Growing Pains: Title Fight Played NYC's Webster Hall

Photo by Lucas Anderson It was a Friday night and I had no plans. Through a stroke of good fortune (and one very cool dude) I found myself with two tickets to the sold out The Hotelier/Title Fight/La Dispute show at Webster Hall that evening. I was ecstatic. Not only was Title Fight playing, but The Hotelier (previously The Hotel Year) was opening too? I had to smoke a cigarette to calm myself down.

The Hotelier has had some rough years, so it's refreshing and exciting to see them on a bill that includes Title Fight and La Dispute. "This is the biggest crowd we've ever played to," Christian Holder announced to the crowd, who responded with loud cheers. Even thought it was only 7:30 when The Hotelier was halfway through their set, Webster Hall was packed. Pits opened up for songs like "The Scope of All This Rebuilding," and fans (myself included) were so excited for "Your Deep Rest" that they beat Holder to singing the chorus.

The night seemed like it was going to go really well. The fans were energetic, everyone had a good buzz going, and I didn't meet a single person who was only seeing Title Fight because La Dispute was following. It was my first Title Fight show, though I've been a fan for a while, and I really do like their new album, Hyperview. It's different from anything else they've done, but it feels like a good, like a more mature step in their discography. I have no qualms with bands trying out new sounds. It's their choice. I made it back to my spot in time to watch Ned Russin tell the crowd "It's nice to be here at the Ritz, introducing Hyperview" before they jumped into a song I couldn't identify no matter how hard I listened.

Title Fight has been around the block. They've toured with Set Your Goals, New Found Glory, then Bayside, Senses Fail, Touche Amore, and Rise Against, and they've released pretty good records with a handful of labels. They've built enough of a reputation in hardcore that I overheard one of the security guards at the show remark, "They're taking their time. I thought this was hardcore!" on my way back from an intermission cigarette. I thought it was funny. Not to read too much into it, but that security guard might have psychic powers.

If you're a big fan of shoegaze, chances are you'll like Hyperview even if you don't like Title Fight's earlier stuff. If you're a big fan of hanging out in your room, smoking some weed and just thinking about how shitty life is sometimes, Hyperview is the Title Fight album you should be listening to right now. If you've bought tickets to see a Title Fight show and are ready to mosh your young little hearts out and crowd surf your way to the stage, you are not going to get that from a show where Title Fight is promoting Hyperview, especially not at Webster Hall. Bryan Menegus, who I went with to the show, summed the experience up perfectly:

"There were two bands playing during their set. One band was the one everyone was excited for, the one they paid money to see. The other was some new band no one was really excited for but stayed for anyway because their music and stage presence wasn't awful. Title Fight just happened to be both of those bands."

My biggest gripe with the whole show was that Title Fight just didn't commit to their latest album. Of the fifteen or so songs that they played, at most five were from Hyperview. Their songs flowed into each other so seamlessly, and everything sounded so similar that at one point I turned to the guy I brought with me and asked if he wasn't sure we'd already heard that song. When Russin announced they were about to play something off the new album, pits stayed closed. But when Jaime Rhoden played the intro chords to "Symmetry," the crowd parted like the Red Sea and immediately started smashing into each other, lifting their neighbors and sending them forward to the front of the barrier (the band recently introduced these because of an accident at one of their shows where a kid stage dove and ended up going to the hospital). It was like everyone was there to see the old Title Fight, and new Title Fight knew it.

All photos by Lucas Anderson.