“The true experience of seeing Parquet Courts is in a small room with alcohol,” Andrew Savage wrote in a recent email to CL. “It’s about who the band is at its core, really. I don’t want to deny that to anybody.”The band’s first trip to Sunshine State is part of their “Genteel Southerners” tour, a 14-date, two-week trek that lands in Tampa on Saturday for a set at the unlikeliest of venues: the Main Hall at American Legion Post 111 in
Seminole Heights.
Savage, 28, explained that his New York-by-way-of-Texas outfit likes to deliver three smaller shows for every Webster Hall gig they play. “We’ve never been to Florida, which is a shame,” he commented, “because I know there are fans there.”
This sold-out show (with a very limited amount of tickets available only at the door) definitely lands in the “smaller” category. The Legion is home to a BOTB-winning lounge that’s become something of a neighborhood hotspot over the last few years. It’s a place where, on any given night, old vets rub shoulders with the post-collegiate (and never-were-collegiate) sect, chase cheap beer with equally cheap liquor, and leave smelling like cigarette smoke and boiled peanuts. The adjacent hall — where the legendary Johnny Charro spends Thursday nights performing music from the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s — can hold 299 people.
“Actually, it was Merchandise who chose the American Legion Hall,” Savage revealed. He said the Tampa-based outfit (which appears on the bill along with Gainesville psych-thrashers Soda) also understands the need to play small rooms. “They know how to evolve gracefully and not forget who they are,” he wrote, adding that it would be a bore to only play New York. “There is a reason Lou Reed was so fond of Cleveland.”
It’s a shame Savage even has to bring up The Big Apple, because for all of Parquet Courts’ four-year existence, music writers and fans alike have hailed them as the next (and/or last) great New York rock band, mentioning the foursome alongside the likes of Talking Heads, freak proto-punks The Fugs, The Ramones, and even Sonic Youth. “People seem to really latch on to the New York factor of Parquet Courts, much more than the band does, I think,” Savage commented. “I admire all the aforementioned bands for their creativity, originality, and inventiveness. I’d love for [us] to be remembered for those qualities, or even to be half as good as those bands were.”
“…I’m not sure, it may never happen,” he continued. “Those sorts of benchmarks are really arbitrary, as there is no real measure for them. These are different times, and the world is such a different place now than it was when those bands were playing.”
Rather than trying to measure up to those iconic NYC bands, Savage seems hell-bent on simply playing the jangly, skeezy, ’90s-homaging yet smart hybrid of American punk and rock ‘n’ roll Parquet Courts has cultivated through a 2012 demo cassette (American Specialties) and three LPs (2012’s Light Up Gold and last year’s Sunbathing Animal and Content Nausea). He doesn’t worry about missing studio time because he’s on the road, explaining bands should tour because “touring is a band in its natural state.”
Savage is an epileptic, and gets self-proclaimed “banger” seizures about four or five times a year. He told Grantland.com that the episodes are like “going in and out of a coma with strobe lights flashing all day long,” and that they’re triggered by drinking too much, not getting enough sleep, and stress. When we asked him if he liked being stoned or drunk better when on tour, he replied, “Hell, both are great, why choose?” But doesn’t that have an effect on his health and condition? “Sure,” Savage fired back, “but I also worry how not touring would affect it.”
It’s this frankness, non-boisterous wit and confident intelligence that set Savage apart from a lot of frontmen still finding their way in a world where listeners’ options are truly endless. He even treats with the topic of originality and re-contextualizing a band despite all the art that’s influenced it along the way.
“I think it’s a shame that bands have to defend their own originality so often, especially to music writers who, let’s face it, are often criminal plagiarists,” he wrote, citing the tradition of rock ‘n’ roll and how every band — including his own — has been picked apart and called a rip-off. “Many of my heroes were accused of being derivative of someone else’s work. What really bites is when you get accused of ripping off a band you don’t even like.
“If you want to pick apart the influence of a band, to the point of calling them a rip-off, you miss the point and miss the fun of it. This music is about building something new from old parts. That being said, there are rip-off bands out there. Best to ignore them and move on.”
For better or worse, Parquet Courts’ influence on the lexicon of modern music is growing every day. You won’t be able to ignore them for much longer, and that’s definitely not a bad thing.
Show Details: Parquet Courts with Merchandise, Soda, Sat., Jan. 31, 7:30 p.m., American Legion Post 111, 6918 N. Florida Ave., Tampa, $12.