FIDLAR - O2 Academy, Bristol - Review

For a long time, FIDLAR have been a part of the new wave of left field bands among bands like Peace, Wolf Alice and Catfish and the Bottlemen. Hailing from Los Angeles, California, this band provides brilliantly scrappy, explicit, sloppy and, most of all, loud garage punk – perfectly sampled in their studio albums, the self-titled debut ‘FIDLAR’ and the much awaited second album released a few months ago ‘Too’. 
FIDLAR easily filled the venue with 2500 excited teenagers, a 50/50 mix of the indie and punk scenes. Opening was also a great new American band by the name of Bully, who were on the wake of their debut album ‘Feels Like’. A truly brilliant band playing a loud and proud set, fuelling sweaty mosh pits. Their enticing mixture of grunge and indie rock sent the crowd flailing as frontwoman Alicia’s floating and often scratching, screaming vocals contrasted the overdriven guitars. 
As FIDLAR came on stage the audience was sent into a frenzy – adrenalin fuelled kids bashing into each other as frontman Zac Carper stepped up to the mic and with a typical Los Angeles valley accent shouted “Hi, we’re FIDLAAAR.”. The band broke into the thick, growling ‘Stoked and Broke’, the pit now about ten times more crushing and violent than any Drenge concert. Next was a fan favourite ‘Max Can’t Surf’, causing the crowd to scream all the lyrics in return. Zac folded his arms and sighed his way through the fast and almost haunting ‘No Waves’ (my favourite performance of the night), then after a few well-rehearsed songs, including mosh pit and sing along favourite ‘Cheap Beer’, broke into their newer ‘40oz On Repeat’ – arguably the band’s anthem and a brilliant performance. Bassist Brandon Schwartzel stepped up to sing for new album track ‘Bad Medicine’, making nasally, high pitched vocals sound like they fit like a jigsaw into the instrumentals. The sweaty teens all united as one to sing along to the garage punk anthems ‘West Coast’ and ‘5 to 9’ both played quick and solidly – the band obviously knew what they were doing as they all threw themselves about the stage. ‘Awkward’ was another highlight, the chorus echoing around the venue of writhing bodies and flying shoes. ‘Punks’ (otherwise known as ‘The Punks Are Finally Taking Acid’) was one of the high points of the mosh pit as sweaty bodies were thrown around screaming at the top of their lungs :
'Well I'm still alive
And you are too
I still can't get myself outta' you.'
The set finally ended with ‘Cocaine’. As the initial riff came in the show took an unexpected turn – Zac came up to the mic and told everyone to “Sit the f—k down.”, after we all eagerly did as he said, he simply declared “You’ll know when to get up.”. And we did. As the song broke into its heavy, thick bass by Brandon Scwartzel, cutting vocals by Zac Carper, enticing riffs by Elvis Keuhn and smashing and banging drums by Max Keuhn we all jumped up into the air, throwing the audience and venue into frenzy – a huge number of teens as one in the most violent and exciting mosh pit I’ve ever experienced.
A truly brilliant band and a very good setlist covering the vastness of their unique sound. I’d definitely recommend anyone to see them live – and bring heavy footwear, it’s pretty hard going in there.
The Set:
Stoked and Broke
Max Can't Surf
White on White
No Waves
Cheap Beer
Drone
Leave Me Alone
40 Oz On Repeat
Bad Medicine
West Coast
5 To 9
Awkward
Why Generation
Punks
Wait for the Man
Cocaine

Similar Bands:
Wavves
The Front Bottoms
Moose Blood
Drenge

WRITTEN BY OWEN REES.
 Listen to FIDLAR here: https://play.spotify.com/artist/3P6duIn7oHeiBACZfYeNud?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open