The idea that south London psych-rock rabble Fat White Family would ever headline a venue the size of Brixton Academy always seemed somewhat fanciful.
Not only have drug issues and inter-band tensions between singer Lias Saoudi and principle songwriter and in-out guitarist Saul Adamczewski left the six-piece seemingly forever on the brink of collapse, the band’s general disposition - dirty, dangerous, confrontational - always seemed wilfully provocative, designed to actively discourage people from listening. “We’ve really tried to go to the extremes of what’s tasteful” Adamczewski said about this year’s second album, the dense, reverb-heavy Songs for Our Mothers, and when the themes addressed include Harold Shipman, Joseph Goebbels and the violent relationship between Ike and Tina Turner, you can safely conclude it was mission accomplished.
Yet here they are, hometown heroes doing the (dis)honourable thing just four years after forming in a pub down the road. If past shows, famed for their naked outrageousness, have run the full gamut - equally as likely to be scandalously feral as shambolically frustrating - then tonight proves a reminder of why, when it falls into place, Fat White Family are one of the best live bands in the country.
