Pitchfork

The only indie rocker you need a dictionary to listen to is extending his current spring tour to the end of May: Ted Leo and his merry band of Pharmacists will be hitting both coasts in the next few weeks. Leo is touring behind his third solo LP, Hearts of Oak, which was released last month on Lookout!, and frankly, kicks some serious ass. But, on a technicality here, it falls just short of kicking quite as much ass as the Leo live experience, which is so intense that Pitchfork's own Editor-in-Chief left saying, "I'm pretty much gay for him."

n So if you're stuck in a solid routine of coming home from work and scanning channels for the latest reality series, it's not the time to ossify (Leo vocab word meaning to become hardened or conventional and opposed to change); dash out to your local indie rock club to get your sex-preference switched by the baddest-ass live event since Jehu rose from the dead. Leo may even send you home with a tambourine or two (as he did a pal o' mine in Atlanta). El Guapo, who Leo professed to dig in a recent Pitchfork interview, will be opening for most of the shows in May, which will eventually end with a benefit gig alongside the breaking-up-is-hard-to-do Dismemberment Plan for Washington's Fort Reno concert series. Dates:

n 03-31 Buffalo, NY - Mohawk Place @
04-01 Hamilton, ON - The Underground
04-02 Toronto, ON - Rivoli
04-03 Ottawa, ON - Bumpers #
04-04 Montreal, QC - Casa Del Popolo
04-05 Bennington, VT - Bennington College
04-06 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street
04-08 Bound Brook, NJ - Hamilton Street Café (solo show)
05-01 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom Tavern $
05-03 Urbana, IL - Courtyard Café
05-04 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle *
05-05 Milwaukee, WI - The Cactus Club %
05-06 Chicago, IL - Fireside Bowl %
05-07 St. Louis, MS - Creepy Crawl %
05-08 Omaha, NE - Sokol Underground %
05-09 Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck %
05-10 Denver, CO - Climax %
05-11 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court %
05-14 Seattle, WA - Graceland %
05-16 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill %
05-17 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour %
05-18 San Diego, CA - Casbah %
05-19 Tucson, AZ - Solar Culture Gallery %
05-22 Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves %
05-23 Fayetteville, AR - JRs Lightbulb Club ^
05-24 Little Rock, AR - Vinos ^
05-28 Washington, DC - Black Cat &

n @ w/ Pele, 33 Slade, Palomar
# w/ North of America
$ w/ Gripweeds
* w/ El Guapo, Sweet Heat
% w/ El Guapo
^ w/ El Guapo, Heads Are Heavy
& w/ Dismemberment Plan, El Guapo

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