I have already written about these kids a couple of times, but I have watched their audience grow bigger each time I went to one of their shows: I saw FIDLAR for the first time a year and half ago, as they were the openers of a Monday residency at the Echo, and there were just a couple of people in front of the stage; but on Friday night, at the same place, they were the headliners, setting up a release party for their upcoming debut album months in advance – but ‘fuck that!’ said main singer Zac Carper – and they blew up the roof of the very crowded venue.
I wasn’t there, but earlier this year, the police shut down two of her shows in Venice Beach, because the parties got a little out of hand, with too many underage punk kids having too much beer, and doing too much skate boarding in the middle of the street! There were some arrests made by the LAPD, and by now, FIDLAR have received their rowdy-punk-riot-trigger title.
I was probably one of the oldest persons at their show at the Echo, as a sea of very young fellows, wearing handmade t-shirts with the title ‘Fuck It Dog, Life’s A Risk’ sharpied on it, invaded the place, and the whole show was a celebration of being fuck-up on cheap beers as their official new t-shirt (‘Cheap Beer- FIDLAR’) claim it. They played about 22 of their short missile-like anthems, filled with shouted choruses and surf-fun guitars, catchy as hell and upbeat in a strange let’s-all-get-drunk-and-wasted way. Live, the quartet is a local phenomenon just ready to blow up nationally, you could feel the strong connection with all these kids filling the room, and it was not a coincidence if the DJ had played a lot of punk standards just before their set, such as the Dead Kennedys’ ‘California Über Alles’.
Needless to say, their set saw many people stage diving and crowd surfing, but it was a game the security guards, in an absurd and endless task, had to stop! I had found refuge in the back, standing on a seat to see something, but soon two kids came close to me and one of them was holding a white towel and soaked the blood coming from his nose for the rest of the show, aaawww poor guy! But I was watching security guards kicking out kid after kid who had been crowd surfing, and I guess that some of them got more than a bloody nose! Wow this place was really a riot!
Honestly, there wasn’t a resting moment, it was chaos with all high-energy aaaaaaa and oooooo screamed choruses, all-fury guitars, all bodies bent on guitars and reckless moves. They started with their ‘Cheap Beer’ song summing up their punk philosophy in a line ‘I! DRINK! CHEAP! BEER! SO! WHAT! FUCK! YOU!’
Zac Carper, who didn’t look much older than the kid with the bleeding nose next to me, was announcing the song, ‘this one is about rehab’, ‘this one is about the west coast!’… But aren’t all their songs about the west coast? With their rawness they have been described as a reaction against the fake glamour of the city of angels, and with their totally laid back attitude they could be a revolt against the seriousness of the music industry.
I went to the stage after the show, hoping to find a setlist, even written on a beer can, but the place was so devastated, so trashed with cans, broken glasses, divers liquids and even shoes that I couldn’t find anything! I am sure they played the crowd favorites like ‘Wake, Bake, Skate’, ‘Wait for the Man’, ‘Max Can’t Surf’, and the sort of Iggy-haunted ‘I Wanna be your Cocaine’, but there was much more than these immediate catchy-fun odes to beer, drugs and party, there was diversity, showing us they have far more than one trick. If ‘White on White’ was a furious bluesy punk ride, their last one had a title coming straight from the Flaming Lips’ book (‘The Punks Are Finally Taking Acid’) and sounding like the Black Keys going punk. However, it was not exactly the last song, they invited a large crowd on stage for another one, ending the show in a sort of chaotic and immature anarchy. Just like Odd Future, FIDLAR has found this unique connection with a young public who doesn’t hesitate to get a nose bleed for the fun of it.
