California rockers FIDLAR made a long overdue return to Columbus on Monday night as they hit the Newport Music Hall stage. It was a night packed with mosh-pit-ripe guitar-punk and weirdly infectious songs about drug and alcohol abuse.
Along for the ride were a double hitter of some outstanding talent from Canada in the forms of NOBRO and Dilly Dally.
Montreal all-girl band NOBRO opened up the evening with a set jam-packed with high energy guitar riffs and an infectious joy that was almost impossible not to enjoy.
Toronto’s Dilly Dally are one of the best bands I’ve seen in a while, both terrifyingly intense yet hypnotically melodic enough to completely dominate your attention. There’s some serious Pixies influence here, but it’s the mesmerizing vocals from Katie Monks that take things into a different world. I’m still not sure If Monk’s scathing screams are the thing of nightmares, or the melodic soundtrack to a blissful dream. Perhaps that’s why I enjoyed them so much.
Walking out on stage a little after 10 p.m. were the evening’s headliners. The last time I caught FIDLAR was way back in 2013, when the four fresh-faced punks were out touring their self titled debut album. Aside from Zac Carper’s hair they look, and thankfully sound, pretty much the same. It’s all high tempo, high energy songs that the packed lower floor of the Newport happily lapped up.
The four-piece opened with their rollicking new track ‘Alcohol’ before picking out the best bits from their two studio album releases including sing-along ’40oz on Repeat’ and early classic ‘Awkward.’ They closed the evening with the moshy ‘Cocaine.’