Chop Suey Presents
Fat White Family
Jeffrey Lewis // DJ Nick Fenton
Chop Suey Presents
Fat White Family are the greatest young rock band in the UK and this probably extends to the rest of the world as well. What’s that? You want to know more? Christ on callipers, ok, let’s see what we’ve got here then…
It won’t come as news to anyone who has been to one of their regular Slide-In nights at their local pub and HQ, The Queens Head in Brixton, South London but for a band that only really coalesced as the Fat White Family in 2011, the six piece have already got several once-in-a-lifetime/ ‘OMG – were you there?’ gigs under their belt. On December 10th 2013 they rattled the walls of the legendary 100 Club, thus aligning themselves with the numerous legends who have trod the very same stage. The band summoned up the feral electric skronk blues of The Magic Band and The Birthday Party, the proto-punk pummelling of The Monks and The Modern Lovers and the twisted folk of Charles Manson and The Country Teasers. And as singer Lias Saoudi, clad in nothing but a pair of back to front, skin tight rubber trousers, was carried at head height off stage by a crowd of howling devotees, it was clear that something special had just happened.
However, it’s not all been plain sailing. When confronted by London’s pay to play, indie toilet circuit, the Fat Whites aren’t known for toeing the line. They’re already adept at sniffing out bullshit. At a recent gig in a down at heel dive that shall remain nameless it took less than three songs for the train to come screaming off the tracks.
Nathan Saoudi, Lias’ young brother and the group’s raven haired organist, says: “It was more of a fight than a gig. It was promoted by these guys who weren’t in it for the right reasons. They were just dodgy businessmen. They wouldn’t let us play. They cut the microphones. They put bouncers on stage with us. So we just started smashing the equipment up. I remember looking round and my brother Lias was naked and masturbating and it was kicking off everywhere. I was laughing my head off, ‘Oh my god what the hell’s happening?’”
Saul Adamczewski, the gap-toothed musical director of the group adds: “Literally one minute I was on stage and the next I was outside on the pavement. One by one everyone came flying out of the same door. Then some locals came steaming out and there was a brawl in the middle of the road which only stopped when the police turned up…” He pauses and continues: “But it’s not really about the venue or what kind of night it is. I think how good the show is has got a lot to do with how we react off each other. Unless you can go in fearless it doesn’t really happen. It doesn’t matter how many people are there. The best gig we ever played was to two people. We played for five hours. And it was great that Halloween in Hastings when Lias got naked and painted his cock black so it looked like he had no genitals…” Fat White Family were formed out of the ashes of two bands. In 2006 the 17-year-old Saul’s band The Metros were signed to a major deal and touted as the next Libertines. However it was the classic case of too much too young and the band never lived up to their initial promise, fizzling out by 2009. (Saul says: “It was sickening really – telling us we’re going to be the next Arctic Monkeys! [laughs] I was just completely lost. I went from having pocket money to having a really big record deal. In the long run it was good though because I became sufficiently jaded. And that’s how that became this.”) The second was a South London pub rock band called The Saudis, featuring brothers Nathan and Lias. (Lias says: “We were the worst band in London. Always third on the bill at the New Cross Inn on a Tuesday.” Although it should be noted that good or not, they still managed to complete a three month tour of Algeria.) They would attend each others gigs but it was a meeting of minds that almost never happened.
Saul Adamczewski (guitar/backing vocals); Adam J Harmer (guitar/backing vocals); Dan Lyons (drums); Joe Pancucci (bass); Lias Saoudi (vocals); Nathan Saoudi (organ)
Born and raised New Yorker Jeffrey Lewis leads a double-life, as both a comic book artist and an indie-rock musician. Beginning with homemade cassettes in the late 90s, and moving on to touring the world and releasing "proper" albums since 2001, Jeffrey's now 15-year career has included sharing bills and tours with the likes of The Vaselines, The Fall, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Roky Erickson, The Mountain Goats, Daniel Johnston, Devo, Pulp and many other luminaries. In between his contemplative folk narratives and bashed-out indie-punk songs Jeffrey is known for often including a couple of his illustrated songs in each concert (what he calls "low budget videos") sometimes covering historical topics (like "The History of Communism"), biographies (like "The Life of Barack Obama") or strange flights of fancy (like "The Creeping Brain"). Appearing in the past as Jeffrey Lewis & The Jitters (featuring his brother Jack and David Beauchamp), Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard and other touring ensembles, his newest band incarnation is Jeffrey Lewis & The Jrams (pronounced "drams") featuring Caitlin Gray on bass and Heather Wagner on drums.
Rough Trade Records (label of The Smiths, The Strokes, etc.) has released six Jeffrey Lewis albums to date; Jeffrey has self-published ten issues of his comic book series Fuff, and Jeffrey's writing, illustrations, comic books and music have been featured by The Guardian, The History Channel and The New York Times (among other places).
with DJ Nick Fenton
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$10ADV / $12DOS // 9PM // 21+
