Photo by Dylan Coates
I first saw Fat Dog at The Great Escape in 2022. They played a 2AM set at The Green Door store — the Brighton equivalent to a Market Hotel with uneven brick floors and a dungeon like feel. I was there with another band, we were still jet lagged, and while running on adrenaline, a 2AM set still felt like a large feat. They were the act to see, though. Sam Ford, who is one of the main folks responsible for So Young Magazine/Records gave us the tip and since then the name on everybody’s lips was “Fat Dog”.
To their credit, they did not disappoint. On stage in front of us was a dominatrix-looking nun, a guy in a rubber dog mask, another guy just wearing a pair of red briefs, and front man Joe Love in, what was then, his standard karate uniform (I say this because I later saw him at karaoke night at the windmill in the same getup. Just hanging out). It looked like they should have been sacrificing something and not playing a show. Almost immediately the crowd turned into a chaotic sea of bodies thrashing as their equally unhinged music blared out. It sounds as if it was created to raise havoc — that the music is the vehicle for pandemonium.
There was no Fat Dog music online, though. Not for streaming at least. Videos of their performances were available on YouTube, but the band had built up their hype and momentum on the power of their live shows.
This is somewhat par for the course for a lot of the hot new British bands it seems. The Last Dinner Party had a similar trajectory which led them to getting signed to Island. Fat Dog have landed themselves at Domino for their first recorded release, and while the band has changed, the chaos still remains.
I saw the new lineup of Fat Dog again at The Great Escape this past year. It was a dude heavy crowd with a some even wearing their own rubber dog masks in tribute to the original form the band took. I almost didn’t recognize the band onstage though. Dressed in “normal” clothes (button ups), no dominatrix nun, no rubber masks to my recollection. To be fair, it was less “schtick-y” without the costumes. The music is already a lot — there’s high drama, rave-like moments, haunted folk melodies. With the changing of the lineup, maybe a change in the look felt appropriate as well.
After much anticipation, their debut single “King of the Slugs” is a perfect introduction to the band. A 7-minute odyssey, it perfectly incapsulates their range of genres, dynamics, and appetite for mayhem. And sounds pretty fucking massive.
The band will be touring the UK this fall (and likely stateside shortly thereafter is my bet).
