who: fidlar (+ sugar pit)
where: brooklyn steel
when: wednesday, october 9, 2024
7pm doors / show at 8 (fidlar on by 9:10)
venue: i hate a long walk from the L, but i love a free balcony. (this was actually the first time in a long time that i didn’t go to the balcony once during a brooklyn steel show. even though i didn’t use it, i appreciate that it’s there, so points for that.) another thing i like about brooklyn steel is that they also always have food. (similar to the balcony, i did not get food, but i appreciate that it’s there. they had soft pretzels.) also: why does each row of stalls in the bathroom at brooklyn steel have only ONE light? the stalls at the end are so dark it is terrifying to use them.
merch: i didn’t really look at the sugar pit merch. the fidlar merch was all right. a lot of people in the crowd were wearing old fidlar merch and i actually preferred the old merch designs.
bev: voodoo ranger ipa. i think i paid $13? sheesh.
opener: i’d never listened to sugar pit before. i guess it was a fun set. i don’t think i’ll listen again, but they brought a good vibe. the dude thanked every single member of the band at the end, and i thought that was sweet.
merch spotted: i love to see what merch from other artists people wear to shows! i especially love when people wear tour merch from a recent show that i also attended. i saw: the menzingers, hot mulligan, green day (tour merch!), coheed and cambria, laura jane grace, metallica, smashing pumpkins, the new york giants (lol), and lots of fidlar, of course.
crowd diversity: 0/10 truly awful. just a sea of unshowered white people in baggy clothing and sk8-his. i’m guessing a lot of long island/new jersey. (obviously.) i think most people were probably late twenties, early thirties.
setlist: solid. i think the only other songs i would have wanted to hear would be “bad habits” and “FSU.” the too songs that were on the setlist were ok (i think too as an album is just fine, not my favorite of fidlar’s, and “bad habits” is my favorite song from the album). but overall it was a fun selection and i loved the “dammit” cover when they came back out at the end of the show.
notes: i started listening to fidlar a little over ten years ago. i found them through tumblr in 2014. their self-titled debut album was one of my favorite albums that summer. i was studying abroad in the netherlands that fall and at the end of the summer i made a study abroad playlist and the playlist was just “stoked and broke” on repeat. anyways! here we are, ten years later.
the band sounded great live. they played with a ton of energy. it’s truly incredible how upbeat the performance was because some of their lyrics are really quite sad. the lighting was fun (lots of purples, very strobe-y, and i appreciated the venue’s strobe light warning posters) and the sound quality was great. i was close to a speaker during part of the show but i had my loops in so i was comfortable. it was fun that they had us do a wall of death for the second song. the circle pits were looking fast n furious.
and of course: how could i not talk about the girls-only mosh pit?
this was my first time being at a show that had a girls-only mosh pit. i would like to take a moment to extend my gratitude to the band. that was one of the best experiences i have ever had at a show. (my anticipation of the girls-only mosh pit was also the reason i stayed on the floor instead of going to the balcony like i have the past four or so times i’ve been at brooklyn steel.)
jumping into the girls-only mosh pit was the safest i have ever felt in the crowd at a show. i have spent the past day thinking about how to describe the elation i felt. not to be dramatic, but it was truly exhilarating to be shoved without fearing being groped by some sweaty dude from like, massapequa or something. wow. freaking incredible. i don’t know if i’m ever going to have that experience again, but i’m going to think about it at every show i go to in the future. literally every future pit. i will think about the girls-only mosh pit. the only thing that i hated was that it ended too soon. i basically blacked out, as one does when entering the pit (or does that not happen to other people?), but i think the song was “5 to 9,” and that song is barely over a minute long. i had sixty seconds to get in and get out. the last note of the song had barely finished before men were pushing their way back to the center. already. it was over before i knew it. during the entire length of the show, only sixty seconds felt like they were for women.
and … i lost my shoe! or part of my shoe. i have modular vans and the module on my left shoe freaking came off in the pit. i was so stressed when i realized it and before the show i was like “wow it would be crazy if my module came off during the show” but i didn’t think it would actually happen. serves me right. i am so grateful i actually found it rather quickly. that would have really been a big bummer if i lost it.
all in all, a good night at the show.