In a world obsessed with references, one might assume an act wearing its musical influences so bodily would feel empty with nostalgia, but New York duo Fcukers are anything but.
90s and 00s influences pour through their tracks; drum’n’bass, house, trip-hop, and even London’s own UK garage, yet their sound never feels like it’s living in the past. Instead, they meld these elements into something that feels new and firmly their own; Shanny Wise and Jackson Walker Lewis have carved out a unique space in the saturated electronic music scene, accumulating cosigns from the likes of Charli xcx, Billie Eilish, and David Byrne in the process.
There is a palpable sense ahead of this evening’s headline set at Kentish Town’s O2 Forum, that the audience are catching one the world’s fastest risers right at the point where cult status tips into something much bigger.
Beloved by the fashion world as much as the music, the crowd is a cacophony of vintage sportswear, baggy jeans, faux fur jackets, ripped tops and shades. You can see how the duo have found themselves cast in the role of indie sleaze revivalists; an antidote to the post-pandemic clean-girl aesthetic.
Fcukers open their set with ‘Mothers’ and the crowd light up immediately. Sweaty, cramped hives of people break into dance and the duo already in complete command. We’re straight into ‘Beatback‘, the opening track from recent debut album Ö, which takes their lo-fi signature sound and dresses it up with a new-found maximalism, courtesy of producer Kenny Beats.
The set paces through and the energy never dips. “This is our biggest headline show ever,” Shanny announces, before launching into their 2025 single ‘Play Me‘ – a hypnotic, drum’n’bass-infused track with Shanny’s signature disaffected vocal cruising over the driving beat beneath. Jackson runs between his bass guitar to the front of the stage, as the room shouts back the track’s hook: “I just wanna rock right now…”.
Things are pulled back with ‘Feel the Real’, Ö‘s closer, showcasing the full breadth of their output. Fuckers’ ability to juggle genre comes to the fore; and Shanny’s past life in indie bands surfaces in a more dreamy, moonlit vocal, markedly different from the high-octane tracks that brought them into the spotlight.
The night closes with two tracks from their 2024 Baggy$$ EP, ‘Tommy‘ and their breakthrough hit, ‘Bon Bon’. Shanny dances around the stage in a turquoise tracksuit and white-framed shades, while the synths drive things forward behind them. When the lights come up the crowd lingers, with many heading off in search of the next stop following a last-minute location drop for a secret set (later revealed as London’s now-legendary nightspot lost), a reminder that even as Fcukers outgrow the small rooms that made them, that same energy still clings to every track.
featured image: Mathieu Zazzo
