Parquet Courts has to be your favorite worst band.
They’re socially awkward, their music is dopey and irritating, yet you can’t help but to love them; it’s pure endearment. To make matters extravagantly worse, lead singer Andrew Savage had a seizure a few days prior to the sold-out Irenic show here in San Diego— he was probably listening to the Parquet Courts discography too much— and played the night away with a black eye; adding to the frustration that rest behind the quartet’s music.
Part of a 39-show tour spanning over five months in support of their latest album Human Performance, Parquet Courts emerged on stage to the overcapacity venue. Beginning the night with the repetitive and fidgety, “Everyday it Starts”, proceeding to dull everyone’s consciousness. The venue smelt like a locker room from all the sweat caused by the New Yorkers’s dance-inducing performance of tension and release. Everyone in the front of the audience thrashed around “Borrowed Time”—the knee jerking cowboy-chords tugged around by Andrew Savage’s impatient vocals. “Ducking and Dodging” molested the ears, creating a similar reaction, as the audience head-bobbed to Sean Yeaton’s consistent bass notes and Max Savage’s drums that tied over spotty guitars of which ducked and dived over Parquet Courts’ franticness.
The band interacted with the audience minimally, and didn’t waste anyone’s time with a cliché encore; refreshing. Their mix of beach-bum rock and robot surfer-punk accompanied by a germane performance, has Parquet Courts being one of the most interesting and unique bands around.
Photos By: Amanda Martinek
By: Matthew Burke