Punk rock band of the moment FIDLAR are the guys for tonight’s show at The Haunt. It’s not the first time they’ve brought their surfy Californian jams to the UK shores, but it’s the first time since their hyperactive debut album has come out, bringing a lot of new fans out in full force.
As main support beforehand, Turbogeist play a casual set of dirty punk rock complete with lead singer Jimmy going strong with his arm in a sling, which at times does come across as a bit limp, though at others sounds as raw as you could want. Either way they finish on good ground with their much stronger, more hard-hitting set closer, ‘Rats’.
FIDLAR get into their groove from the word go opening with ‘Cheap Beer’, whilst the front of the audience haven’t got a problem letting loose to this and other album tracks like ‘Stoked And Broke’ and the full force of ‘White On White’. Even if that does involve people clambering onstage and sort of… limply falling off, it’s clear everybody in the room for the most part are digging FIDLAR hard.
Getting the crowd worked up again when it hits is ‘Max Can’t Surf’, a track written about their own drummer Max Kuehn. His drumsticks somehow manage to go AWOL when the crowd cumbersomely invade the stage, leaving the band having to awkwardly ask for them back.
The Descendants’ ‘Suburban Home’ comes as a treat halfway through their set, off the back of a tribute record they were part of last year. Leaving the best till last though, they blast out awesome versions of the super-catchy ‘Wait For The Man’, the vicious ‘Cocaine’, and the frantic fun of ‘Wake, Bake, Skate’, the point at which the crowd decide to bombard the stage with awkward bodies for the second time, causing the bass to cut out prematurely.
Returning for the obligatory encore though, they manage to slip in another cover – this time FEAR’s ‘I Don’t Care About You’, nestling in seamlessly with their sound, before finishing up slow with ‘Paycheck’. Let’s have another stage invasion for the hell of it: why not? And let’s knock the bass out again… Oh well. Occasional goonery from the crowd aside, the typically not-so-sober FIDLAR were awesome slamming out killer song after killer song tonight.
JAMES FOX