Way back at the end of 2010, I named Titus Andronicus’s sophomore LP The Monitor my favorite album of the year. A loose concept album that equated themes of the Civil War with leaving home for the first time, it essentially encapsulated everything that I love about rock music. The lyrics touched on the angst and loneliness I was feeling at the time, while the actual music was a perfect melding of punk aggression and indie grandiosity. For two years I’ve been waiting for my chance to see Titus Andronicus play those songs live. Last Friday at BU Central, I finally got it.
After a short opening set by Boston locals Camp Island, Titus Androncius took the stage. They then proceeded to kick of their first show in three months with new single “Upon Viewing Oregon’s Landscape With the Flood of Detritus,” a rollicking jam that front man Patrick Stickles described as a sequel to the second song they played, “Upon Viewing Brughels ‘Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.’” Titus used the occasion to debut some three or four new songs (one was long enough to be two, but this is a band whose songs regularly eclipse eight minutes so I couldn’t be sure), all of which sounded great and were well received by the audience. Noticeably, all of the songs were very upbeat, particularly in comparison to the fairly morose Monitor.
The band’s set list lasted over an hour and comprised of 12 songs, though Stickles profusely apologized for not having 13 (he claimed this was because “Fugazi made an album called 13 Songs”; therefore, every set should have 13 songs). The set list was split fairly evenly between the band’s two albums, with Monitor cut “A More Perfect Union” receiving the loudest reaction of the night. I was disappointed to not hear “To Old Friends and New,” but Wye Oak’s lead singer, Jenn Wasner, who provides vocals on the song, doesn’t tour with the band so I’m not a hundred percent sure they could have done that track justice anyway.
Titus Andronicus have always considered themselves more punk than indie rock, and it did not come as a surprise that the crowd was more akin to what you might see at an Iron Chic show than a Best Coast gig. Not to imply that the typical indie crowd is somehow worse, but I could definitely tell that some in the audience were a bit surprised and put off by the lively pushing and shoving of much of the crowd. The nonexistent stage at BU Central brought us as close to the band as possible, and there’s nothing like yelling “You will always be a loser!” at the top of your lungs as you push forward and backwards with a group of people having just as much fun as you are. I guess that means that we’re all losers, but damn if it wasn’t fun being a loser.
And that’s really Titus Andronicus’s live strength. They manage to take generally very depressed and morose songs and turn them into moments of exuberance and catharsis. I really hate using a word like catharsis—it’s used so often in reviews like this that it’s almost lost whatever meaning it had—but I don’t know how else to put it. It didn’t matter if it was Stickles on guitar and harmonica during show closer “Four Score and Seven” or the entire band taking turns soloing during “Titus Andronicus Forever,” every single song had the incredible energy that is the hallmark of a truly great live band. I guess we’ll always be losers, but that’s okay.
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Only important rock band of the last 15 years
Can’t believe I missed this show. Titus is incredible. Great review.
I found out after I wrote this that that super long song that I couldn’t identify was a medley of two new songs, “Ecce Homo” and “Still Life with Hot Deuce and Silver Platter” So along with “Detritus,” they debuted three new songs.