Titus Andronicus – Live (Sept. 5th, 2013)

There’s something to be said about not doing an encore. Leaving it all out there in the first place, dripping with sweat and intensity, that to do an encore would just be pointless. When you write the encore into your setlist, it ceases to become an encore but just another scripted portion of a set.

So when New Jersey’s Titus Andronicus hit up The Media Club on Thursday night, they opted to forego the generic encore and instead play a solid show with an epic ending that would’ve been diminished had they come back for more.

For what Titus Andronicus did was put on a chaotic performance, building off the audience while turning inwards. Front man Patrick Stickles may have begun facing the audience but had turned nearly 180 degrees by the time the set ended. With each passing song the mic stand would move, turning him more and more inwards towards the band – like back when Against Me!  used to look at each other rather than the crowd when they played. It was as if Stickles was internalizing the angst, the energy and the passion of the songs. 

Yet, that didn’t hinder them at all. Stickles was still a non-stop barrel of energy, fidgeting and fudgeting the entire night while singing at the top of his lungs as guitarist Adam Reich happily bounced and head banged alongside him.

The crowd themselves gave everything they had back at him. From the opening chords of In A Big City to the rousing chant of “You Will Always Be A Loser” from No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future, beer was spilt and words were screamed as the pit ebbed and flowed with momentum. 

They premiered songs from their upcoming rock opera, including two blistering fast thity second punk numbers. Mixing them up with the lengthy and ambitious tracks like Titus Andronicus and A More Perfect Union  not to mention the eight minute opus Four Score and Seven – it takes a band with skill to go from a lengthy, experimental lull to an explosion of cacophony without a moment’s hesitation.

Yet Titus pulled it off only the way Titus could do, and fuck anyone who wanted an encore after that.