Andrew Savage of Parquet Courts sings at 9:30 Club on Feb. 13, 2017. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
Andrew Savage zipped into DC from Los Angeles, fresh from the Grammy Awards, where he was nominated for Best Recording Package for his band Parquet Courts’ fifth album, Human Performance.
The artist for David Bowie’s Blackstar album took that award, but Andrew was upbeat about it. “I won,” he quipped to a large crowd at 9:30 Club on Monday. “The director of The Recording Academy told us we were all winners. That sounds pretty official to me.”
In case you missed it, Brooklyn punks Parquet Courts released Human Performance, a fourth studio album in early April via Rough Trade Records. The talented rockers already continually impressed with their earlier releases, but they surely set a new bar with the latest, pooling their collective strengths into a set of songs that thematically center on estrangement, abandonment, and loneliness in a powerfully affecting way.
Andrew Savage (vocals, guitar), Austin Brown (vocals, guitar), Sean Yeaton (bass), and Max Savage (drums) toured extensively upon release of the album, and they stopped at the 9:30 Club on May 17. (Read our Parklife DC review!) While that show was pretty darn good, the band dedicated much of their stage banter to protesting their early set time. Lucky for us then that Parquet Courts have announced a brief 2017 tour that will include a return visit to the 9:30 Club on Monday, Feb. 13.
It’s timely to mention also that the band will perform a few dates this week — Dec. 9 in Asbury Park, NJ, and Dec. 10 in Queens, New York City. The Dec. 10 show at the Knockdown Center in Queens will feature the band’s multimedia show and also include a performance by DC’s own Flasher. (Parquet Courts and members of Priests, including Flasher’s Taylor Mulitz, struck up a friendship on a previous tour together.)
Watch the official music video for the title track “Human Performance,” which features puppets, by Parquet Courts on YouTube:
Of their May show at the 9:30 Club, I said of Parquet Courts, “Despite the needling at their early booking (a later show followed that night), or maybe because of it, Parquet Courts set themselves to the task of metaphorically burning the stage down with a blistering punk performance. But its finer moments truly came in powerful, poignant numbers from their new album, Human Performance. The prolific Texans-turned-Brooklyners released [their new album recently], and their stop at the 9:30 Club heavily featured the new songs, which were well received by the very full (if not quite sold out) room. While plenty of crowd surfers took to the air during earlier Parquet Courts numbers (yay to the 9:30 Club for smartly if watchfully permitting such things), the new songs are mostly about loneliness and solitude, or at least situations where you find yourself alone, if not abandoned.”
The experience of catching Parquet Courts in concert then is wholly cathartic and absorbing, and one that you should not miss.
Andrew Savage of Parquet Courts gets cathartic at the 9:30 Club on Thursday, May 12, 2016.
Parquet Courts were not happy about their early timeslot at the 9:30 Club last Thursday, and their stage banter reflected that.
“It’s pretty early. It’s happy hour, isn’t it?” suggested vocalist Andrew Savage. “If it’s happy hour, you got into the show for half price, right?”
“9:30 Club? More like the 6:30 Club!” agreed other vocalist Austin Brown. At the end of the show, he added, “Have a good time later. Tonight. When it’s dark.”
Parquet Courts clearly feel the creative urge to be on the move and make new music—and that shows through in the immediacy of the band’s live performances.
In 2014, the New York post-punk quartet released two albums in a single year. Hardly pausing to take a breath, Parquet Courts released their latest, Human Performance, on April 8 via Rough Trade. Upon the album’s release, Parquet Courts immediately launched a tour, and they are coming to the 9:30 Club on Thursday, May 12 to play a show for us!
The band have issued singles from the album like “Berlin Got Blurry” and “Dust” like challenges set to the beat of a punk Western. The songs on the album are insanely catchy.
Watch the official music video for “Berlin Got Blurry” on YouTube:
Vocalists and guitarists Andrew Savage and Austin Brown, along with bassist Sean Yeaton and drummer Max Savage, call Human Performance “their finest record,” and critics agree.
“Human Performance is the moment where they jump to another level, where they find powerful and particular ways to express weirdly universal sentiments that you don’t often hear in music,” said Stereogum.
Andrew Savage of Parquet Courts sings at 9:30 Club on Feb. 13, 2017. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
