PARQUET COURTS Review – SWG3 6th November Kicking off, as it were, with Total Football, Parquet Courts wasted no time in showing why they will be in the running when it comes to the album of the year. It’s the call for collectivism with sweepers and strikers you never knew you needed, and it had the crowd locked in from the start. The evolution of the band has been slow and steady, best exemplified by One Man, No City. Previously, a Velvet Underground-esque stomper, in SWG3, the band brought the funk on the elongated track. The title track of their most recent LP, Wake Up, is also a game-changer with respect to the evolution of the band’s set. The longstanding 1-2 of Master of My Craft into Borrowed Time remains as life-affirming as ever. It has company though - Almost Had To Start A Fight into In and Out of Patience rattles along at a fair pace with backing vocals that soar before Freebird II swoops in.
If we've learned one thing from American bumper stickers, it's that you don't mess with Texas. When a playful comparison between Scotland and Texas by Austin Brown was met with boos, it was time for the band’s customary run-in with their audience. This led to a song being dedicated to Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin, far too many American footballers for a Scottish audience to care about and The Alamo. Oddly enough, no mention of Ted Cruz, who the good people of Texas voted in as Senator that day. Mind you, when the songs are good, the band can say what they want. Are Parquet Courts prickly? Absolutely. Are Parquet Courts pricks? Possibly. But even if they are, they're our pricks and you should love them like the wayward sibling or roguish pet who always turn up trumps when you need them. Parquet Courts remind you of countless bands in one set but most importantly, there are not too many bands in the present day who bear comparison with the group.