Fat Dog, 8th October, Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh (gig review)

On more than one occasion during the Fat Dog show at Cabaret Voltaire, many of the 300 or so attendees crouched down to the ground with singer Joe Love towering above us. You knew what was coming next, but that didn’t dilute the joy and exhilaration as the crowd exploded upwards. In some ways, that describes the trajectory of the group, and with new album Cancel Me (I’m Tired), they don’t look like stopping.

From the intro tape of Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ to Love pushing through the crowd to punt merch post-gig as ‘Time To Say Goodbye’ filtered us out to the rain, around 50 minutes had passed. It was non-stop, the new album featuring heavily. 

Morgan Wallace’s sax redefines the tunes, the live set peppered with the heavy heavy monster sound you’d associate with Madness and the shoulder-shuffling verve of The Specials.

The band is one thing on record and something else entirely, live.

The breakneck pace of ‘Shit Love’ set the tone. Skittering rhythms, that wailing brass and the cheeky moments, C-bombs, the Bangles-infused “I don’t do Sunday, that’s my fun day” line and by the time we were “cooking with gas”, the room was claimed.

The album’s title track is just as danceable while ‘Go Fuck Urself’ could grate in the wrong hands. Here, it just about holds the cheeky and fun balance in check. 

‘Aliens’, the album closer, brought the biggest breather of the night, yet still transformed the heartfelt and mischievous number into a call to arms. The crowd were chastised/praised (delete as applicable) as a ‘Bad Dog’, but there were no recriminations, just a dash to the end.

They make their way to the other side of the M8 at the end of November, The Old Fruitmarket with its 1,300 capacity upping the game, and you wouldn’t bet against them winning that room either.

Fat Dog play Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket, 28th November

Main photo credit: Andy Reilly