A spot by the stage seemed like an impossible option at Title Fight's packed Union Transfer, show as I push through the crowds. Just as the Hotelier finishes their set, the crowd of college students and twentysomethings advance towards the stage. As soon as Kingston, PA natives, Title Fight, step onstage, the crowd roars.
Title Fight is a band best seen live, and seeing them near their hometown creates a completely different experience. They start the set with the haunting “Murder Your Memory”, from their latest album, Hyperview. Title Fight's musical evolution is obvious in their performance—they don’t really write fast, gritty punk anymore. Fortunately, they still play old songs, and their new material, which is more shoegaze alternative than emo–with–an–anger–problem, is still great. It's clear that fans love the old stuff just as much as their recent work. When the band launches into “Shed,” the crowd jumps right onto their feet and into the air.
This is how most of Title Fight’s set goes: when they play slower, newer songs, the crowd sings along and connects with the band’s emotion. When Title Fight plays an older cut, something fast and hard and with more bite, fans go absolutely nuts. During songs like “Symmetry” and “Secret Society,” drummer Ben Russin slammed away such an impressive rate that it’s a mystery how he has so much stamina.
But what came next only intensified the electric energy. If you’ve never heard La Dispute, you should probably check them out before you head to a live show, or you might just go into shock. You just can’t be unprepared for their blend of post– hardcore, prog rock, emo and spoken word.
The band opened with “King Park,” a fan favorite from 2011’s Wildlife about a shooting gone wrong. It’s a bold choice to not open with something from the record they’re touring for, but it worked. The energy in the crowd explodes through the roof. It’s clear that, especially live, vocalist Jordan Dreyer is a force to be reckoned with. He screams into his microphone, dramatically flailing as he belts the lyrics. And surprisingly, the energy in the crowd never falters. La Dispute are best known for their songwriting, and just about every single person in the room was screaming along the words to their songs. Fans share a pure, emotional investment in the lyrics. From start to finish, a La Dispute show is intense–their performance is intense, the crowd is intense, and most of all, La Dispute just writes really intense music.
The encore ends up being the focal point of La Dispute’s set. It’s hard to tell what they will play in an encore, since the band has a wealth of material to pick from. There were some notable absences from the set, which included nothing from their debut record, 2008’s Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair. But this was an intentional choice, as the band decides to save it for the end, closing with “The Last Lost Continent,” which clocks in at a whopping twelve minutes and thirty seconds and deals with fighting depression. The entire middle of the floor turns into a mosh pit, with people crowd surfing left and right—the crowd lost their minds in the last few minutes with the band. As they left the stage, Jordan Dreyer muttered a quiet “thank you,” which seemed funny. The contrast between such a small statement and the hugeness of the band’s stage presence is monumental. The show ended with a bang, followed by a whimper, much like a La Dispute song itself.-
