Staff Editor on January 24th, 2019

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“Los Angeles, California … D-T-L-A. You think we don’t know that shit? That acronym? We’re from New York, we know everything.” Coming out swinging fast and hard, Parquet Courts greeted their eager fans that filled the Novo with a high energy that was immediately matched by the rowdy crowd. Touring in support of their 2018 album “Wake Up!,” the quartet slashed through 21 songs of their catalog, leaving fans barely time to catch their breath. Between chanting along with their lyrics, mob like moshing, and erratic crowd-surfing, the young audience helped the show feel like it wasn’t tucked away at the very commercial LA Live, but at a small, dingy club where Parquet Courts’ indie-punk outbursts could be let loose.

Snail Mail, the solo project of singer-songwriter/guitarist Lindsey Jordan, opened the show after supporting Parquet Courts for a few West Coast dates. After playing with her band for most of the set, Jordan played the last three songs solo, with one being a cover of her favorite song “The 2nd Most Beautiful Girl in the World” by Courtney Love. Finally, Jordan ended her set with “Stick” from her debut album “Lush,” explaining that she had initially wrote this song off after the record was recorded, but has since retooled it for recent touring. The re-worked version of the song was well received and was a satisfying punctuation mark on her emotional set.

Parquet Courts setlist: Total Football, Dust, Almost Had to Start a Fight / In and Out of Patience, Freebird II, Before the Water Gets Too High, Dear Ramona, Master of My Craft, Borrowed Time, Donuts Only, Back to Earth, Tenderness, Wide Awake, Berlin Got Blurry, Always Back in Town, Bodies Made Of, Normalization, Mardi Gras Beads, One Man No City, Light Up Gold II.

Snail Mail setlist: Heat Wave, Golden Dream, Thinning, Full Control, Let’s Find an Out, Pristine, Speaking Terms, The 2nd Most Beautiful Girl in the World, Stick.

Photos by Samuel C. Ware