Parquet Courts Riff With Passion at Detroit’s Marble Bar (SHOW REVIEW)

In one of the newer renovated venues in Detroit, the Marble Bar stood firm as Parquet Courts riled up a sold out crowd on Thursday night. Opening the festivities was Soda, whose heavy noise elements and low toned vocals reminded of Bitch Magnet and Pixies intertwined to form some sort of amalgamation of both. The small Gainesville, Florida band admirably churned out their weighty sound attack in a mere 20 minutes before Parquet Courts moved on stage.

Before starting up with what would be a long-22 track outing, the band gave out a handful of flowers to distribute to the crowd. After introducing themselves as the aforementioned, they immediately blistered through “Sunbathing Animal” and “Dust” in quick sequence.  Austin Brown (vocals/guitar) hilariously and haphazardly attempted to use the keyboard during “Dust” by using the end of his guitar to strike a few keys here and there: sometimes with success, mostly as a silly gaffe to an otherwise more contained performance of a song that isn’t quite lively as their beginning. And that seemed to be general flow of things to come as Parquet Courts would quickly burn through favorites upon American Specialties and Light Up Gold, while reserving their newest, Human Performance as signals to slow down their set. The stark surge of heavier punk branded the crowd to whip up in a fury as evidenced early on by “Paraphrased” and its kinetic guitar and vocal back and forth.

What was more lively was the way Andrew Savage (vocals/guitar) attacked his mic (among other things from the crowd) while performing and it only seemed to embolden him for more stage presence. Sarcastically as the set wore on more individuals wanted to be heard in the front and they did, as Sean Yeaton (bass) and Brown discussed the complexities (or lack thereof) of a self-proclaimed ‘asshole’ in the front who kept looking for high-fives from Brown. Savage eventually preceded to sum it up as the “18-24 demographic where growth is stunted.” Beyond the more good fun sardonic tone of the band they managed to really hit their stride halfway through as they pierced the venue with “Borrowed Time” which had the small venue security scramble to the front as people were practically pushed through on the stage equipment. At times attendees were forcefully crashed the stage onto Brown’s mic stand, wired equipment in the front had to be pushed back in fear of it being hit.

As they were playing in Detroit, the band discussed local acts such as Protomartyr and how “those boys are doing some good things,” and even mockingly touching on the cornerstone of white rappers in Detroit. It all devolved more into the privilege of famous white celebrity kids that took rapping careers seriously before Parquet Courts decided it was time to start up again. Interestingly enough, one of the few more energetic Human Performance tracks “Two Dead Cops” helped the crowd get back into the swing of things in the second half once “Dear Ramona” slowed things to a crawl. Again, Savage’s performance vocally and behavior on the stage that amped the venue close to what “Borrowed Time” had peaked at as he guitar riffed with passion. It all closed out into the morning of 1 AM with “One Man, No City,” which sounded like it evolved from its original 6:26 run time to a noisy aspect of reverb and free form by the band to circle back somehow to the opening act Soda.

Parquet Courts Setlist Marble Bar, Detroit, MI, USA 2016, Human Performance

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