Well now. This pix really sucks. Let me see if I can find something better.
Titus Andronicus have been around long enough that their core audience has gone thru changes, graduated college, got jobs, shaved a beard here and there. The mosh pit isn’t that violent, there are a actual chicks in the audience. And opening act Free Energy are their kid brothers: jumping up and down like playful puppies and kinda happy just to be there.
After Marissa’s buy our new album audience participation, Free Energy jumps on stage like they’ve got nothing left to do but bring a pop rock bop to an all fun rock ensemble of fandom. With a smart, sharp set the Philadelphia band got across their point. Lead singer Paul Spranger is a talkative friendly guy, “I talk to the fans and I talk to the hecklers” he notes with a smile and a shrug. A Black Crowe’s Chris Robinson lookalike, Paul has cribbed his best moves -a long limbed pogo jog like a cross between Robinson and Jagger, but made them his own. His ego is relatively muted and the pleasures are band based even as he throws in some Marc Bolan moves even though he probably thinks it’s from Scott Weiland.
With the exception of a draggy blues psychedelic workout it is all forward momentum for the band cumulating in three show stoppers in a row. A new song with a great soccer chant glammy awestruck chorus that has hit plastered on it, followed by the single “Bang Pop” with Titus violinist/guitarist Amy Klein making a high energy entry and helping make it a helluva lot better than the recorded version and finally Free Energy’s best song, “Hope Child” -a new wavey rocker with so much feeling and beauty it foreshadows what you might hope for Free Energy’s future.
They sure made one more friend tonight.