FIDLAR AND THE ORWELLS @ HOLY MOUNTAIN (SHOW REVIEW)

On Friday night Lee Ackerley caught two young punk bands, FIDLAR and The Orwells, at their sold out ACL after show at Holy Mountain.

There are a small but growing contingent of punk bands that are carrying the torch for the music genre that supposedly died in September 1983, when Joe Strummer kicked Mick Jones out of the Clash. Bands like Jeff the Brotherhood, The Oh Sees, Metz, Ty Segall, and Wavves are redefining punk on their own terms while simultaneously paying homage to their predecessor influences.
Two of the youngest and most exciting new-generation bands are L.A.-based FIDLAR and Illinois quintet, The Orwells. Both bands had ACL slots on Friday morning while much of the festival was yet to arrive, but both managed to play phenomenal sets. FIDLAR literally blew out their speakers mid-set, causing a 5-minute power outage and then played even harder after. The Orwells raged through their wanton set in the 90 degree heat. Both shows, however, could not offer the intimacy and visceral experience that the ACL aftershow at Holy Mountain provided later that night.

The Orwells play garage punk with a youth-fueled fearlessness and utter reckless abandon.The band took the stage at Holy Mountain sporting black x’s on their hands as they’re all under 21 years of age, but lead singer Mario Cuomo found his way into some intoxicants despite this, and stumbled onstage drunkenly to kick off their set. Mario looks like a 20-year old Robert Plant, and even tries to emulate some of Robert’s famous hand gestures. Although inebriated and seemingly lackadaisical, Mario was endearing and took the crowd through well-known tunes like “Mallrats” and “Halloween All Year.” Mario wooed the crowd with intros like, “This next song is about a BJ that I got while in LA,” and crowd banter like, “The fucking Texas sun fried my white ass. It fucking fried me.” The set got sloppier as it went on, but the crowd intensity grew, and Mario ended up on top of his main speaker, 10 feet off ground, to dramatically end his raucous set with a nose dive into the crowd, which he did flawlessly.

Stage diving at Holy Mountain

FIDLAR came up next, playing for a ‘sold out’ but at half capacity venue (most ticket buyers get burned out at the festival and don’t show). From their opener “Cheap Beer” until their closer “Wake Bake Skate,” FIDLAR had the crowd moving, sweating, and hedonistically writhing to their skate-punk stoner songs. Where their festival show was successful in keeping the crowd’s attention, their after show performance at Holy Mountain on Friday night baptized all those present in the ethos of FIDLAR, which stands for Fuck It Dog Life’s A Risk. The band had people stage-diving every minute of every song and a constant shower of beer seemed to be dousing the crowd.

FIDLAR is only a couple of years older than The Orwells, but The Orwells cited them as the reason they formed a band, which shows the spontaneity of influence that these web-based bands enjoy. FIDLAR are equally influenced by Blink 182,as they are Black Flag and Iggy Pop, and their style of play allows them to cherry pick their favorite parts of all generations. Friday night’s show was reassuring for the oft punk-skeptic who may think that the spirit of punk died somewhere along the way. It didn’t, just listen to these bands. -Lee Ackerley