Fat White Family bring Jackass antics to Latitude 2014

No need to be alarmed, that’s not a flasher in the woods. That’s just Fat White Family. Before the set has even started the trousers are off and a full moon is out.

Lias Saoudi swaggers to the stage, “We’re dedicating this set to Pete, our sound man who’s been exiled to Spain.” Sentiment over, let the debauchery commence, arms stretched out confronting the crowd with a smirk and with a whiskey bottle held high like a relic.

One song in and one of the family has already plunged into the crowd, boxers on, thankfully. ‘Is It Raining In Your Mouth?’ stirs a frenzy in the tent and the persistent “five sweaty fingers on the dashboard” become the set’s slogan.

Saoudi is chanting the chaotic chorus of ‘Auto Neutron’, while his free hand is exploring what’s underneath his skinny jeans. This may be a family festival, but be advised don’t bring your mum. Guitarist Saul Adamczewski boots bass player Joseph Pancucci in the back and the pair share a very real flicker of tension. But it quickly resolves over a cigarette and back to sickening set.

Clothes and alcohol are both rapidly disappearing. The band become a confusing, musky mess of flailing limbs, sweat and cigarette smoke in ‘Touch the Leather’.

Fat White Family are the Jackass of the music scene, their Latitude set is a collection of revolting internet videos you’re too curiously enraptured by to look away.

Photo: Phil Smithies.