Opening for Parquet Courts tonight at Manchester Gorilla was a mysterious London based quartet named Housewives (in actuality an all male band). The band members walked onto the Gorilla stage with as much darkness as possible. Their vocalist opened up the set with the droning sound of the didgeridoo, as a guitarist and a man on electronic pads began to envelop the sold out crowd in a blanket of noisy feedback. Haunting, eerie electronics began to shake and rumble the room, making Gorilla seem even darker than what it was. A sinister atmosphere fell over Manchester as the band's sound escalated in dissonance. The man playing the didgeridoo soon swapped it for a guitar. Minimal pounding drums erupted from out of nowhere with rumbling sub bass and strobe lightning kicking in too. The guitarist jammed a single repetitive atonal drone riff, as the Electronics seemed to weave in and out. All of these elements combined to create a dizzying and nauseating effect, but in a sadistically enjoyable way!
Housewives soon transitioned into (ever so slightly) more accessible territory with a scatty Post-Punk riff sounding like Joy Division if they were playing out of tune guitars. Their guitarist and vocalist added super tripped out, reverb heavy vocals with a demanding, almost aggressive force behind them. Indecipherable yells filled the room in a cavernous manner. The guitarist started scraping his guitar with a drumstick, as the drummer played a robotic pounding riff on a rather minimalist drum kit (I'm not sure if there were even any cymbals). It was hard to tell if there were multiple songs being played or one giant continuous behemoth, as there were no breaks in the performance and they didn't communicate verbally with the crowd. Not that any of this mattered as I found myself deeply immersed in the sounds and intense atmosphere they were creating. Housewives gradually began to slow down and release the intensity a little, transitioning into a droning and hypnotic sphere. I closed my eyes to take in the music even more and it was a truly ethereal experience. In a further display of their oddness, the guitarist and vocalist then whipped out a saxophone because, why the hell not!?
I think that Housewives might not have struck a chord with everyone in the crowd, considering they are completely different to the headlining band, but the crowd response was a very positive one and I think people's minds would have been blown tonight like mine was. Housewives took the sonic freeform of PIL, the pounding repetition of Can and the scatty Avant Garde experimentation of This Heat, channeled into something new and fresh. One of the most intense performances I have seen in recent times that even threatened to outshine headliners Parquet Courts! 9/10.
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Hot off their 5th album "Human Performance", Manchester was treated to their very own human performance as the quartet took the stage. Considering the new album cover has the words "HUM it PERFectly MANCunian" stylised on it, I got the impression that New Yorkers Parquet Courts were happy to play in Manchester. They kicked straight into "Dust" with real enthusiasm... Well as enthusiastic as Slacker Indie Rock bands get of course! Their long haired guitarist doubled up with one hand strumming the guitar and another played a one handed melody on a nearby keyboard. A lot of their songs are pretty short, which gave them the freedom to belt through lots of their songs, performing practically everything off their fantastic new album, with oldies mixed in too.
I didn't quite expect it, but the sold out Gorilla crowd tonight seemed to mistake Parquet Courts for Slayer, as I was swept into a really brutal and painful moshpit that seemed to last for most of their performance. Even during the slower, more languidly paced songs, people seemed to want to mosh which kind of took the piss, but okay! I spent most of the show getting fucked up right at the front being pushed, pulled and squeezed into the stage, occasionally spilling onto it! For the most part Parquet Courts brought a true Punk Rock energy to the show, sounding louder, noisier and faster than on the records during their more aggro driven songs. In particular finale "Sunbathing Animal" was a wash of noisy, angular guitars with constant ranting vocals spewing over the top. I never realised just from listening to the albums, but both guitarists and their bassist not only come together to perform vocals, but will take in turns to take the leads on each song.
A huge highlight for me was one of the more chilled out songs from the new album, "One Man, No City", driven by twanging Post Punk guitars with call and response vocals. Each splendid verse bled into Velvet Underground meets Sonic Youth style tangents of meandering guitar solos that jangled in and out of discordance. The title track of the new album was as close to a flag waving anthem as this band gets, with majestic, soaring vocals that erupt into a loud, shouty chorus! The robotic Funk of "I Was Just Here" took their show into a quirky direction that matched the group's good humour inbetween songs.
There is something refreshing about the way Parquet Courts play with half the band giving it a lively Punk welly, and the other two in more of a laid back stance. But I guess it perfectly encapsulates two worlds of Punk Rock and Slacker Indie meeting, shaking hands and then enjoying a drink at the bar together. The whole show was a real knockout, with me and most of the crowd leaving drenched in sweat and spilled beer. 9/10.
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June 18th 2016 @ Gorilla, Manchester.
June 18th 2016 @ Gorilla, Manchester.
