Someone give Titus Andronicus the award for Most Positive Band in the Universe already. After guitarist Amy Klein departed the band for solo projects, the band’s luck continued to sour when during rehearsal at Brooklyn’s Shea Stadium this past Wednesday, frontman Patrick Stickles was electrocuted by a faulty mic. But turning that frown upside down, Stickles used his subsequent seven-hour visit to the ER to write a new song, the aptly-titled “Electric Man”.
“We were playing ‘No Future (Part I)’ and I sang the first three verses, and then I went to play my guitar and sing the bridge and I started to feel something weird in my hand,” Stickles told SPIN.com. “I felt a weird combination of resistance from it, but an irrepressible attraction. It felt as if the strings were getting hotter. They were becoming more rigid. I was like, ‘What’s happening? This feels wrong. I’ve got to stop.’ ” An electrical surge at a nearby Con Edison construction site was to blame for the incident.
While Stickles had originally turned down medical help, So So Glos guitarist Ryan Levine rushed him to the hospital, where Stickles “was very out of it and manic in the car,” Levine says. “He started to write a song about it. When we got to the emergency room he was asking everyone if they wanted to hear his song.” The resutling effort is available in two versions: one in the ER and a rousing multi-performer rendition back at Shea. Check them out over at SPIN.com.
For those worried, Stickles is fine, but he has learned one lesson from the experience: “…the next Titus album is going to be acoustic!”
