It wasn’t so long ago that Parquet Courts was last at T.T. the Bear’s, opening for Woods in July of last year to a sold-out house. At the time, the cheeky quartet composed of Andrew Savage, Austin Brown, Sean Yeaton, and Max Savage were coming off the release of their first full-length album, Light Up Gold, a 15-track indie punk revelation instantly beloved by critics and cool kids alike. Now, with their second full-length album Sunbathing Animal, Parquet Courts are busy cementing their place as one of the true heavyweights of today’s music scene. Their appeal is obvious and intuitive, familiar but fresh, and judging from their set at T.T.’s, Parquet Courts is a band that knows exactly what they’re doing.

Tuesday night’s show sold out a long time ago. The wide space of T.T.’s filled in gradually over the course of the two opening bands, Detroit’s Protomartyr and local group Sweet John Bloom, two bands well paired with Parquet Courts in their twangy guitar, lively percussion, and devil-may-care vocals. An unfortunate fact of T.T. the Bear’s Place (though admittedly a part of its charm) is that too often, especially in opening acts, vocals are muffled and sound unbalanced. Listening again to the two openers’ recorded music (Protomartyr’s “Come and See” and Sweet John Bloom’s “Christmas Bar” are both verifiable bangers), it’s clear that some of the two openers’ demonstrable polish and talent was a bit obscured.

Parquet Courts took the stage to excited bellows from the crowd. “Hello, goddamn it!” Andrew Savage said wryly into the mic. “Who all was here the last time we played here?” he asked. A few eager hands shot up. After saluting Yeaton’s mother (who was settled into the crowd wearing sunglasses in the shape of guitars… awww), the band wasted no more time, and began a virtually flawless one-hour set composed mostly of songs from the band’s new album, starting appropriately with opening track “Bodies Made Of.”

The entire set maintained a breakneck pace, attended by an excitable mosh pit, but a few songs really stood out in an overall excellent performance. “Instant Disassembly,” off the new album, is a 7-minute croon so summertime-sexy it demands a dance partner (“I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, it’s hard to inhale), and “Borrowed Time,” a harrowing spiral of a song off Light Up Gold, sent the crowd into a frenzy. Requests for an encore were tacitly refused by the band, but, hey, you can’t have everything.

One lovely thing about Parquet Courts is that there’s no single, definable frontman. Each member’s voice is important in making the cheeky slacker-punk sound they’re so well-liked for. Singing together and apart, somehow it all becomes cohesive, a band of boys in it together. Brown’s voice lends a sweetness to “North Dakota,” while Savage’s bellow grounded set closer “Light Up Gold II.” Maybe it’s this equality in musical roles among the members of the band that makes their music so special — it’s collaborative, it’s a team effort, and it’s not spotlight-hogging despite the fact that each musician is a powerful and charismatic performer in his own right.

Parquet Courts’ set only convinced me further that they’re one of the better groups making rock music today. The next few years are sure to be productive and interesting for these young punks.