Parquet Courts, Electric Ballroom, London

When it initially struck that Parquet Courts were going to be a Very Big Deal, the Brooklynites seemed to take it with a slight reluctance. Promoting an album they’d self-released one year earlier, the beginning of 2013 witnessed showcase gigs, a band flying across the world because opportunity came knocking. Happy to discuss their music, they were pinned in as press shy because they didn’t much like staged photos. That was it. One year on and it’s difficult to believe the same band are strutting - well, by their standards - forward on the Electric Ballroom stage.

A recent performance of ‘Stoned and Starving’ on Fallon seemed to show a group ready to go one step further. Guitars went head-to-head with screeching amplifiers, each member looking anything but camera shy. Their third UK gig of the year sees the same approach come into view. It’s not like they were hiding behind microphones at gigs last year, but this time round they’re practically inches away leaping off the stage. Flailing arms invite as much. Right now Prince is just around the corner giving queue junkies exactly what they asked for. But it’s a distant thought as soon as the headliners here break into their moody but well scrubbed-up garage punk.

As it plays out, that description hangs slightly looser than this time 12 months back. The ‘Tally All The Things That You Broke’ EP still upheld punk ideals and scrappy but tight-knit musicianship, but out emerged a band willing to try new things. Not to get too cosied in the praise for ‘Light Up Gold’, they ended up sounding like several different bands striving for attention, latching onto a Beck-like approach on ‘He’s Seeing Paths’. Songs on the late 2013 release get their dues, alongside several previously unheard cuts. Half of tonight’s set is made up of new material, and it’s impressive.

The band’s energy remains potently feral, even if songs like ‘Duckin and Dodgin’ and ‘Vienna II’ might get a furrowed brow of a response if they tried hanging out on record with ‘Light Up Gold’. What’s even more enlivening is the crowd’s response. Nothing new quite has the repeated, immediate impact of a ‘Stoned and Starving’ or ‘Borrowed Time’, but it doesn’t exactly take long for inquisitive looks to morph into busied limbs. True to their stubborn routine, there’s no encore after 17 songs mixing beloved old and soon-to-be-adored new. There’s a momentum that’s been behind these guys ever since word started spreading about this exciting new band that sounded sort of like The Strokes, sort of like the next big thing. Said wave hasn’t stopped going. If last year felt like their moment, just wait for what’s coming next round the corner.