Wavves Hit Johnny Brenda’s

Next up Fidlar (Fuck It Dog Life’s a Risk) took the stage and immediately began jokingly ridiculing those on the balcony for being “too good for the downstairs people”, in an attempt to bring the audience closer to the stage. Starting their set with “Cheep Beer” was enough to get the crowd moving. They chanted along while (appropriately) tossing beer at the stage. The set was high energy for both sides of the stage making Fidlar a hard act to follow. A few fans even found their way into lifting a speaker while screaming along, to which the singer later responded “If you’re drunk and want to hang and move around – fuck it”.

Of all the members, the singer, Zac Carper, in his tye dye Zeppelin shirt and ‘burritos’ branded guitar, seemed to most personify that fuck-it attitude the band was obviously looking to portray. As if the permission to have fun wasn’t enough excitement, they then went into a cover of The Descendents’ “Suburban Home” and dedicated the song to a guy in the crowd wearing a Descendents shirt. Fidlar have been quoted saying that they put as much of themselves into their record as possible which only leads you to believing these guys lives revolve around a sleazy raging string of impaired nights. Adding a humorous touch to the band’s rebellious nature, their influences on Facebook are essentially a list of various light beers. Before ending a very engaging set where the singer found himself being held up by the crowd while playing, the band invited the audience to buy their vinyl which was recorded in a garage. Not surprising of a band who ended their set with a song called “Wake, Bake, Skate”.

Surprisingly enough, after all of the energy from Fidlar, Wavves still managed to impress the audience. The band had the crowd dancing within seconds of their first song. Their single “Demon To Lean On” had a significant amount of women pushing their way to the front to sing along with Nathan Williams as he explained through song being “ambivelant and young but probably just dumb”. Their set itself, which held a cover of Sonic Youth’s “100%”, sounded overall pretty safe with a fair variety of tracks off their freshly released Afraid of Heights. I’d say what was most impressive about Wavves’ set would be their ability to keep the animation of Fidlar’s set going while still doing their own thing.