Parquet Courts live at London Electric Ballroom, Feb 2014 (Photo: Andy Crossland for Live4ever)
For most bands the rules of playing live are quite simple: 1. Turn up 2. Play 3. Run for the exit.
Admittedly some also find time to thank the crowd. But then for most bands music is written, not created. And what is exciting about them comes from practice and planning, not experimentation and actual excitement.
So the excitement of the crowd is palpable when Parquet Courts take to the stage, for it’s not very clear to anyone what is about to happen, but something is definitely about to happen.
Here’s where they are expected to explode into their performance: they don’t. Instead, they begin by burrowing slowly into the minds of all those gathered before them, gaining real purchase and grip before unexpectedly exploding. This time taking everyone completely off guard, and really throwing a once sunbathing, now enraged, tiger among the crowd.
This is how Parquet Courts stun live; it’s all in their dramatic shifts in tone and pace. On record this skill impresses, live it is only magnified. They move almost instantaneously between these sides of their personality, bringing the noise scapes and guitar destruction of ‘Evol‘-era Sonic Youth to the playfulness and lyricism of Dinosaur Jr.
Yet this is no meagre pastiche, this is a band with a history and vision that places them in and amongst those and so many others. ‘Content Nausea‘ uses the Velvet Underground’s ‘Black Angel’s Death Song‘s fast talking, intellectual New York brogue as shorthand for their intentions. And it’s either understood or not, and that is kind of the point.
Then ‘Pretty Machines‘ brings a polish to the raw sound of early Pavement records like ‘Slanted and Enchanted‘ without ever going the full slick pop sound of ‘Brighten the Corner‘. They manage to keep their edges.
The shift in pace for ‘Uncast Shadow Of a Southern Myth‘ is not just welcome but quite simply beautiful and tender, then it’s straight back into the breach as they, out of nowhere, tear into ‘Always Back in Town‘, which has something of The Rapture, but without the ass-shaking love of disco.
So by the time they close with a riotous version of ‘Sunbathing Animal‘ all hope of order is lost. It is infused with the furious intensity and drama of The Gun Club, sounding like a more aggressive attempt at ‘She’s Like Heroin To Me‘ and oozing just as much disdain and loathing. It’s one hell of an exit.
Amongst all this is the true moment of the night; live ‘Ducking and Dodging‘ moves from its exciting, almost funky recording to become absolutely ferocious, so intense it’s probably scientifically measurable.
On record Parquet Courts impress, but live all bets are off. They seem to be immersed more fully in the culture and history of alternative music than any other modern band. Not influenced by these bands, but descended from them. This isn’t music made by fans of the genre, just one the genre’s legitimate heirs claiming their birthright.
But the success of the show is not that they know their history, or that they play well, or even that they play with so much passion and energy. It comes from their wonderful inventiveness and bravery to take chances live. To push the expectations of those assembled before them whilst managing to take all their wildly divergent component parts and successfully assemble a cohesive and exciting show.
In many ways what they do is wildly disparate, but with intelligence they have made this the highlight of their live show, rather than the problem. And it is this disparity and divergence in styles and form that truly amaze.
This is order brought to confusion, and beauty brought to incohesion – and that’s what is so exciting.
