FAT DOG – RESIDENT, BRIGHTON 6.9.24 (5:45pm & 7:00pm shows)
It really is fair to state that the chaotic south London rabble known as Fat Dog are literally one of the most exciting breakthrough bands of the past few years! They are known for their frenzied wild live shows, with some of these having already taken place here in Brighton, when they have rocked on up in town at venues including Green Door Store, Chalk, The Prince Albert, The Hope & Ruin, Dust and even on Brighton Beach on 12th May 2023 as part of one of their ‘Great Escape’ new music festival appearances. This was our debut encounter with Fat Dog and they were for me THE best act of the whole Great Escape festival – Read my account of that performance at the foot of this article.
Today is an extremely important day in the lifecycle of frontman Joe Love and his Fat Dog crew as they have dropped their debut long-player this very day via the Domino imprint. It’s titled ‘WOOF.’ and is a thrilling blend of electro-punk, rock’n’roll snarling, techno soundscapes, industrial-pop and rave euphoria. ‘WOOF.’ quite simply putting it is music for letting go to, as I exactly did on my debut live encounter with them. The album contains nine tracks that range in length from the mere 44 seconds of outro tune ‘And So It Came To Pass’, right up to their epic earworm ‘King Of The Slugs’ that comes in at 7 minutes and 5 seconds.
This Brixton based five-piece came together back in 2021 when Joe Love decided to form a group and take the demos he had been making at home as a way to keep himself sane during lockdown out into the world. In Chris Hughes (keyboards/synths), Ben Harris (bass), Johnny Hutchinson (drums) and Morgan Wallace (keyboards and, umm, saxophone), Joe Love found like-minded mavericks to help bring the dream home. A host of local Brixton live gigs followed and word quickly spread, so much so that they managed to sell out the Scala on 3rd October 2023 and then played a triumphant set to a sold-out Electric Brixton on 18th April this year. The word was out about Fat Dog and they were invited on ‘Later… with Jools Holland’ back in June when they gave the masses their then current single ‘All The Same’, which is now also on their ‘WOOF.’ album. This didn’t surprise me as there was a true sense of community when I witnessed Fat Dog and their audience, and I immediately knew that big things were on the horizon for these guys.
Fat Dog have also been to the States now as well and have played a string of festivals in the UK and Europe this summer. This October will witness their return to North America and then they fly back across the pond for a series of UK performances including an already sold out gig here in Brighton at Patterns on Friday 22nd November. However, on album launch day we find that Fat Dog are here in Brighton in order to play two intimate instore gigs at Resident in North Laine. The initial performance was booked in for 7pm, but not surprisingly this quickly sold out and an additional earlier slot was announced and so we find ourselves inside the popular Brighton records shop for both the 5:45pm and 7pm performances, which thankfully will allow us the time to get across to Shoreham in time to see Dreadzone in action at the Ropetackle Arts Centre – Read the review HERE.
Starting with the 5:45pm show and prior to entry there is a sizeable queue running along Kensington Gardens and there is a palpable buzz in the air. Although scheduled for 5:45pm, by the time everyone has finally entered the store, the quintet grace us with their presence at 6:12pm. Frontman Joe is sporting his trademark Highlander Flying hat and is on vocals and Fender guitar, Morgan Wallace is sporting earphones and is on saxophone and Novation synth, Chris Hughes is sporting a cap and is mainly on Korg synth and briefly utilises Joe’s Fender when it’s free, tucked around the corner is Johnny Hutchinson sitting behind the drumkit and initially wearing the trademark dog mask, and completing the lineup is not Ben Harris on Squier Jazz bass, but his reasonably new replacement Jacqui Wheeler. Plus behind the shop counter is their sound engineer that tweaks the mixing desk sound levels when required!
With Joe’s vocals set to echo delay, they launch into the album opener ‘Vigilante’ which to me has an amalgam of a Jewish/Arabic vibe and suffice it goes down very well with the faithful. After this tune Joe says in jest “Hello Wembley. Thank you for coming down”, or could he be practising for a couple of years time?. Their second offering from the album is ‘All The Same’ which sounds like a dead ringer for Front 242, and I love it! Tune three is their epic ‘King Of The Slugs’ which today initially begins with Jean-Michel Jarre style quickening synth work, just prior to the repetitive banging Nitzer Ebb meets Jewish/Arabic/Russian/Ska beats kick in. The tune then slows down with almost a choral sound, and the lines are delivered slowly and the epic builds and builds and lets loose again in an almost surf rock mets rave style, it really is a masterpiece!
Joe now ditches his guitar and relies solely on the vocals for selection four ‘I Am The King’, with its often repeated title lyrics and Pet Shop Boys sounding keys intro, which carries on through the tune. It’s their most mellow number of this set and a real grower, and one I would expect to turn up in a film in the future. The banging beats make a swift return with the Ska/Gabber/EBM/Techno beauty that is ‘Wither’. During this track Chris briefly came out from behind the keys and had a little dance, and then strapped on Joe’s guitar. Their penultimate selection is the auto-tune friendly ‘Clowns’ which is another ballad and benefits from some decent sharp bleeps on the keys. It’s having songs like this in their set that highlights that they aren’t one trick ponies. They sign off with the uplifting ‘Running’ which reminds me of the wonderfully obscure and epic ‘Abenteuer Und Freiheit’ by Fehlfarben from 1979. It’s another corker which you could imagine Happy Hardcore legends Scooter covering in a few years time! Their 32 minute set came to an end at 6:44pm and it was magnificent!
The punters, including myself, collected their vinyl and/or CD albums of ‘WOOF.’ and cheerily vacated the store. Once outside in the street, they could see a brand new even longer queue of Fat Dog fans eagerly awaiting their turn to gain entry to the popular record shop.
Once again the shop was filled to the brim with folk for the second set of the day, which eventually kicked off at 7:34pm. Unlike set one, this performance was kicked off by Morgan who set the ‘2 Minute Warning’ intro countdown music which added to the excitement. 1 minute warning….10 seconds warning… and they arrived and were away! Once again their choice was ‘Vigilante’ but this was a shorter version than the version performed for set one.
Things then got rather comical with Chris doing his thing again out front, but this time he was doing “crabbie hands” and then even walked sideways like a crab and jostled down the central aisle in between the punters, who were in the main willingly emulating the crabbie hands pose. I believe this tune is called ‘Boomtown’ and is currently unreleased and was not played in set one.
Tune three ‘All The Same’ was dedicated by Joe to yours truly, “This one goes out to you my friend!”, as I was luckily positioned at the very front. Jolly decent of him! Choice four was their ‘King Of The Slugs’ with its Madness ‘Nightboat To Cairo’ style vibe during the slower part of the song. Once again this went down an absolute storm with those squeezed into the shop.
For their penultimate number, Joe ditched the Fender again and they launched into the Gabber-esque ‘Wither’ and they signed off with ‘Running’ and Joe came for a wander in amongst the fans which added to the enjoyment and after 29 minutes at 8:03pm they were done, all bar the signing of the punters records and CD’s that is! It had been another great performance and I’m so looking forward to catching them at Patterns on 22nd November.
We aren’t quite finished as today Fat Dog also announced 11 new concert dates running from 13th February until 1st March 2025, and lucky for us Brightonians there’s a Valentine’s Day concert at Chalk in Pool Valley courtesy of FORM promoters. Tickets for these new dates are now on sale and can be purchased HERE and the Brighton date tickets are also available from HERE.
Fat Dog:
Joe Love – vocals
Chris Hughes – keyboards/synths
Morgan Wallace – keyboards/saxophone
Jacqui Wheeler – bass
Johnny Hutchinson – drums
Fat Dog 5:45pm show setlist:
‘Vigilante’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘All The Same’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘King Of The Slugs’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘I Am The King’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘Wither’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘Clowns’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘Running’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
Fat Dog 7:00pm show setlist:
‘2 Minute Warning’ (intro)
‘Vigilante’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘Boomtown’ (unreleased)
‘All The Same’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘King Of The Slugs’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘Wither’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘Running’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘WOOF.’ is available to order from HERE, HERE and HERE.
New 2025 UK live dates:
Thursday 13th February – The Waterfront, Norwich
Friday 14th February – Chalk, Brighton
Saturday 15th February – Phoenix, Exeter
Sunday 16th February – O2 Academy1, Oxford
Wednesday 19th February – SWX, Bristol
Thursday 20th February – The 1865, Southampton
Friday 21st February – XOYO, Birmingham
Sunday 23rd February – Jacaranda Baltic, Liverpool
Wednesday 26th February – The Boiler Shop, Newcastle
Friday 28th February – QMU, Glasgow
Saturday 1st March – New Century Hall, Manchester
