Photo of Titus Andronicus from their myspace page.

A few short weeks after DCist had named New Jersey’s Titus Andronicus one of the must-see acts that we’d caught at SXSW, they decimated our already high expectations at St. Stephen’s Church. The poor ventilation and Positive Force affiliation added a new level of punk urgency to one of the year’s most well-written and gut-wrenching releases, The Monitor. The intellectual lyricism of the Civil War-themed album was not lost on the sweaty crowd, but neither was the fact that they could jump up and down, singing lines like, “tramps like us, baby we were born to die!” at the top of their lungs.

Yet, although they’d already secured “One of the Year’s Top Shows” status, they upped the ante when dynamic frontman Patrick Stickles turned lead vocal duties over to the equally dynamic guitarist/violinist, Amy Klein. She started belting out the lyrics to Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl,” clearly a nod to the event’s organizers — and the entire DCist music staff present at that show (no fewer than six of us) all looked at each other with the same wide-eyed expression that read “this is the coolest thing I’ve seen!” Klein smiled and bounced her way to the top of a speaker, like there was no better place to be in the world. For the moment, she was completely right.

In addition to playing some of Titus Andronicus’ most searing guitar riffs, Klein has also earned critical acclaim in her own right due to the musings on her tour blog, which tackles everything from portrayal of female musicians in mainstream media to tour food. We talked to Amy during one of Titus Andronicus’ rare days off to ask her about patriotism, the Titus Andronicus cover repertoire and her experience at Whartscape this summer.