Fat Dog Set Tails Wagging
Joseph Macaulay reviews Fat Dog live at Project House.
People have tried to categorise the music of Fat Dog, usually requiring more than a lengthy
sentence and still not coming close. The thing is, they really are difficult to explain. Until
you’ve been there, sitting on the floor with hundreds of others before exploding into a mosh
pit as the saxophone screams and front man Joe Love barks (often literally) into the
microphone, there really is no way to quantify what they do.
WOOF., their debut album was released in September on the legendary Domino Records.
Described as a mix of punk, dance, rave, klezmer and video game soundtrack, this is one
that the literary medium will never be able to succinctly wrap up with a bow. And even after
listening to the record, I was still feeling fairly in the dark as to what the gig would look like.
I’d seen them a few years ago in support of Sports Team, but back then they hadn’t even
released a single. Fast forward to now and with an album and a few line-up changes, the
London based five-piece have sold out Leeds’s 1000 capacity Project House.
“IT’S F***ING FAT DOG BABY”, screams Love as he takes to the stage in the judo outfit and
cowboy hat combo that have become his signature look. If this aesthetically typifies the Fat
Dog spirit, the booming techno that begins teases their sonic signature. But it’s with the
addition of the klezmer influenced sax and synth melodies, those unfamiliar scales, in
juxtaposition that reveal their originality. Couple this with Love’s raw vocals that swim in
reverb, and the band are truly fascinating to watch. The crowd are enthralled, hurtling
tirelessly in all directions. I find myself helplessly grinning from it all.
If any song best represents them, it’s their first single ‘King of the Slugs’. Their techno
powerhouse combines all the aforementioned qualities in a seven minute long epic. It’s
certainly not for everyone, but I think it’s for far more people than might be first assumed.
They’re infectious, intriguing and innovative, and what might read as alienating on paper is
proved otherwise in the crowd that range from wide-eyed newcomers to aging gig veterans.
Drummer Johnny ‘Doghead’ Hutch, so called for the latex mask he wears in every
performance, underpins each track with a relentlessly driving rhythm. Alongside the punchy
basslines of newest band member Jacqui Wheeler, they puppeteer the audience into frenzy,
throwing the eager pack a bone time and again.
Amidst the frenzy generated by the likes of ‘Wither’ and ‘All the Same’, the new release
‘Peace Song’ is a saxophone-led eye of the storm moment that lends a deeply emotional
inflection to Love’s raw vocals. It’s reminiscent of an arcade game soundtrack in the pulsing
bassline and would make the perfect accompaniment to driving an open top car into a
pixelated sunset. Similarly, ‘I Am the King’ feels like a trancey Underworld excerpt. A chance
to catch one’s breath. However, the calm can only last so long with Fat Dog.
‘Running’ rounds out the set in a whirlwind, Love encouraging the more daring fans to run in
a great sweaty circle. A feral chanting of ‘woofs’ summons the band back on stage for a brief
encore consisting solely of a cover of Benny Benassi’s house classic ‘Satisfaction’. After
around forty-five minutes of chaos, the dust can settle. Limited by the fact that their released
discography measures little more than half an hour, the addition of a handful of unreleased
tunes completes an exhausting, no punches pulled set. The lights come on and it feels like
waking from a dream.
Fat Dog are a phenomenon. They’re enigmatic and weird. They must be seen to be
understood. I fear I’d sound like one of those people who claim to have been abducted by
aliens in my attempts to describe them. All I can say is go see for yourself.
Words by Joseph Macaulay.