Band performs covered in own poo
 |
|
Fat White family perform covered in poo. Pic: Youtube
Source: YouTube
FAT White Family stink. Not musically, but literally.
Earlier this month, the rock ’n’ roll sextet played at Manhattan’s Mercury Lounge — a venue in which bands often have to fight through fans to get from the dressing room to the stage.
But singer Lias Saoudi and his compatriots had no such trouble. The sold-out crowd parted like the Red Sea, due to the fact that the band smelled like they’d spent the day swimming in a Staten Island landfill. (In fact, they had come straight from a Late Show with David Letterman taping.)
“We’re not the most hygienic bunch,” Saoudi told The Post, somewhat sheepishly, ahead of their Music Hall of Williamsburg show this Thursday.
“We’re too busy having fun. What sort of self-respecting rock ’n’ roll band goes to the f**king laundromat on tour?
You’re not gonna be down there scrubbing your socks on the day you did Letterman for the first time.”
Given their hard-partying rep, it’s hardly surprising that the Brits give off an eye-watering scent. Since forming in 2011, Fat White Family have developed notoriety for their deranged shows, which can feature Saoudi getting naked or smearing himself in his own excrement.
“When I die, I’d like to know I’d experienced as much as possible,” reasons Saoudi.
“So standing in a crowd of people, covered in my own s**t and singing, is a pretty big box to tick off.”
The sense that almost anything can happen at a Fat White Family show makes them a must-see band, and their wonderfully seedy songs (most of which are from the album “Champagne Holocaust”) only add to the allure. It’s like witnessing a loaded Velvet Underground fronted by a pungent Iggy Pop.
“I’m well aware that I’m not doing anything original, but I think it’s funny that so many people are shocked by what I do onstage,” says Saoudi. “It speaks volumes of how so much music is pedestrian.”
Fat White Family on stage. Pic: Youtube
Source: YouTube
Fat White Family split their time between London and New York, where they’ve begun to win some high-level endorsements. “Walking Dead” star Norman Reedus recently attended the aforementioned Mercury Lounge show. “They are one of my favourite new bands … so real, so good,” he told The Post via e-mail.
Sean Lennon is also an avid devotee after seeing them at the music festival SXSW in 2014. “[This] scraggly looking bunch of English kids blew everyone away,” he recalled to The Post.
He is co-producing Fat White Family’s upcoming second album (due later this year) and has even let them stay at his home in the Catskills. “The Fat Whites have many talents, but being good houseguests is certainly not one of them,” he notes.
“Sean’s a lovely bloke,” adds Saoudi.
“You’d think somebody with that background could be f***ed up but he’s down to earth. Most people wouldn’t let us in the front door!”
