Ted Leo.

Ted Leo, Titus Andronicus, So So Glos
Shea Stadium
Monday, November 21

Better than: Getting into another political argument on Tumblr.

In honor of last night's benefit for the National Lawyers Guild at Shea Stadium, the letters "OWS," for "Occupy Wall Street," were haphazardly applied to the wall behind the stage in black tape, the "O" specifically incomplete. The PA played radical punk, metal and hip-hop that was socially recognizable—communal, even. When Rage Against the Machine's "Bombtrack" trickled out of the speakers, a horizon line of mutual unconscious headbanging sprang up.

Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles looked gaunt and crazed as he walked across the stage, courting the unselfconscious space between complete wild engagement and weird sensitive coiling. He encouraged the crowd to go wild but within responsible terms, quoting Bob Dylan's "Absolutely Sweet Marie": "To live outside the law/ You must be honest."

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Benjamin Lozovsky

Newly minted social-media strategist (and Titus Andronicus frontman) Patrick Stickles.

If you aren't doing anything this evening, perhaps you'd like to catch this hot bill that's playing tonight at Shea Stadium: Ted Leo, Titus Andronicus, and the So So Glos. The show, which was announced last night, will benefit the National Lawyer's Guild, who's working with people in need of legal assistance because of their involvement with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Tickets are $15 a pop and go on sale at noon today at Main Drag Music's Bushwick Supply Store, located at 268 Meserole Street. Sales will be capped at 200 and tickets won't be sold at the door, so if you're interested in attending maybe you should, you know, go out there to get on line now. Titus Andronicus singer Patrick Stickles wrote a long blog post about the event, and it includes this reasoning behind having the show at the low-capacity Shea Stadium as opposed to, say, the Music Hall of Williamsburg or another large space:

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In Waste Of Paint, our writer/artist team of Jamie Peck and Debbie Allen will review goings-on about town in words and images.

Sweaty DIY venues are great, but even Waste Of Paint needs a break from them once in a while. Furthermore, I haven't been leaving my dark cave much lately, and my chalky skin is starting to convince me that maybe I should. It was with all this in mind that Debbie and I set out to spend as much time outdoors as possible this weekend. Luckily, it just so happened that four great bands were booked to play en plain air at the South Street Seaport.

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Matias Corral

You're forgiven for wondering if the Sound Of The City is really just a gussied-up Ted Leo fansite, but we argue that's the only natural reaction to his glorious existence. Ted Leo is many things: insightful songwriter; leave-it-all-on-the-stage performer; great interview subject. But above all, Ted Leo is a man of the people. If you're totally broke, he has your back. As he's written, "For a long time, I've tried to do a free outdoor show here at home, in New York City, every summer." Saturday evening will see another as Ted Leo and his trusty band of Pharmacists, as well as fellow Jersey punks the Screaming Females, take the stage at the Village Voice's 4Knots Music Festival Kickoff at Pier 17 on the South Street Seaport.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ted's outdoor tradition, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists will do a full-length performance of their 2001 debut The Tyranny Of Distance. (Just don't call it a nostalgia thing.) After many years in various punk groups and an experimental solo debut, Distance introduced the Ted Leo template we know and love today, and it helped inject politics, soulful singing and punk for people too old for the Warped Tour into the early aught-music scene. To celebrate 10 years of free shows, we searched the internet for five of the best moments from his annual outdoor outings.

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Ted Leo and the Pharmacists' set at the 4Knots Music Festival kickoff show—taking place July 9 at Pier 17 on the South Street Seaport with openers Screaming Females—will have the band playing their 2001 album The Tyranny Of Distance in its entirety. But don't expect a big "remember the '00s"-fest to ensue; Ted says, "This is not a big nostalgia trip! We're not doing it to place [Tyranny] in some sort of 'classic albums" necropolis! We've been mostly on tour for the entire ten years since this album came out, and rarely has a night gone by that we haven't played at least a few songs from it—it's as alive to us now as it was when it was first released! We (or 'I') have never 'broken up' and moved on to other things, so we're not getting back together to celebrate 'what was'—this is and always has been our life, and we're celebrating a milestone in that life!" There's more on the topic at his site, in a post that will, he says, be amended throughout the week; above, footage of the band playing that album's "Stove By A Whale" during the Great Blackout Show Of 2003. And for more 4Knots information, head right this way.

The kickoff party for the 4Knots Music Festival—a prelude to July 16's big fest, headlined by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists—takes place at South Street Seaport's Pier 17 on July 9, and is it going to start off with a bang: Opening the show will be shred-happy New Brunswick trio Screaming Females, whose sheer greatness has been chronicled in this space before. Above, the video for "Laura & Marty" from their stellar 2010 album Castle Talk; the full rundown of 4Knots-related events below.

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Shawn Brackbill

In preparation for the brand-new 4Knots Music Festival on July 16, the Voice is holding a kickoff show at the South Street Seaport exactly one week before, on July 9. Headlining that free, all-ages show, which starts at 6 p.m., will be Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. Leo is, of course, fresh off covering Minor Threat for the Our Band Could Be Your Life tribute concert over the weekend; he played the 4Knots predecessor Siren in 2003 and last year; and he and the Seaport have quite the history, weather-and-concert-wise. After the jump, videos of Ted Leo & the Pharmacists playing the Seaport in 2003--during that summer's big blackout; the show was powered by a generator--and Siren in 2010.

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Above, the ever-fierce Merrill Garbus (dba tUnE-yArDs) takes on Sonic Youth's "The Burning Spear" at last night's Our Band Could Be Your Concert, the multi-act musical tribute to the bridge between the DIY pioneers chronicled in Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life and indie acts of today. A few other clips from the evening--including a couple of Nirvana covers, in a nod to Azerrad's bio of the band--after the jump.

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Ted Leo; Dan Deacon; Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak.

Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life is one of the definite accounts of the 1980's independent rock scene and the rise of alternative culture. But unlike many cultural historians, Azerrad has little use for nostalgia. When the Voice talked to him about the Our Band Could Be Your Concert--the 10th-anniversary celebration of the book, which takes place tomorrow--he was just as excited about the young bands playing on the bill as the icons getting honored. This concert isn't just about the past to Azerrad; it's about showing where indie rock came from and where it's going.

Expect the Bowery's green room at Bowery to be a bit of a mutual appreciation society, then, because many of the younger bands on the bill have credited Band with either exposing them to favorite acts or detailing the do-it-yourself, "anyone can be in a band" practical ethics of Black Flag, Fugazi and The Minutemen.

For our story on the concert, we talked to a few of the bill's most exciting young artists: electronic composer/dance machine Dan Deacon (who is covering The Butthole Surfers); Jenn Wasner of Baltimore quiet-loud duo Wye Oak (who are covering Dinosaur Jr.); and Voice favorite, era link and DIY veteran Ted Leo (who is covering Minor Threat). Of course, there was only so much room for their insights in the print edition. So for your reading pleasure, we have edited together, from three separate interviews, the artists' thoughts about finding inspiration and linking the past to the future.

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This show is crazy: To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life -- an exhaustive history of '80s-indie giants from Sonic Youth to Fugazi to Black Flag -- the Bowery Ballroom is hosting a one-night-only parade of modern alt. superstars covering the bands profiled in the book: Ted Leo playing Minor Threat, Tune-Yards playing Sonic Youth, and someone named Delicate Steve handling the Minutemen. It's all happening May 22; per Brooklyn Vegan, the lineup so far:

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