Parquet Courts bring their own brand of rock

Parquet Courts performed at the 2640 Space last Wednesday along with Philadelphia-based Ghostly International harpist Mary Lattimore. The show was one of the early performances on their short 2017  tour slate that also includes a show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.

Parquet Courts is a band that is comprised of a quartet: Andrew Savage on the guitar as well as vocals, Austin Brown on the guitar as well as vocals, Sean Yeaton on the bass and Max Savage on the drums. The band broke out with their second studio album, Light Up Gold, which featured one of their most beloved tracks: the headbang friendly tune, “Borrowed Time.”

From there the band signed to the record label What’s Your Rupture? (which features other prominent garage/punk bands such as Iceage and Royal Headache). Three albums followed (Sunbathing Animal; Content Nausea, which was released under the name of Parkay Quarts since it only featured Andrew Savage and Austin Brown; and their 2016 album Human Performance) and an EP (Monastic Living).

The band became known for their sometimes aggressive, sometimes contemplative guitar riffs and singing. The band wears their influences on their sleeves and they even released a mixtape featuring some of these influences called By Who Power? The mixtape featured prominent rockers as well as other musicians such as Brian Eno, Neil Young and GG Allin. Certain artists like Pavement and Beat Happening can be seen more readily in the songs the band crafts.

Before speaking about the show itself, I should describe the 2640 Space. The Space is one of the better venues in Baltimore and it caters to a large crowd, whether it be something like Parquet Courts or a craft fair. This can even be seen in tomorrow’s Negus in Paris show that Abdu Ali and Logicoma, amongst other performers, are putting on is taking place at the 2640 Space.

The only downside to the space is that the acoustics didn’t really quite suit Parquet Courts especially if you were towards the back of the audience (as I was). Every now and then it felt like the guitarwork would drown out the rest of the band, and Sean Yeaton’s voice was completely garbled for the majority of his on-stage back-and-forth with the audience and his other bandmates.

The audience was diverse in age but uniform in whom you would expect to be at a post-punk revival band’s performance.

The band’s performance was strong, and they performed a wide-range of songs with the crowd freaking out collectively as they played “Borrowed Time.” The audience for the most part swayed back and forth to the music but those at the front seemed much more aggressive, especially with the songs that were more heavy with the guitar work.

The thing that shocked me the most as I watched the band play was the range of songs they played (tracks from Light Up Gold to songs from their newest album, Human Performance), the maniac energy the band had even though they all came off as calm, cool and collected before they played and just how at home they were with back and forth bickering between them and the audience.

The highlight of the night was the band’s performance of “Captive of the Sun” which was front-ended by a small speech on Donald Trump by vocalist/guitarist Austin Brown.

For anyone that still wants to see the band but wasn’t able to catch their set at the 2640 Space, they are playing at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. next Monday.