Fat Dog | Star City
The LCR, Norwich
13th February 2025
Norwich may be known for its cathedrals and cobbled streets but, this past Thursday night at the LCR, Fat Dog turned it into a lawless, sweat-soaked madhouse.
On the first stop of their 2025 UK & Ireland WOOF tour – celebrating the release of their batshit-crazy, genre-obliterating debut album – the London lot came armed with all the unhinged energy of a feral beast that’s just slipped the leash. But first up was the support. Now if you’re going to open for Fat Dog, you’d better bring something weird, wonderful, and wired directly into the audience’s nervous system. Lucky for Norwich, Star City -formerly known as Pyongyang – arrived at the LCR armed with a set of pulsating electro-funk, neon-drenched grooves. I think it would be fair to say they had enough high-energy madness to prime the room for the chaos that was to follow.
Now I loved catching Fat Dog round these parts at last year’s Latitude festival, and from the moment frontman Joe Love – part preacher, part ringleader of an apocalyptic carnival – arrived with his compadres, I felt the same again. He lurched around the stage like a man who’s just had a divine vision of techno-punk salvation. Meanwhile, the band, sporting a new member, remained tight; relentless with their approach and gloriously unpredictable, whipping the crowd into a frenzied mass of movement, lurching between industrial beats, raw guitar thrashes, and unhinged euphoria like a band that exists purely to wreak havoc.
They treated us to Boomtown, a track already designed to make venues combust, and that’s exactly what it did. It wasn’t long into the track before, Chris, the keys wizard, had a few last swigs of his can of beer before launching himself into the crowd. Swallowed up by a sea of ecstatic punters, I think he enjoyed it – but if you didn’t get drenched in drinks and sweat, were you even there?
All The Same followed, a track that swaggers and snarls into a head-spinning anthem for the beautifully unhinged. Norwich bellowed every word back, making it clear that Fat Dog’s debut album has already lodged itself into people’s skulls, a bit like a very welcome parasite. If you have already listened to the debut album you will know their sound is a full-throttle collision of electro-punk, rave chaos, and wild-eyed rock ‘n’ roll, but live it’s even more unhinged. One minute, it’s heavy, relentless techno-punk pounding through the venue like a battering ram, the next, it’s woozy, psychedelic freakouts that make you feel like you’ve wandered into some underground Berlin bunker at 4am.
Love, a master of controlled chaos, prowled the stage before spending the rest of the gig conducting the madness down in the pit. Standing on the barrier with a glint in his eye that screamed messiah or menace – you decide.
Newly-released track Peace Song also made its presence known. If they were wondering how it would land with the Norwich faithful, they needn’t have worried. The crowd took to it like a pack of hungry wolves, as if the euphoric weirdness had been in their bloodstream for years. Then just when it seemed like it might be time to head home, the crowd had other ideas. Chants of “one more song!” broke out and the band came hurtling back out for an encore: a mind-melting cover of Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction.
If there was any doubt that these lot are here to obliterate any and all genre boundaries, this erased it. It was rave, it was punk, it was chaos, it was absurd – and it was absolutely perfect. Fat Dog came to this medieval city, chewed it up, spat it out, and left it howling for more. If you’re not on board yet, best get yourself to the nearest gig and prepare to be dragged headfirst into the madness. You’ll never be the same again.
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All photos and words by Adam Williams. You can find Adam on Instagram and X.
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- Source: NEWHD MEDIA
