Hold Steady last night. Great tunes and a big, fuck off rock sound. They were insanely great. When their set was done, the crowd wouldn't let them leave. They ended up playing three extra songs, including a cover of the Pixies' "Holiday Song."

These United States were no slouches either. Jesse and Co. put n a very engaging show that veered from slow country jams to full-on boogie workouts. Best. People were coming up to me all night saying how much they liked their set. I can't wait to see them again. John and Laura, our resident DJ's for the evening, played New Edition and the Geto Boys, so hey, what more can you ask for?

I declare Unbuckled 5 a success!

You can see all of my Unbuckled 5 photos over on Flickr.