Its not that Titus Andronicus stole the show, they stole the whole fucking day. As far as I’m concerned, what started as the Village Voice’s 4Knots Festival ended as an epic, sweaty, exhausted Titus party.

And, you know, I had high expectations, something I usually check at the door due to past experience. Y2K - underwhelming, Grand Canyon - lame, my first kiss - boring, but after hearing solid reviews from those who grew up with Titus back in the basement days, plus the endless admiration the band has developed, I really couldn’t contain my anticipation. See, I had these hopes that something big was coming, and well, I was right. 

What preceded them only added to the excitement that was already bubbling. Openers Oberhofer and Davila 666 rocked the crowd into an anticipatory frenzy. Pumped and exhilarated, Davila 666 really gave the crowd the energy and enthusiasm they craved. I was stoked to see these six Puerto Rican punks show this US crowd what they could do. Fairly unexplored by most of the 4Knots crowd, they put on a show so impressive they made even the most rigid of passerby’s stop and jive. 

While the five Titus members tuned and set the stage, I shuffled within the crowd - If my calculations were correct it would be mere moments until the crowd would be surging, erupting further into an excited state. They looked so unassuming, cautiously plugging in and setting up, chatting and double checking, soon the crowd of captivated humans would be uncontrollable under the power of Amy Kleins guitar and Patrick Stickles sheer rage. Unfamiliar audience members must have been severely taken aback when Titus’ first chords rang out and then the whole place exploded. 

The performance was filled with stellar moments. Nothing drove the crowd crazier than Stickles and Klein. Klein punched through each song with high energy and power, rocking her guitar, her electric violin and bounding around the Seaport stage like she could take on the world. Stickles performance proved to be the icing on the already delicious high voltage cake. The chanting of the lines “we’re all losers” from “No Future Part Three” coming from both the mosh and the stage was powerful enough to knock innocent bystanders over. Fighting and throbbing, the moshed mess welcomed Stickles into the crowd when he made the leap from the stage across the gate for “Titus Andronicus”. His wailing into the mic mere inches before me is a moment I won’t soon forget. Both Stickles and crowd guest vocalists howled into the mic lines “your life is over”, ones craved to be shouted and echoed endlessly. Titus could really do no wrong for this pseudo home-town crowd.

Taking the festival and turning it into their own show, Titus Andronics took no prisoners that Saturday. No doubt they were stoked to be playing a Village Voice event similar to the ones they’d moshed in years prior. They pumped the crowd into a nearly eruptive state, and its no secret that Titus wants to rock hard.