“That was short but sweet,” opined one young woman after Fat White Family’s truncated set. The British sextet had obviously drawn the shortest straw when it came time to recalibrate the Black stage, already running late only an hour past doors on Saturday.
The Londoners made the most of their brief appearance with tunes from August’s stateside debut on Fat Possum, Champagne Holocaust. The band, which lists its influences as “Manson family jams,” arrived one by one as instruments got soundchecked, then abruptly launched LP opener “Auto Neutron,” a woozy, melodic drone as much punk rock sneer as psychedelic haze.
“Is It Raining in Your Mouth?” rolled a Velvety jangle in its sarcastic attack on contemporary music. Wasting little time with banter, the Family flipped back-to-back killers, parodying the Fall frontman’s legendary ego with “I Am Mark E. Smith” and crooning a potential pop anthem in “Touch the Leather,” a hit in the hands of someone more conscious of poise than potency.
Then it was right into the vaguely countrified “Bomb Disneyland,” on which FWF finally gave into the progressive frenzy that had lurked at the edge of the set since the start. Their exit came in a hail of feedback. The right combo of slashing/smoldering and don’t-give-a-fuck attitude – I believe that’s called rock & roll.
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This article appears in November 7 • 2014.
