Gig: Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus (Hallelujah The Hills / YellowFever)

The Horseshoe. Wednesday, July 14, 2010.

Out on a Wednesday for one of those nights that was more about finding out how I felt about a band, rather than attending out of an existing ardent fanship. I figured that might make me feel out of place on a night when I was expecting to see a devoted crowd. As usual, though, it was quiet when I got there, with those eager-for-the-headliner masses skipping out on the openers.

I was more than willing to check 'em out with an open mind, even if I came in knowing nothing about YellowFever¹. The Austin duo played an uncluttered sort of new wave despite busily multitasking — Adam Jones handling keyboard bass while holding down the drums and singer Jennifer Moore playing guit, occasionally employing a glass slide. I was quickly enjoying their minimal vibe — no doubt that this is the sort of nicely unadorned sound I dig. There were a couple slight hints of, say, Young Marble Giants' spare blissful elegance or, to pick a slightly different angle, a sense of a less goth-y Pony Da Look — although you could probably read in a bit of whichever stripped-down, female-fronted, ghostly-keyb band that you prefer.

The songwriting might have been the weakest link but the sound pulled them through nicely. Plus, all ten songs were compactly assembled, meaning even the slightly undercooked ones moved past quickly. An enjoyable discovery. The band are, it would seem, diligent DIY'ers, selling their hand-screened t-shirts at the merch table but were not big talkers on stage. They seemed happy to be visiting Canada, so keep an eye out if they bring their cooler full of vegetables back this way again.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Passed some time between sets with Mike from For the 'Records', and he spoke well of Hallelujah The Hills, having seen them before. It was only after the fact that I realized that I had already seen them as well — at the same show no less, opening for Silver Jews back in '08 — although I had no memory at all of their set. A sign, I guess, that they didn't make much of an impression either good or bad.

leading off with a creaky cello run before the guitars kicked in, the band started off with "A Guide to the World's Most Fantastic Monsters", the leadoff on their most recent album, the charmingly titled Colonial Drones before greeting the crowd: "We're Hallelujah The Hills from Boston, Massachusetts. We're just like you." They indeed had an unaffected air on stage and a lot of different strains in their sound. Suitable for a flexible lineup that did some switching around and included trumpet and cello. It might reveal something about their aesthetic that trumpet player Joseph Marrett is also credited with "hollerin'", but then again, they could also bring off a quieter one (which might be a new song: "Hello my destroyer / can I destroy you?") before shifting yet again to the jauntier "Introductory Saints", which had some flourishes that indicated that this would have been a good band to have opening for Silver Jews.

Elio DeLuca switched between a twelve-string guitar and the less-often seen two string — and it wasn't just an unstrung guitar, it was an old Fender that actually had four of the tuning pegs removed.² Musically, I guess you could call this a hollowed-out version of indie guitar pop, occasionally filtered through an experimental americana kinda vibe with hints that the band has a premonition about some sort of darkness around the corner — something you might not immediately notice, given how joyful they were on stage. That, combined with a little bit of bombast in their music would point to what they shared with the night's headliners. There's also a shared propensity for expansive song titles, I guess.

It seemed like the band were working some new stuff into their set (I think "Nightingale Lightning" was one) that might be destined for their third album.³ When they stretched out on "Classic Tapes" it was a pretty tasty little groove and won me over some. It would mark this as a likable set, and successful to the extent that after seeing them this time it rubbed off enough on me to be something I'd remember.

Listen to a track from this set here.

In the multitude of bands to explore, I'd more or less let Titus Andronicus slip past me. I'd probably written them off somewhat due to their goofy, Seinfeld-inspired first album title, The Airing of Grievances. But a substantial live rep and a highly-praised follow-up were enough to make me think I give at least a first chance to the New Jersey crew.⁴ Given the now-packed crowd in place for this, I felt like the last one getting up to speed.

The introduction by lead singer Patrick Stickles certainly made me want to love the band, touching on both the privileges and responsibilities involved for the audience: "We're going to do our damnedest to try and entertain you. I've already spoken to a few of you about the inclusive environment we're trying to foster here tonight, so let's do that. Let's have a blast, let's be responsible and respect everyone's personal space and just have the best night of our lives while we can." Given that I was worried that this might be an aggressive, moshy kind of crowd⁵, that nailed it just right, and I was feeling a positive mental attitude as the band launched into "A More Perfect Union".

At the outset, the band was playing in their natural five-member configuration, with keyb and violin flanking the stage to add expansiveness. Stickles, more a natural-born yowler than a graceful singer, also did the bulk of the speaking during the pauses between songs, but he wasn't necessarily the focus on stage. And from the outset, it looked like everyone was both working hard and having a good time — especially guitarist/violin player Amy Klein, who had a big grin throughout, like she was having a grand ole time.⁶

Just as the band sometimes exhibits a goofy self-reflective sense of humour in their song titles (witness "No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future", say) they can also sometimes descend into slightly overdone adolescent signifiers ("your life is over", "you will always be a loser"). But there is something there, especially in the material from this year's The Monitor, which uses the framework of the American Civil War as a metaphor for the battles with inner hurt and rage in day-to-day life.

All this is executed within the confines of raggedy shout-along anthems, most of the songs multi-part mini-epics: a quiet, closed-in introduction bursts into the shouty heart of the song, leading to the clinching repeated chant/shout ("it's still us against them", "the enemy is everywhere", "please don't ever leave") and a big instrumental close. The music is big enough that the band brought on some extra help. After three songs, Elio DeLuca of Hallelujah The Hills joined in on keyboards — the start of a trend that would see the size of the band swell considerably — I counted nine by the point Ryan Walsh came out to sing on "To Old Friends and New". There was definitely a sense of expansiveness to it, though never at the expense of the underlying ragged grandeur.

But was I enjoying myself? By and large, I was finding it fine enough, but I felt more like an appreciative spectator than someone who was being pulled into the whole spirit of the thing. There were certainly some parts that got me — the monumental, sprawling "The Battle Of Hampton Roads" — recasting the battle of the Monitor and Merrimack as the struggle with the ironclad hull of self-hatred — was pretty convincing, even as the multi-part musical coda stretched the song out past a quarter-hour. That was the emotional ne plus ultra of the whole thing, and there was no way to push further in that direction. So the band greeted former guitarist (and now Torontonian) Liam Betson to join them for a big singalong version of Weezer's "Undone". That provided enough of a break for one last dip into The Monitor, the band closing with "Four Score and Seven", making for a ninety-minute set.

A lot of people weren't expecting an encore after that, it seemed. Not even the band, who hadn't been planning on coming back out. Retuning their guitars, they chatted a bit and closed with "Upon Viewing Brueghel's 'Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus'" — a track from that first album that I ignored that demonstrates how one-dimensionally goofy they are not.

Heading out, I didn't have the feelings of a convert, though I enjoyed things well enough. I guess I can appreciate what the way they go about doing things as much the outcome, and definitely appreciated the inclusive social environment.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ It's "all one big ol' word," their myspace helpfully informs.

² Shades of Mark Sandman, perhaps? Given the shared geography, it would make me happy somehow to think that there might be some sort of influence coming through here.

³ The band is exploring the kickstarter route for that one, in case you happen to be interested in getting in on the ground floor. If you have some extra cash, or if you just happen to be as mad as hell and unsure what to do about that, you could even go in big and get an "audio commentary for the classic film Network recorded by the band".

⁴ The Jerseyness (or, as it might be better called, "bossification") of this band is probably a useful sort of triangulation method for situating the band's propensity to go big. At the part of the night when when crowdmembers were calling out various requests, someone shouted "Springsteen!" to which singer Patrick Stickles replied, in a slightly hurt tone, "that's a little on the nose, isn't it?" Meanwhile, on introducing "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ" Stickles mused on playing town the same night as Gaslight Anthem: "We understand that you have your choice of Jersey-rock activities tonight, and we appreciate that you chose to see us."

⁵ What kind of crowd was it? Well, after saying the next time they'd be back in Canada they'd be playing Ottawa, some people started jeering in response to that and were soon chanting "Go Leafs Go!" and even managing to get a few shots in at the Devils. So — those guys.

⁶ Klein also has a pretty cool blog that's worth checking out.