Having recently released their debut album, the genre and mind bending
‘Woof.’ on Domino, South LONDON’s party starting rabble rousers
Fat Dog have just announced a new headline LONDON show at TROXY ON 26
APRIL 2025. The TROXY SHOW WILL FOLLOW ON FROM AN ALREADY SOLD OUT
NOVEMBER 2024 FORUM SHOW. When Fat Dog formed, they made two rules:
they were going to be a healthy band who looked after themselves and
there would be no saxophone presence in their music. Two simple edicts
to live by, and two things long-since broken by the Brixton
five-piece. Fat Dog are the most exciting breakthrough band of the
past few years, conjurers of the sort of frenzied and wild live shows
not seen in the capital for years and now the creators of WOOF., a
brilliant and mind-bending debut album, but they are not healthy. One
of them has a foot odour problem. And they also have a saxophone
player in the line-up. “Yeah, it’s all gone out the fucking
window,” says frontman and squadron leader Joe Love, real name Joe
Love. Life is too short to stick to any plans you made in the
unsettling, strait-jacketed times of 2021 anyway. That was when Fat
Dog came together, Love deciding to form a group and take the demos he
had been making at home as a way to keep haimself 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), Love found like-minded mavericks to help bring the
dream home. “A lot of music at the moment is very cerebral and
people won’t dance to it,” says Hughes. “Our music is the polar
opposite of thinking music.” Hughes should know. He was a fan of the
band, at that point making a name for themselves with a series of
exhilarating and/or wonky shows across south LONDON, before he was in
the band. Those formative gigs formed the bedrock of what Fat Dog were
all about, seizing the moment, drinking too much with the moment,
going home separately from the moment but making up with the moment
again the next day. It didn’t take long for the kennel-dwellers to
come flocking, every Fat Dog show in LONDON becoming a huge upgrade on
the last. They sold out the Scala last October and, by the time you
read this, they will have done the same at the 1500-capacity Electric
Brixton. There is something deeper going on here than the usual
punter-goes-to-gig situation. Everyone is in on it. “There’s a
sense of community about Fat Dog,” says Hutchinson. Recently, the
band completed an ecstatically received tour of the US that included
an all-conquering set at a taco joint. No lunches were harmed. The
sound Fat Dog make, Love says, is screaming-into-a-pillow music, a
thrilling blend of electro-punk, rock’n’roll snarling, techno
soundscapes, industrial-pop and rave euphoria, music for letting go
to. Produced by Joe Love, James Ford and Jimmy Robertson, WOOF. passes
by in a flash. On “Clowns”, Fat Dog sound like a 2 Tone band
booked to play an end of the world party in 2076. “I am the King”
sounds like a cross between Vangelis and Underworld and is possibly
the world’s only poignant song to namecheck The Karate Kid Part II
whilst “Closer to God” resembles The Prodigy riding a sandworm in
Dune. “All the Same” could be Nine Inch Nails having a nervous
breakdown. The unhinged, hook-heavy rave-pop of “Running” sounds
like a riot at a circus and of course, their sprawling debut single
“King of the Slugs” has made the cut. Other influences include
Bicep, I.R.O.K., Kamasi Washington and the Russian experimental EDM
group Little Big. The album is a visit into the mind of Joe Love - be
thankful you have only been granted a temporary pass.“Music is so
vanilla,” says Love. “I don’t like sanitised music. Even this
album is sanitised compared to what’s in my head. I thought it would
sound more fucked up.” This ticket includes a £1.50 restoration
levy. **Accessible Bookings:** If you’ve purchased Stalls Accessible
tickets for this event and haven’t done so for a previous event at
TROXY, please email accesstickets@troxy.co.uk with a copy of your
proof of eligibility. We accept PIP letters, Access Cards, Blue Badge,
Doctor's notes, etc. Please ensure that this is sent to us within 7
days of your purchase, as failure to do so could result in your ticket
being cancelled and refunded. Please direct all other accessibility
enquiries to accesstickets@troxy.co.uk. Presented by FORM. This is an
14+ event.
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10/07/2025 Last update