Parquet Courts and Mdou Moctar brought the vibes to Liberty Hall

March 9, 2022

Nick Spacek,

Parquet Courts at Liberty Hall. // Photo by Nick Spacek

Parquet Courts
with Mdou Moctar
Liberty Hall
Monday, March 7

Standing in line before the doors opened for Monday night’s show at Liberty Hall, it seemed as though some of the crowd wasn’t aware of just what they were in for.

A young man, informed that Mdou Moctar was opening, went into a fit of excitement, repeatedly uttering, “Holy shit!” and informing his friends that they were about to get their minds blown while also wondering why he hadn’t known until that moment.

It’s not as though Mdou Moctar is unknown. Afrique Victime was released on Matador Records last year and, he has been gaining momentum since his soundtrack for Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai made waves online back in 2015.

That said, on the face of it, pairing a Tuareg guitarist with a garage rock quartet from New York City makes for an interesting double bill.

Upon further reflection, and once the show got underway, the differences were far more superficial than anything. Both Parquet Courts’ and Mdou Moctar’s sets featured intricate guitar work and hypnotic interplay between the leads, with rock-solid rhythm sections behind both.

While Parquet Courts might’ve had a light show, which at times, seemed kaleidoscopic with early parts of their set leaning into dance aspects of last year’s Sympathy for Life—Mdou Moctar’s set was mostly unadorned, leaning strongly into their frontman’s guitar work.

One usually expects something minimal from an opening band, but you have to wonder as to whether Mdou Moctar’s music even needs more than a few spotlights, as anything else would be a distraction.

This isn’t to say that Parquet Courts’ set was all style and no substance. The opening trio of “Application/Apparatus,” “Human Performance,” and “Dust” felt like each song was meant to sit right next to the other, despite coming from three different albums released over the course of five years.

While the set would get a little more raucous and garage-y as the night went on, within the first 10 minutes, Parquet Courts demonstrated they knew how to get an audience dancing.

All things being equal, this was a show which allowed the audience to lean into the music, get lost in the drone, and vibe the hell out.

At the outset, the crowd was an equal mix of younger college kids hyped on Parquet Courts and older scene cognoscenti eager to see a master guitarist at work. At some point, they all overlapped, and the Venn diagram collapsed into a theater full of music fans psyched for the show taking place before them.

All photos by Nick Spacek

Parquet Courts