Frontman and leader of, Patrick Stickles, is well noted for being someone with a lot to say. In typical form, he emerges to the packed-out crowd at London’s cavernous Village Underground with their newest touring member, pianist Elio DeLuca and gives something of an introductory speech telling everyone to have a good time without affecting anybody else’s good time.
After a big cheer from the audience for this, Stickles then blasts into ‘Four Score and Seven‘ from the band’s 2010 LP The Monitor, a concept album loosely based around the American Civil War and a break-up, as the rest of the band join them on stage. It says something of the inclusivity the band aim for that the songs from this album are related to and sung to a great volume by a British crowd.
If The Monitor was an ambitious record conceptually, then The Most Lamentable Tragedy – the band’s fourth and most recent record – is positively outrageous. Stickles explains to the crowd that the record is a rock opera – ‘a transformative odyssey’ – and is split into five acts. It contains 29 tracks and follows a narrative. These songs do translate brilliantly live, however, as the band launch into five songs that all lead into each other in the order they appear in on the record; including a punked-up version of Daniel Johnston’s ‘I Lost My Mind’ and the first single from their own album, ‘Dimed Out’.
The whole show is played at an unrelenting pace, with the band managing to fit in 18 songs. There’s no lull, though – the crowd are receptive to songs old and new from the band, including ‘In a Big City’ and ‘Still Life with Hot Deuce on Silver Platter‘ from 2012 album Local Business. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the amount of songs played is that Stickles’ voice holds up throughout as he screams over these fast-paced indie-rock anthems.
As a performer, he is clearly having a great time, despite singing songs that reveal the extent of his manic depression. There’s a unique charisma to Stickles, as someone who knows exactly what they’re doing, unafraid to pull cheesy but fantastic rock cliches such as going into a song by shouting into the mic “Come on Titus, let’s show ’em what you’ve got!”.
It seems as though there’s a collective celebration of the catharsis in the Titus Andronicus back catalogue this evening – from both the crowd and Stickles. There’s a definitive atmosphere, typified in the smiles on the audience member’s faces as they scream-along to ‘No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future’ “And so all I want for Christmas/Is no feelings now/And Never Again.” It’s a strange sensation that my friend once summed up perfectly with the phrase ‘Triumphant Defeatism’.
Having fully satisfied the crowd with the relentless set, Titus Andronicus have one more surprise in-store, thanking London for producing ‘the best rock and roll band of all time – The Rolling Stones‘ and the band leave the audience with a cover of ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’.
The exciting question is when Titus Andronicus return to the UK next time, what will they be promoting? Frankly, it could literally be anything – but what’s for sure is they may need to start booking shows a la fellow New Jerseyian Bruce Springsteen because they’re going to need about three hours to fit an adequate amount in.
