There’s a first time for everything. At least that’s what I told myself while rolling out of bed at 9am Friday to make it out to Zilker Park by noon. I’ve never been in a rush to catch a 40-minute festival set before the sun starts setting, but here I was, girlfriend in tow, standing under the brutal sun watching a bunch of idiots play in a band called Fidlar.
Fidlar don’t seem like early risers. Maybe it’s because they spent their Fun Fun Fun set last year openly soliciting the audience for drugs. Since then, they’ve released an eponymous debut that’s garnered a surprising amount of traction and managed to convince the ACL ilk that their carbonated chaos is relevant to the masses.
Makes sense. My 18-year-old sister has the Fidlar disc burnt in the family van. This is a band on the cusp of some serious exposure. Zac Carper screams about bumping a line of speed in a song called “Cheap Beer,” then hurls himself over the barrier to blast a dehydrated moshpit with a shotgun, “I don’t have a job! I don’t have a phone! Don’t have a life! And I’m always stoned.”
The rest of the L.A. fourpiece, meanwhile, shouts, “WAKE! BAKE! SKATE!”
Don’t be fooled. Fidlar are far too efficient to be true layabouts, but they sell slackerisms to the audience like food truck fry cooks. As Fidlar becomes successful, can they maintain that tone?
For more ACL Fest coverage, see austinchronicle.com/acl. For photo galleries from the fest, see austinchronicle.com/photos.
This article appears in October 4 • 2013.