Fat Dog at Live at Leeds 2025 – Festival Review

Guide

There are plenty of bands who blow up from a reputation for putting on a raucous live show, and Fat Dog have become one of these, with NME’s Gary Ryan describing them back in 2023 as that year’s wildest live band.

Since then they’ve gone from strength to strength, with their debut album ‘WOOF.’ released in 2024. Fittingly it was produced by James Ford, who launched his production career with Klaxons’ ‘Myths of the Near Future’, and now nearly 20 years the torch of New Rave has been re-lit (albeit with a touch of klezmer and influence from the frenzied Serious Sam game soundtracks).

Cowboy Hat

With frontman Joe Love sporting a now trademark white cowboy hat, the crowd in the DIY Big Top tent giddily anticipated the chaos to come during the atmospheric build up on ‘Vigilante’. And then as expected, the first of many circle pits erupted to the sound of the driven electro-bass.

For the first time Fat Dog live show attendee, there were some surprise deviations from the tracks on their only album to date. ‘Boomtown’ and ‘Angry Duck’ also had their signature breathless polka-tinged rhythms, and left the crowd even more excited for the big singles yet to be played by the band.

Hits

And then the hits came. The booming ‘All the Same’ was followed by their 7 minute epic ‘King of the Slugs’. Part of Fat Dog’s appeal is their unique instrumentation, with their live band featuring a saxophonist, and a combination of live guitar and bass with electro backing. In a live setting, it’s a perfect storm of rave and rock and roll, even in the klezma-style tempo increases in ‘King of the Slugs’, which were matched here by the crowd chanting “going up the wall”.

Circle Pits

There was a relative breather for the crowd with catchy new track ‘Fuck Urself’, and the slowed moodiness of ‘Clowns’. But it wouldn’t last long, with a further new track ‘Pray To That’ re-opening the ever-growing circle pits at the front of the tent.

Love rallied the crowd calling out that they’d been “Bad Dogs” for a track of the same name. It was another full throttle assault of a track, with trance synth leads and basslines that would be at home in any rave.

Melodic Side

Next was latest single ‘Peace Song’ which is a track that shows they aren’t without a melodic side, with Love showing his softer singing voice.

Heading to the final couple of tracks, ‘Wither’ was another stand out moment, with thousands joyously shouting “You better wither, baby, before you die”.

Those who were fans of their album knew what the last track would be. ‘Running’ teased in its verse build up, with a slowly rotating circle suddenly erupting one last time for the beat drop.

The claim of the UK’s best live band will always be heavily disputed, but Fat Dog are a band that simply must be seen and heard. Those who were fans of New Rave bands like Klaxons and Late of the Pier might even describe Fat Dog as being New New Rave.

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Sam Campbell

Reviewer at Contact Me

Sam has contributed to GSG Media since October 2018. He enjoys a wide array of music – especially indie/alternative rock. As well being a musician, a regular gig-goer and a collector of vinyl, he is also passionate about football, American football, history and literature.