Parquet Courts played Warsaw

Brooklyn's own Parquet Courts recently released the strange Monastic Living EP, an awkward step in their otherwise excellent output. Their recent tour wrapped up in Brooklyn for a triumphant home town throw down.

For fans of Pavement and the Fall. This standard and lazy critique has surrounded the band since their early days as their traditional indie rock seems somewhat out of place in the modern music world. Released at the tail end of 2012, their debut record received most acclaim on 2013 year-end lists and for those not savvy enough to pay notice, their sophomore release, Sunbathing Animal, bumped up some notches on 2014 lists due to the previous record's oversight. None of this really matters in 2015, but it's certainly worth noting while recognizing the band's supreme talent. Parquet Courts are your classic stoned slackers. Their songs are slapped together and held in formation with duct tape. Or so they would let you believe. On stage, the band is monstrous. Sharp and together at every turn, nothing is left untouched and each song delivered with stunning precision. The hometown crowd bouncing with exceeding energy sent a clear message that this band not only means business, but their fans are along for the ride and in on the joke. Not since the days of The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Interpol has there felt a band that signifies the essence of New York City, let alone Brooklyn. They're punk rock with tight-knit grooves. Their melodies ring true with urgent passion and without ever letting any kind of momentum die down. Even at just a few years old, their debut sounds like a classic and when "Master of My Craft" kicked into gear and perfectly molded into "Borrowed Time", it was pure elation. Even a slight derailment that saw the band bang out classic riffs like "Purple Haze", "Purple Rain" and "Undone (The Sweater Song)" was met with high praise. For a solid night the band held the audience in the palm of their hands. Everything was executed with utter perfection to the extent that the night seemed rather uncanny. For a band with a reputation such as theirs, it seemed almost too good to be true. Their meticulous performance was rather remarkable. Everything fell precisely into place, nothing was overdone or seemed to really be trying to hard to fit a mold. No, this was a performance by true masters of their craft.