When the three remaining members of rock band FIDLAR decided to take a little break at the end of 2019, they didn’t count on a global pandemic extending their hiatus to nearly three years. By the time the trio of guitarist/vocalist Zac Carper, bassist Brandon Schwartzel and drummer Max Kuehn returned for the buildup to March 2023’s “That’s Life EP,” they’d been gone for so long that no one knew what to expect. Would people still care about a punk/garage rock band that had only put out one album in the last seven-plus years? As a group whose songs about drugs, alcohol and heartbreak always appealed primarily to the youth, had its original fans outgrown them while younger generations viewed it as a legacy act? As it turns out, FIDLAR’s support was as strong as ever upon its return.
Fans new and old flooded its sold-out shows, its first music video back picked up six figures in YouTube views and international tour dates in places like Australia and Paris were bigger than ever. Even among the stacked lineup of last weekend’s No Values festival in Pomona, FIDLAR drew a bigger crowd to its side stage than many bands did on the larger stages — even while being sandwiched between punk pioneers the Damned and the return of Sublime on the complete opposite end of the Fairplex. But while the band didn’t lose much momentum with fans since January 2019’s “Almost Free,” the members found themselves separated from any labels and corporate interests, right back in t.
