Article by Urvija Banerji photos by Angelina Hazzouri
There’s nothing quite like the moment before a major turning point: the last cold night of the year; a crowd gathering before the party starts; a band on the verge of blowing up; an empty pool about to be filled for the summer.
The Fcukers show on Saturday somehow took place at the intersection of all these events, inside an unfilled rooftop pool at SAA, a swanky member’s club in East Williamsburg. Not bad for a band that only has three songs on Spotify.
Ahead of the midnight set time, the crowds made their way down a green hallway and up several flights of stairs, which opened onto a rooftop atrium with aforementioned pool, a makeshift bar and Manhattan skyline views. DJ and regular Fcukers producer Ivan Berko started the night off with a no-nonsense house mix, punctuated with a few unexpected soul selections. A concert goer in swim trunks and a pool floatie posed for photos in the shallow end.
When it was time for Fcukers to hit the stage (situated in the deep end), the otherwise mellow crowd reached a fever pitch. The band entered with little fanfare — though lead singer Shanny Wise carried, fittingly, a water polo ball — and launched into “Devils Cut,” their pulsating cover of the Beck song. (Beck, incidentally, seems to be quite taken with the band himself, having been photographed with Wise at their Market Hotel show late last year.)
Previous Fcukers shows in New York have included some unreleased material, but inside the rooftop pool the band unleashed their full prowess, playing through a largely unheard catalog of thumping house anthems and dance earworms reminiscent of everything from Yaeji and Disclosure to Timbaland and The Ting Tings. “Bon Bon,” an unreleased track, particularly recalls the latter, featuring Wise’s whispery vocals over a beachy, coquettish beat.
When watching Wise and her bandmates perform now, you get the sense that they’re so assured in their trajectory towards stardom that they no longer need to care what you think. Or, perhaps I should say, they just don’t give a fcuk. Despite this, and a smattering of initial sound issues, Fcukers continue to have ample stage presence, bolstered by Wise’s jumpy dance moves and drummer Ben Scharf’s thrashing hi-hats. Jackson Walker Lewis, the band’s producer, bassist and keyboardist, proves a more than capable ringleader with poppy synths and knotty basslines.
Saturday’s set concluded with the band’s glittering showpiece, “Mothers,” an inevitable crowd-pleaser of a song. Of course, this particular crowd had been anticipating this moment all night long, and they were far from disappointed. This band’s sound makes you feel good, and even better under a disco ball, in a rooftop pool, on top of the city.
After this one-night-only event, Fcukers will play again this spring at Gov Ball, where their star power will no doubt grow in size. On Saturday, as the crowd dispersed, everyone appeared titillated by the prospect of having borne witness to a star on the verge of going supernova. The consensus seemed to be this: Fcukers are no longer messing around in the shallow end.
