Last night the Georgia Theatre rooftop was buzzing with people eager to hear Jersey rockers Titus Andronicus perform tunes from their most recent album, Local Business. But the audience got more than it bargained for.
Short version: When band overlord/frontman Patrick Stickles wasn’t (half-jokingly?) berating concertgoers for their lifestyle decisions, he was ranting about slavery. So.
A confusingly tense situation was exacerbated when, halfway through “A More Perfect Union,” the raucous opening track from the band’s Civil War-themed 2010 breakthrough album The Monitor, some clever/moronic schmuck began throwing mini-Confederate flags everywhere. Stickles was not pleased with that development, and he let everyone hear about it. And hear about it. And…
Stickles is no stranger to whining about the state of young America. Last night was something else. An acquaintance made an astute observation about the cosmic, existential disparity between the Northerner and Southerner’s respective mindsets; that comedic darkness that comes hardwired in Southern souls seems so often to elude our Yankee counterparts. But maybe Stickles was just trolling.* He was probably just trolling. Right?
*Or maybe the crowd was trolling Stickles? It was all very confusing.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
