FAT DOG + SHORTSTRAW. – PATTERNS, BRIGHTON 22.11.24
My face-to-face encounter with Fat Dog began at Brighton Beach on Friday 12th May 2023 at 10:30pm as part of ‘The Great Escape’ new music festival. I had checked out their available music prior to this performance and I put them down as a “must see act”. My review of that taster half hour performance concluded by stating “My poor tired body had a mind of its own and I merrily bopped away at 100mph! This was simply euphoric! No wonder they have been selected to play the Reading and Leeds Festivals. They were truly BRILLIANT!”. I knew it in my bones, that Fat Dog were destined for a massive trajectory and this was confirmed when they made their TV debut on ‘Later with Jools Holland’ on 8th June this year when they played ‘All the Same’ and then on 7th October their sound was validated when ‘Match Of The Day 2’ played them in the background.
Festival bookers, who are a breed ‘in the know’ have courted Fat Dog to come and play each of their festivals this year right across the UK and Europe including performing 4 sets at this year’s ‘Glastonbury’. Fat Dog are on the way up and tomorrow they conclude the November leg of their tour by headlining the O2 Kentish Town Forum. Tonight, however, sees Joe Love (vocals, guitar, melodica), Chris Hughes (keyboards, synths, guitar), Morgan Wallace (keyboards, saxophone), Jacqui Wheeler (bass), Dylan (percussion, drums) and Ellis.D (drums) performing live at Patterns in Brighton. This is a venue that the band have well and truly already far outgrown and not surprisingly it’s a sold out affair. Fat Dog have already planned ahead and have booked their next Brighton concert courtesy of FORM promoters, so if you are looking for a Valentine’s Day present, then do yourself a favour and snap up a couple of tickets for their 14th February show at Chalk. As I type this there are still currently some tickets available, but not for long! Grab yours HERE.
Let’s face it, chaotic south London rabble Fat Dog are one of the most exciting breakthrough bands of the past few years, and the 6th September witnessed the outfit drop their debut album via Domino and it’s aptly titled ‘WOOF’. It’s a brilliant and mind-bending record, a vinyl copy sits in my collection and a CD version sits in my car! I know they are a thrilling band live and in the flesh and tonight will be no exception….
At 9:02pm the house lights are extinguish and we get a countdown over the soundsystem via their intro tape….“2 minute warning…1 minute warning…30 seconds…15 seconds…10 seconds…5 seconds…” and the players, who have taken to the stage during the countdown set about their business. The mixed aged crowd are looking seriously up for it and indeed this is the case!
The first thing us locals notice is, at the rear of the stage, there is a change of drummer this evening, and indeed for the whole tour, previously it’s been Johnny Hutchinson who sports a dog head mask whilst playing, but this isn’t the case with tonight’s tall fella, this being Brighton based artist ELLiS·D who we have reviewed a few times in the past. I had no idea he was depping for the band, but it’s immediately noticeable that he’s learned all of the Fat Dog songs! HE might have just joined their ranks as well? Stage right, our left is Chris Hughes on Novation synth and other electronics; on his left is Morgan Wallace on saxophone and at times also the same Novation keys; centre stage (as you would expect) is band founder and frontman Joe Love on lead vocals and occasionally guitar and once on melodica; stage left (our right) is Jacqui Wheeler on bass; and behind her (and next to ELLiS·D) is a guy called Dylan on tom toms, drums and percussion. I’m not quite sure, but this might actually be Dylan Thomas who co-directed Fat Dog’s ‘I Am The King’ video.
Before we know it, Joe announces “Woof, woof, woof, woof”, and they launch into album opener ‘Vigilante’ which to me has an amalgam of a Jewish/Arabic vibe and suffice it goes down very well with the faithful. Selection two is the first of their currently unreleased tunes, this being the bangin’ ‘Boomtown’ which sees Chris climb over the metal crowd barrier and place himself in the centre of the crowd for the first full on moshpit of the night. Musically this tune reminds me of the fabulous German trio of Scooter. With the crowd adequately warned up, Chris resumes his position on stage and the musicians give us another true banger, which features some fabulous combined drumming from Dylan and ELLiS·D, this one’s called ‘Close To God’ and is another as yet unreleased song.
It’s now the turn of ‘All The Same’ which is a 2024 single that appears on their album, which sounds like a dead ringer for Front 242, and I love it! After this we get their fan favourite 2023 ‘King Of The Slugs’ single which benefits from a repetitive banging Nitzer Ebb meets Jewish/Arabic/Russian/Ska beat, and then it 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 meets rave style, it really is a masterpiece! However, each time I play the track, I’m annoyed by one word, “machine”, which sits at the end of the “I get my clothes from the washing machine” line, as it really makes the line too long and doesn’t fit. Maybe Joe now feels this too as he omitted “machine” this evening for the better…gripe over!
Joe then moved forward and came and briefly sat on the crowd barrier. I had the inkling he was considering joining us, but thought better of trying to clamber over the structure. He was able to chill out as their next offering was an unreleased slow tune, which according to the setlist is called ‘Ballad’. This then feels as though it gets cut short as they suddenly launch into the much faster brand new ‘Peace Song’ single which came out this week. Cue “And I’m in love with the world” earworm singalong line! It’s another excellent piece of work!
Well what do you know! I’ve found myself a brand new Fat Dog fave tune, and it’s not out yet, something to really look forward to! It’s called ‘Bad Dog’ and was for me their best of the set. It’s fast and musically it bangs along with fast joint drums with Joe’s vocals sounding like H.P Baxxter from Scooter, what’s there not to like? Oh and Chris did some pushups on the floor along with this too! The band took the beats right down next for their mellow ‘I Am The King’, with its often repeated title lyrics which carries on throughout the tune. It’s a real grower, and one I would expect to turn up in a film in the future. They then launched into the Gabber-esque ‘Wither’ and then did their rendition of ‘Satisfaction’ which was released by Benny Benassi back in 2002 and was interestingly my favourite tune by anyone that whole year. Tonight’s version isn’t as robotic or electronic, but it’s a decent effort.
Joe then actually introduced a song next, this being the last of the unreleased songs, and is titled ‘Skibidi’. It has fast drums and again reminds me of Scooter but with added Scatman John by way of contrast. For this Joe uses a melodica for the first and only time during the gig. They sign off with ‘Running’ from their album, which is another uplifting cut and a good one to leave us on and wanting more. Fat Dog don’t do encores and so at 9:53pm that was our lot. It has been a total pleasure to watch these guys in action and I can’t wait for their 14th February gig, as well as some new material.
Fat Dog:
Joe Love – vocals, guitar, melodica
Chris Hughes – keyboards, synths, guitar
Morgan Wallace – saxophone, synth
Jacqui Wheeler – bass
Dylan – drums, percussion
ELLiS·D – drums
Fat Dog setlist:
‘Ave Marie’ (intro)
‘Vigilante’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘Boomtown’ (unreleased)
‘Close To God’ (unreleased)
‘All The Same’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘King Of The Slugs’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘Ballad’ (unreleased)
‘Pray To That’ (unreleased)
‘Peace Song’ (a 2024 single)
‘Bad Dog’ (unreleased)
‘I Am The King’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘Wither’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
‘Satisfaction’ (Benny Benassi cover)
‘Skibidi’ (unreleased)
‘Running’ (from 2024 ‘WOOF.’ album)
Support this evening came from Shortstraw. (stylized as ‘shortstraw.’ all one word, all lowercase with a full stop at the end), who last month dropped ‘sods law’ as a single. They are a duo act of vocals, plus live drums and the backing beats are on a laptop. We are in their company for 29 minutes, from 8:00pm to 8:29pm. The vocals are delivered in a talky/shouty rappy way with true feeling and clearly they are rather good at what they do. I found the backing music was somewhat overshadowed by the drums and vocals, which was a shame. Tune four was introduced as a grime number and featured an even speedier delivery from the Coventry hailing vocalist, the drummer is from Birmingham, we learn. If acts like Bob Vylan, Slowthai and Grove are your bag, then you’ll love shortstraw..
