FAT WHITE FAMILY play Casbah Apr 12, Satellite Apr 13, Constellation Room Apr 14
Loud, eccentric, and with a standard drug and alcohol friendly lifestyle supporting their cause, Fat White Family packs their shows with performances that come straight from… well… who knows. The outlandish crew is again hitting the states with their own psychedelic punk Euro tunes. With many members of the band still homeless, their passion for music is all they have that’s paving the way for their voices to be heard.
The six-piece band of family and friends brings a unique show built to please the crowd in the only way they know how, by being themselves. With the loose cannon live performances of front man Lias Saoudi, the band brings a show worth seeing.
Concert Guide Live caught up with Saoudi to cypher through his heavy English accent and find out what it’s like being part of a Fat White Family.
Concert Guide Live: How’d the band start?
LIAS: We used to play in a room above a pub in Brixton. We would play bar gigs with nobody. We’d use drugs ‘n stuff. It was experimentalism.
CGL: Who’s your biggest influence?
LIAS: Mark E. Smith from The Fall. He was a bad singer but I like his philosophy. He’s always new. I like to do that as well, you know. It’s hard though. A lot of bands will come back and play their old stuff which I think goes against punk rock itself.
CGL: I hear you smeared peanut butter on yourself during a show. What else do you smear yourself in?
LIAS: Peanut butter! I don’t remember that. But I like to go full GG Allin. I dress myself in all kinds of weird stuff from the rider that [the venue] supplies us with, all the food or whatever we order. I like to wear stuff from there.
CGL: Will you ever go full nude?
LIAS: Yeah sometimes. Sometimes people enjoy it, I think.
CGL: Do you like when fans get involved, like getting on stage and stuff like that?
LIAS: Sometimes, depends on how bad of a mood I’m in. Sometimes I want to break peoples’ faces, which is surprising for how feeble I really am. I can be moody.
CGL: What’s your favorite thing a fan has done at a show?
LIAS: A woman met her husband a few years back at one of our shows. He passed, and she came to scatter his ashes at our show six months ago. I had no idea ‘til after the show when she told us. She told us when they lowered his casket they played “Bomb Disneyland”. That was really cool.
CGL: That’s pretty awesome. Doesn’t get more loyal than that. What’s life like in between tours?
LIAS: In London the prices keep going up and up. You know how that goes. Most of the band is homeless so it makes things quite difficult.
CGL: What gets you going before a show?
LIAS: Panic and fear. Craps. I get the runs and usually spend a lot of time on the toilet before a show. Maybe a few drinks. No coke before a show. I like Irish ballads. Like Brendan Behan’s “The Auld Triangle”.
CGL: What’s your favorite country you’ve played?
LIAS: Favorite country is probably Scotland. The crowds are just really good. And also the West Coast, like Portland, San Francisco, LA, San Diego. And not just because I’m here I really think the crowds are really good. They are all really laid back. There’s a lot of space cadets. I’m sort of a space cadet myself, so I like it.
CGL: What’s your favorite venue?
LIAS: Probably the Troubadour in LA. I did really good acid there. I had three fingers in my ass. I don’t remember much of that show really.
CGL: What can we expect to see at your next shows?
LIAS: Well, songs from our record and some unexpected things as well. I guess the feeling of that day. It’ll be fresh in California. We usually start on the other side, the East Coast and go west and usually want to break up by then. But we’re starting in California so it’ll be a fresh start.
CGL: Well good luck and thanks for the chat!