Catching Up: Ted Leo, Margot, Nuclear So and Sos

So I keep forgetting to do a proper write-up for this past Saturday's Ted Leo show at the 9:30 Club, as well as Monday night's Margot & the Nuclear So & Sos show at the Black Cat (I skipped Le Loup who were headlining that night).

At this point it's all pretty moot, so I'll just say this -- Ted's show was excellent. Not the best I've seen from him, but still very good. The Margot show, on the other hand, kinda underwhelmed me. This is the second (third?) time I've seen them, and they always seem to be in a bad mood. The extent of frontman Richard Edwards' between song banter was to announce how many more songs they had, and to complain about how he wasn't accustomed to playing at "5 in the afternoon" (n.b., they went on stage at 8:45pm). The band actually sounded pretty damn good, but they didn't play with a whole lot of life, and, worst of all, I can't say I was terribly impressed with the new songs they played. I'm hoping it was just an off night for the new material, because I absolutely adored The Dust of Retreat.