Massive credit to whoever decided to grab Adult DVD for tonight’s opening slot. The Leeds band are on a deservedly sharp upward projectory. Venues are getting bigger, festival appearances are further up the bill, 2024 ep ‘Next Day Shipping’ has sold out via online sources (thankfully copies available on the merch stand here for those new to witnessing one of the greatest bands to recently emerge from Leeds).
The last time I saw them they had the lunchtime slot opening Middlesbrough’s one day Twisterella Festival in a small high street cocktail bar. Tonight Boiler Shop’s 1000 tickets have almost sold out for the headliners and a sizeable proportion of those are already in to witness Adult DVD deliver a superb set of hard hitting, foot tapping, noisy, synth based electro pop. There’s hints of old school Kraftwerk and (showing my age here) original pioneers such as Fad Gadget but what Adult DVD do is very, very new-school. ‘Doomsday Prepper’, ‘Dogs In The Sun’ and ‘Do Something’ are raunchy, quirky, raucous, addictive, hard hitting, brilliant dance tunes and all have this crowd hooked in and swaying from start to finish. 2022 single ‘Bill Murray’ never disappoints and as it closes their far too short 30 minute set it’s clear that tonight a huge number of Fat Dog fans are now also avid Adult DVD fans.
Fat Dog – what to say? It’s chaotic, it’s relentless, it’s addictive, it’s wild and uncontrolled. It is utterly, utterly brilliant. You see them a few times and you know what to expect but that doesn’t make a Fat Dog gig any less exciting, any less exhilarating. From the opening words and notes of ‘Vigilante’, the way it builds and builds, the dark, sinister, oppressive drone that suddenly explodes into a pummeling, hypnotic beat that punches straight through the gut. Fat Dog don’t build a set list that reaches a crescendo after 45 minutes, that point is reached within seconds and it never diminishes.
From the word go those brave enough to be anywhere near the front are a heaving, uncontrolled mass of bouncing bodies. ‘Boomtown’ sees keyboardist Chris in the crowd encouraging the mayhem. ‘All The Same’, rammed full of industrial, disco-punk throbbing beats follows, a non-stop call to lose all inhibitions and simply join in the madness. No matter how many times you hear it ‘King Of The Slugs’ is massive. With it’s infectious, droning, underlying beats, yells of “I’m the king of the slugs bitch’ and carnival like interlude it’s absolutely relentless. The crowd lap it up and like all good moshpits there’s a sense of real joy, a place where the normalness of everyday life is banished and the suppressed madness that lurks beneath the surface is set free. But there’s no aggro, no shoving, no anger. Just grins, sweat and an overall atmosphere of togetherness.
Singer Joe Love spends a significant amount of the set on the barrier or standing on the huge bass speakers that dominate the pit. A pastor directing the flock in front of him. Crowd and band feed off each other and it’s this that means there’s absolutely no slacking from either. ‘Peace Song’ is as beautiful and emotional as any techno driven song can be but the introspection lasts only minutes before ‘Wither’ explodes and complete pandemonium dominates once again. ‘Running’ completes the set. A wild, uncontrolled, cacophony of noise and yelled vocals whipping those already leaping around into a frenzy.
It’s all over quickly. Just fifty minutes of absurd madness. Fifty minutes where whatever else those present had on their minds is put on hold because for fifty minutes nothing else mattered apart from the sounds pounding from the stage and the atmosphere created within these walls.
Fat Dog: Possibly the best live band around at the moment.
