Fat White Family
Belgrave Music Hall
4/5

Imagine going to see Beyoncé and her not playing ‘Crazy in Love’ – a song that, to many, defines her. How would that make you feel? Could her performance still prosper?Well this is pretty much what happened at Fat White Family’s set at the Belgrave Music Hall. You see, Fat White Family didn’t get naked.

The weight of expectations can be crushing for a band; in Fat White Family’s case, that expectation is for gleeful, unadulterated chaos and with it, at least a bit of arse. Tonight we only get some of the former and, despite audience requests, none of the later. Suffice to say, it didn’t matter.

Beginning their set in the dark with debut album Champagne Holocaust’s opener, ‘Auto-Neutron’ the band set a decidedly smutty vibe. It’s all sleazy guitar solos and creepy falsetto from here on out and it’s hard not to be disgusted by it all. But who cares? Too much music nowadays is pristine and clean and sexless and Fat White Family are the antithesis of this and live they are as lewd as they are exciting.

Singer Lias Saoudi is the one who takes it upon himself to be the manifestation of the band’s aesthetic. He prowls the stage completely demented, with the sort of half-scowl- half-grin that may well end up buried in the psyches of some of the audience tonight. He molests his fellow band mates, he leaps into the crowd stumbling around like a man possessed and is received rather as one who is blessed.

Most everyone in the audience knows we haven’t seen Fat White Family at anything near their most unhinged and tonight they’ve shown that they don’t need to be to put on a great show.
More power to them.

https://soundcloud.com/hate-hate-hate-records/fat-white-family-touch-the

 Daoud Al-Janabi