Wavves and FIDLAR played Brighton Music Hall – 4/8
On what is almost certainly the year’s most fitting double-bill, surf-punks Wavves and FIDLAR played a sold-out Brighton Music Hall earlier this month to an appropriately energetic crowd.
Watching back-to-back Wavves and FIDLAR sets in a packed, sweaty club just feels right. The two California-based bands deal in similar brands of youthful surf/garage/pop-punk that feels right at home in the confines of a room like Brighton Music Hall. Wavves was surely the bigger name on the bill, but they split headlining duties with their tour-mates straight down the middle, even down to the billing on the marquee. The result was a double-dose of frenzied rock worthy of the rowdy reputations of both bands.
FIDLAR was up following on opening set from Cheatahs, which I unfortunately couldn’t catch. From the first notes of the band’s rallying call “Cheap Beer,” the crowd converged into an ecstatic pit that never disbanded. Much cheap beer was both thrown and consumed. FIDLAR’s surf-tinged odes to intoxicants, poor decision making and the occasional broken heart are befitting of their name (an anagram for ‘Fuck it Dog, Life’s a Risk’), and they work exceptionally well as a live show. The band maintains an air of punk rock imprecision, but is tight enough to hold its frantically-paced tunes together. Frontman Zac Carper has a charismatically to-the-point stage presence, announcing song titles in the manner of “This song’s called ‘Cheap Beer’ because we like cheap beer,” before throwing himself headlong into the music. He also has the word ‘burrito’ written in enormous letters on his Telecaster, and his pedalboard is fashioned from an old skate deck. FIDLAR are not the world’s most sophisticated rock band, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a damn good one.
A solid third of the crowd appeared to be at the show exclusively for FIDLAR, but Nathan Williams and company managed to keep the energy levels high for their subsequent set. Wavves released the polished and rather excellent Afraid of Heights a few weeks ago, and the record’s maturity was reflected in the tightly executed set. For a guy who was once most famous for having his drummer quit and dump a beer on his head midway through a disastrous Primavera Sound set, Williams has really pulled himself together as a musician. His songwriting only gets better with time, and with the help of a band consisting of drummer Jacob Cooper, bassist Stephen Pope (and his astounding hair) plus a second guitarist, cuts from Afraid of Heights and 2010’s King of the Beach sounded huge. The crowd went fittingly crazy for “Idiot,” “Demon to Lean On” and 2009 throwback “No Hope Kids,” and an excited few even belted out the lyrics to an unexpected, grunge-y cover of Sonic Youth’s “100%.” Williams wears his 90s references on his sleeve, but one can hardly fault him when they’re such good references to have.
Wavves kept their set relatively short and sweet, touching on most of their catalog highlights with nary a second wasted, apart from the occasional beer break. Williams tends to let his self-deprecating lyrics do most of the talking on stage, but a lack of banter was all the more music the band could pack into a whirlwind set. In their current iteration, Wavves are increasingly proving themselves a band worthy of the blog hype that once threatened to sink them.
Full photo gallery here.