Well, that was refreshing, and thank the gods of mix-boards and acoustics the sound was on point…
1st-time city living apartment kids staying out late and making bad choices, bright new things… Automatic kick-off with bass and drums snapping just at the limit of distortion and clarity. Percussion to nowhere, popping like chrome glass-packed roaring down the street setting off all the nine-to-five car alarms. One can see why all the old hats Parquet Courts, Tame Impala, Osees, Bauhaus) are dragging them along on tour. While bassist Halle Saxon plays suicide baselines, Izzy Glaudini preens too cool for school as impassive as her synths. But these girls are having too much fun to maintain that facade, especially when drummer Lola Dompe joins on vocals. Metropolis with a wink and a smile.
For all their studio experimenting and guest listing, ten-year-old Parquet Courts are here to have some guitar-driven rock and roll fun. Well, no one wanted to take them too seriously at Oakland’s Fox but everyone was down to take them for the red-eyed New York punk party kids they are. This is the funnest show I have been to since Covid. Popping through tracks of no individual consequence with no specific technical skills, they juiced the audience right up into well-worn anthem “FreeBird II” and kept going from there, all hips and lip curl. The four-piece: brothers Andrew and Max Savage, Austin Brown and Sean Yeaton, may be a little too clever for their own good, at times suggesting both early aughts Strokes and Beta Band, but they get away with it with a sense of humor and danceability.
Let’s hope this cloud stays lifted.
