Ted Leo (pictured) and The Pharmacists play tonight and tomorrow at the 930 Club. Doors open at 9.

Poor Ted Leo. The locally identified front man of The Pharmacists, who will be playing back to back 930 shows tonight and tomorrow, tried to do a nice thing by looking at our site before I interviewed him. Unfortunately, he made the terrible mistake of looking up thenewgay.com. As anyone who has mixed up those three little letters knows, thenewgay.com is a very different internet experience that at least one of our readers has described as “old men fucking kittens.” But Leo was a good sport about it and everything afterwards went well.

Most bands that come through D.C. don’t really know the city, so it was nice to speak with someone who has actually lived here…and lived here much longer than I. Leo’s opinions on gentrification, the D.C. music scene and why he has gay fans (along with a longer bio) can be found beneath the fold.

Ted Leo was born in New Jersey in 1970 and spent several post-college years in New York before moving to D.C. in 1990. He lived there on and off (mostly on) in a series of houses in Mt. Pleasant and Adams Morgan until the summer of 2001. Though Leo now resides with his wife in Narraganset, Rhode Island, he is very much a product of The District. He fronted the band Chisel here between 1990 and 1997, and following their break up worked with The Spinanes, The Sin Eaters and The Secret Stars before forming the Pharmacists in 1999.

Their third, and best known known album, “Hearts of Oak,” came out in 2003. But this year has been a storied one for Leo. The Pharmacists’ fifth album, “Living With The Living,” came out in March and in August they replaced bassist Dave Lerner with Marty “Violence” Key of The Young Pioneers. Previous to this, his wife was diagnosed with a rare condition that left her undergoing chemo all year while Leo had to weather an increased touring schedule to pay for it. Luckily, starting tomorrow he gets a break.

The New Gay Zack: Do you miss living in D.C.?

Ted Leo: I do, definitely. I spent most of the really truly formative years of my adult life there and the majority of my best friends are still there, and I do definitely miss it. There’s a couple places that are always on the table for where we should move after this, and D.C.’s always in the mix.

TNG: As someone whose said they’ve spent a good portion of their time in D.C. at the Black Cat, what do you think of the new 14th Street?

TL: Oh my god man, I’ve only driven up the new 14th and I don’t know if I want to explore it. It looks like Crystal City to me, it’s nuts. I’m being slightly facetious but its a very different landscape, and I’m sure there are whole books to be written about the conflicting values of it.

TNG: What about our overall gentrification trend?

TL: Its amazing that its taken this long to hit D.C. in a major way, its happening everywhere… with the possible exception of Baltimore. Its the eternal frustration. If you’re trying to live in a city in an affordable place, your choices are very limited and unfortunately you wind up being this, for lack of better term, this horrible cycle. White people start seeing white faces in a neighborhood and then white business come in and turns it into a white neighborhood. Its very frustrating.

TNG: What do you think about D.C.’s music scene these days? Is punk really out? If so, what’s next?

TL: Certainly the old guard of that world is aging. It doesn’t mean that people aren’t remaining creative and doing things, but it does mean that the rigorous schedule of being in a band and touring and playing shows for a lot of those people takes up less of their time than other concerns. Having said that I can say with 99% certainty that there is tons of shit going on, that I have no idea about, that is really exciting and really underground. You can’t ever completely shut the door on that kind of scene, kids will make it happen when and where they can.

TNG: Then what will it be? Will it be indie? Will go-go come back?

TL: Clearly the indie scene has been constantly growing and outsizing the punk scene since I first lived there, but that’s also something that I don’t think is specific to D.C., As for a resurgence of go-go- I’d love to see it, there’s unfortunately not a lot of go-go in New England.

TNG: You and the Pharmacists have a pretty big gay following, at least among people I know. Any ideas why that is?

TL: We grew up in a certain era in the American punk and hardcore scene where you had to actively make a stand against the jockish and borderline racist mindset that had taken over, and we carry that with us. It’s not something that is often an explicit element in this or that song, but I have written about these things before. Its very gratifying to know that even without putting a banner outside the show that says ‘welcome, safe, come on in,’ people can discern where you’re coming from.

TNG: So you’re a thinking man’s punk?

TL: I’ve heard that a couple times and its always nice to hear.

TNG: Has living in D.C. made you a more cynical or politically aware songwriter?

TL: I started writing music as someone who had been influenced by other political songwriters, I started writing songs in the context of [a scene] where the default mode of expression was to see your situation in terms of how it relates to local, national or world politics. Its not something that I wasn’t familiar with or comfortable doing before D.C., but I can say for sure if my songs would be different if I had lived elsewhere. The time I spent in D.C. on a daily diet of federal government news did help in the development of my outlook on songwriting.

TNG: You’re playing two nights at the 930 Club. How much are the two shows going to differ?

TL: We don’t usually really plan out our set list. We talk about it while we’re playing…much to the chagrin of our drummer. I would say that there are certain songs that are going to get played every night, and probably the rough structure will be similar, but definitely when we do two nights we’ll purposely try to come up with something [different] for each night.

TNG: You recently added a new member. Has that changed your dynamic at all?

TL pan>: Marty, our new base player, we only had two weeks between the last tour Dave [our old bass player] did with us and the day Marty started to even practice. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for us he had to jump right in and learn the songs we already knew, so its not like we’ve even had a chance to explore what a new dynamic might be. He’s also an old friend, so its not like we had a stranger coming in that no one knew how to talk to in the van.

TNG: How hard has it been to tour with sick wife?

TL: Its been beyond describable, actually. Its been really, really shitty this year, I had to come back from Europe early when she was hospitalized this spring. I’ve been on and off tour, she’s been undergoing various intensive therapies and just being around without her partner for support, and I’ve been away knowing that I’m not there. Its been really shitty, but she’s strong and we’re strong so you do what you can.

TNG: When will you be able to spend some time together?

TL: I’m home now [Ed. Note: This interview was conducted several weeks ago.] I got back Sunday night and we get two weeks off, we have this upcoming leg which ends in D.C., its only a week and a half long. We take a nice long break over the spring, I’m gonna work on some new music and be home for a while.

TNG: Then what’s next?

TL: I would like to get a new album released by next fall, which means I want it written as soon as I get home from this trip and to be recording it in the spring.