Parquet Courts: a song dedicated to the people p***ing on the wall | Electric Picnic

Thee anti-festival, no-show-show band that can’t hide their inner glittery jacket

Parquet Courts’ bassist Sean Yeaton starts with some stage-work. “Do something over here,” he says to the audience on his left.

“Now do something over here,” he says to the audience on his right.

Birthday boy singer/guitarist Austin Brown tries to balance his microphone on his head. And then they’re into blasts of their patented shouty, taut, erratic, cubist, feedback-filled, irony-filtered, dance-worthy, guitar music. You could denounce them as the Muppet Babies of early post-hardcore, slacker rock – I mean, the template they work from hasn’t really been altered since early 1990s Sonic Youth - but frankly they’re just too good at it for me to care.

And they know it, I suppose. “You could be somewhere near here watching someone very wealthy perform a set they’ve been doing for ten years,” drawls Brown.

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Yes, they’re posing as the anti-festival, no-show-show band – and they’re very funny about it - but they can’t hide their inner glittery jackets. “I dedicate this song to everyone pissing on the fence over there,” says Brown before playing something blistering.

That’s entertainment ladies and gentlemen.

Three word review – That’s entertainment

If you like that watch this – Interpol, The Main Stage

Patrick Freyne

Patrick Freyne

Patrick Freyne is a features writer with The Irish Times