Review: FIDLAR Fucks Shit Up at the Fillmore
THE LAST TIME THE WORLD SAW FIDLAR LIVE - was in 2019 at Los Angeles’ Tropicália festival as a big-font name. That same year, the band, consisting of Zac Carper, Brandon Schwartzel, and brothers Elvis and Max Keuhn at the time, released their eclectic third album Almost Free and was riding high on a slew of tour dates and summer festival runs. This was three years ago, and a lot has changed since then. Zac Carper went through k-hole songwriting sprees mid-pandemic, Elvis Keuhn announced his departure from the band, and during a year of the most out-of-left-field reunion tours and anniversary shows of some of the most prominent voices in punk music, FIDLAR had yet to release anything new.
For the past three years, there was speculation that FIDLAR was gone forever. On July 11 of this year, the band posted a slow-mo, black and white montage of mosh pits and crowds from over the years, overlaid with Carper singing Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” cheekily hinting that either FIDLAR was indeed dead, or that the mourning period of live music was over. “It’s been way too long since you’ve been in a mosh pit,” the band tweeted the next day. Suddenly, tour dates, new merch, and their new single “FSU” (Fuck Shit Up) dropped, sending longtime FIDIOTS into a frenzy. The band made their comeback in their hometown for a single release show in August and started a miniature comeback tour last week.
After two nights at The Fonda in Los Angeles, FIDLAR trekked to San Francisco to play The Fillmore, one of the city’s most famed venues, completely fit for the return of one of the west coast’s most beloved rockers. After being warmed up by Los Angeles’ rising band LIILY, the crowd was vibrating with relentless energy leading up to their set. The hallways were cramped and already skunky with weed, the line for beers reached out into the pit, and crowd-goers were already stuffed up to the barricade waiting for the clock to hit 9.
At 8:59 p.m., the band walked out as if they could not handle the anticipation of waiting 60 more seconds. The lights go dark, and all you can hear is the surfy, menacing riff of “Cheap Beer.” People up in the balcony dropped their drinks and started sprinting to the floor, while those downstairs opened a circle pit with no hesitation. The combination of the bass with Sk8 Hi’s and Doc Martens hitting the floor was enough to shake the venue, raising the blood pressure of everyone in the room. Water bottles and knotted t-shirts started flying over the crowd. Instead of a simple pit in the center, the entire crowd was being tossed around, looking like a tidal surge from overhead.
After a long period of no live music and an even longer period of no FIDLAR, fans took this opportunity to completely lose themselves to the chaos of songs like “Stoked and Broke” and “40oz. On Repeat,” leaving all inhibitions at the door. You come to a FIDLAR show for one reason, that reason being to rage. That being said — a FIDLAR show is not for the faint-hearted.
After starting their set with early classics including “Max Can’t Surf” and “No Waves,” FIDLAR took time to play new unreleased songs. Joined by Dead Cross guitarist Michael Crain, Carper introduced the next song as their “fuckboi anthem,” followed up by a raucous earworm rumored to be called “On Drugs”: “I’m not on drugs, but I have drugs on me / I’m taking drugs instead of therapy,” Carper sang on the new track. They later played their newest single, “FSU,” to which the crowd already knew all the words.
There’s a dichotomy between their early dummy tracks and the sophistication of songs from Almost Free. After the release of Almost Free, Carper said in an interview, "I hope people see we're not just slacker punk stoner idiots.” However, it’s clear from their live shows that they can be taken seriously even as “slacker punks.” The band brings back that energy with the arrangement of their setlist, transitioning from “Alcohol” to “Sober,” changing the lyrics to “I figured out as I got sober / that life just sucks when you get older.”
After non-stop expulsion of energy, from a curated all-girl mosh pit to Carper harping the crowd to “crowdsurf and mosh as much as possible,” the band took a pause to catch their breath. Everyone in the crowd knelt to the floor and hushed, though it was clear that they could go at it all night.
“I’d like to thank you very much for attending the FIDLAR experience,” Carper told the crowd as they replied with cheers. Closing with “Cocaine” and encoring with “Bad Habits” and the infamous “Wake Bake Skate,” the venue felt so alive, teeming with a high that comes not from drugs or alcohol but from scream-singing to songs you’ve known for years. Wet and hot, the crowd left the venue buzzing, the Fillmore humorously playing classical music as the post-show exit tune. With East Coast dates to finish and a new EP on the way, FIDLAR reminds us that life is too short not to spend it as recklessly as you can.
CONNECT WITH FIDLAR
SPOTIFY
-
weekly tunes playlist has been updated! new tracks from @furtradeband, @pecqband, @garryfool & more! check it out! https://t.co/ToFU0R6YGo -
-
RT @oliviaborch: new @LunaCollective out todayyy shot by @alltookev ✨ @P1H_official editorial design by me ! https://t.co/cvSCKsWB5D
-
RT @rlyblonde: @AnnieDirusso for @LunaCollective shot by me #35mm #portra800 https://t.co/0UUJSCBGcH
