By Zac Polston

Fidlar will be headlining 96.5 The Buzz’s recently renamed Lazlo’s ED Party this Valentine’s Day February 14th at the Truman Theatre in the Crossroads District.

The group is returning to the metro area for the first time since playing the Bottleneck in Lawrence back in 2016 touring off of their sophomore effort “Too”. Three years and one album later, they make their return. Hot off of the release of their third record, “Almost Free,” and it’s clear, they’re shedding the skin of their past life.
Fidlar is a lot like a little puppy you brought home from the pet store. On their self titled, they were just here to fuck shit up and have a good time doing it, but they were fun and cute and we loved it, but now that cute puppy is grown, and its a 160 pounds, and you didn’t do a super great job training it but its a dog now, and for the most part, you can’t be mad, because it was a dog that grew and that’s what dogs do.

Tracks like their first single “Alcohol” and “Get off my Rock”, give fans a morsel of the flagrant drunken energy that first gained the group their following with tracks like “Wake, Bake, Skate,” and “Cheap Beer”. But those moments are sparse on the album that spends more time thinking about growth and development than beers and girls, and when they chased it with singles “Can’t You See” and “By Myself” I couldn’t believe my ears. Groovy riffs and catchy hooks with a soft melodic, vocal delivery; Mantra vocal delivery over dancy synths. Is this the new Fidlar, what the fuck?

But simmer down before you 86 these punky knuckleheads for cutting a record and mixing in some back up instrumentation and melodic experimentation, remember that this is a band coming out of the Los Angelos surf punk scene nearly a decade ago and after kicking a few bad habits, the group is grappling with life at the brink of 30, aging and yearning to grow and we gotta let them, just like a puppy should.

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Pick up tickets HERE