Parts & Labor
Waterloo Park, Nov. 8The dust began just after 2:30pm Saturday, in the midst of a crunchy set by Brooklyn now-fourpiece Parts & Labor. Perhaps it reverberated in the strength of Joe Wong’s double kick drum, employed only when it mattered. Then again, it might have been Dan Friel’s fierce red mop top, flipping with a Pert bounce ever so frequently atop his bevy of keys and pedals. The back and forth between original manual laborers Friel and bassist B.J. Warshaw, made more evident by the addition of guitarist Sarah Lipstate, culminated in Receivers highlights “Satellites” and the climactic “Nowheres Nigh,” but it was Parts & Labor’s newfound melody that took center stage. Noise is still an element of P&L’s show, but now there’s rhythm, verses, restraint. Their anthemic step-ups mix punk rock and emo, developing trysts built for soccer games and hooliganism. With a little found sound and an Obama dedication, Parts & Labor set themselves aside from a swarm of noisemakers, not quite honed to perfection, but able to whip up a whirlwind of ecstatic dirt devils, nonetheless.
This article appears in November 14 • 2008.