Project Description

FIDLAR

@ Lion Arts Factory, SA

14/07/19

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Caine RexEverything

Photographer: Kay Cann

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The name FIDLAR is an acronym. It stands for “Fuck It Dog, Life’s A Risk”.

I took this advice to heart Sunday night when California Party Punk upstarts FIDLAR graced the stage at Adelaide’s Lion Arts Factory to a packed house of excited fans clearly stoked to be seeing this cult act of rabble-rousing rockers.

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I faced an unappealing 7:30am start the next morning and knew any physical exertion would lead to the enduring horror of crippling leg pain the next day. Not as young as I used to be, you see. These wretched bones have years of mosh pit injuries and generally poor upkeep which makes them ache like the dawning of my own private apocalypse every morning.

But hey, fuck it dog. Life’s a risk. Fun is always more important than responsibility. I will denounce anyone who disagrees. They’ve probably never seen FIDLAR if they think otherwise.

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So in the spirit of the occasion I drank when I shouldn’t have, moshed despite my body begging me not to, made best friends with complete strangers, sang louder than my vocal chords are attuned for and generally wrung every drop of risk out of life on a freezing Sunday night in Adelaide.

And despite my struggles on Monday, I don’t regret it one bit. Why? Because in a live setting FIDLAR are an incredibly joyous affair and to not join in with the the audience shenanigans would’ve been a travesty.

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FIDLAR are an underrated, excellent band. Their three albums prove a consistently entertaining listen; loud, obnoxious and definitely owing some small debt to the legacy of their youths growing up in the epicentre of punk rock’s playful side. The father of Max and Elvis Kuehn is keyboardist for Long Beach Punk stalwarts TSOL and the crunching, bouncing sounds of that band and their 90s contemporaries permeate FIDLAR’s three LPs to date.

But on stage, those songs about drinking, skating, getting high and generally not giving a solitary fuck make perfect sense – especially when played at full force to a fierce crowd of exuberant fans.

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There is no chance anyone could’ve been disappointed by the show – and if someone was, they were rightfully drowned out by the sheer noise of the baying, besotted and increasingly inebriated audience. Right from the first chords of opener ‘Alcohol’, the mass of hardcore fans erupted in emphatic singalongs and rising tides of boisterous moshing that took me back to those halcyon days of the mid 90s mainstream punk explosion.

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Emptied plastic cups cannoned through the air, many bulleting glistening ice cubes like blunderbuss buckshot through the dangling limbs from countless crowd surfers, who threw devils horns and kicked sneakered feet toward the stage lights. Every face looked contorted by twisted grins of unadulterated joy.

Some guy next to me spilled his beer all down my side and then immediately embraced me to sing along with ‘40oz On Repeat’ as if he hadn’t just drenched me in half-flat Coopers ale. I shrugged, hugged him right back and bellowed away at equal volume.

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Moments like these only happen at concerts when a crowd is so happy, so in tune with the music and so appreciative to be witness to a great show, they shake loose all inhibitions and social boundaries and mesh together in a seething, booze stinking gestalt of reckless revelry.

They grab the risk of life by the horns and ride that fucker like a rodeo bull. And the most amazing thing is it was like that from the moment the music started.

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Even before FIDLAR entered the stage, the crowd were peaking in frenetic energy. Support act Pist Idiots proved to everyone that being support doesn’t mean mildly entertaining the building crowd while they milled around in wait for the main act. They showed everybody they’re a group worth their salt and deserving of their own headline slot before long.

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Their name and lyrical themes might invite comparisons to Cosmic Psychos or The Chats, but this upcoming NSW band played with rare sincerity, lifting their songs beyond time killers and instead knocking the audience into the right shape for a manic night of good old fun-times rock and roll.

They even slipped into their short, unrelenting set a cover of immortal Buzzcocks classic ‘Ever Fallen In Love’, which not only drew a tear from me as I recalled Pete Shelley’s passing last year, but also became the final convincer I needed to forget about tomorrow and instead just live the shit out of that moment right there and then.

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Like a classic double feature in some grimy inner city cinema, this was an evening that offered double the thrills, double the laughs and double the value. Whether it was launching into the melodies of ‘West Coast’, splitting down the centre for a girls-only mosh pit, or joining Zac Carper on lead vocals during ‘By Myself’ (sing it with me, people: “I’m cracking one open with the boys by myself, and everybody says that I need professional help”), everybody in attendance put all their worries and responsibilities aside in the name of a good time.

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To quote FIDLAR’s closing song ‘Wake Bake Skate’:

 

“Better try and make it for another year, just to hang out with my best friends and drink a lot of beer”.

 

That’s life in a nutshell, isn’t it? We withstand the tedium of living for the sake of best mates and a chance for great fun. It’s worth the risk, dog. Totally worth the risk.

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Check out Kay Cann‘s gallery of the show here

New album ‘Almost Free’

out now via Mom&Pop

Connect with FIDLAR

Facebook  Twitter  Website

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