Review: Fat Dog @ Rough Trade

By Amelie Peters, Music Subeditor

Fat Dog's fantastically deranged performance of their debut electric dance-punk album promotes the idea of collective experience in live music. Diving headlong into the crowd, the band becomes part of the audience, snarling their euphoric electro-punk message down the microphone. 

It's rare to hear music that is completely new and simultaneously compelling to listen to, this fatdog has raucously achieved with their eclectic debut album- WOOF. Headlining the album with bizarrely fantastical singles such as 'King of the Slugs', the mournful tale of singer Joe Love's slimy stalkers, and 'All the same', a somewhat satirical retelling of a man travelling back in time to kick his youthful self in the testicles.

'I am the king' was reportedly written in the bathroom of a Wetherspoons in London, and 'Running', that truly harkens to clownish repetitive slapstick molded into melody. The album is wildly bold, opening its first song with 'its f*ucking fat dog baby!', each lyric almost absurdist in its unpredictability but wonderfully so. 

Photographed below is keyboardist and synth player Chris Hughes, as he delivers a wildly wacky and ominous monologue. That provided a unique and equally joyous contrast to the dance beats previously echoing through the space, the moments of stillness giving the various mullet and mustache wearing audience a chance for the sweat to settle after a particularly bouncy mosh pit.

It's always a danger when attending a punk gig that you will leave with various war wounds, I personally have seen my fair share of mosh pit induced broken noses and ripped out piercings, however i never felt at risk of such a fate when seeing Fat dog. The crowd they seem to attract seems equally alternative to kind and I do hate to call anything alternative wholesome, as i don’t think the punks would appreciate that, but i truly felt it was. That is not to say the crowd wasn’t chaotic, it most definitely was, but rather filled with people there to appreciate music as well as dance. 

Unpredictability and joy in the absurd is truly the name of the game when it comes to Fat dog. This was beautifully encapsulated through the moments of interaction the band has with the audience - Chris Hughes parted the crowd like a camo-ladened Moses through a sea of mohawks and garishly bright hairstyles. Clearing a circle in the pit, there is building pressure and excitement in the room. He holds his arms up and the room collectively holds their breath, then he squats and starts dancing like a crab. 

As the penultimate song ‘Running’ came to a close, the audience were left with two thoughts. The first that, as an audience, we were so lucky to have seen Fat dog in such an intimate venue given their meteoric rise, and the leaps I am sure they will take. The second that it's truly a miracle drummer Johnny ‘doghead’ Hutch, managed to survive breathing under a latex dog mask for an hour.

What is your favourite song from their new album?