Fat Dog @ QMU, Glasgow, 28 Feb

There is a serious buzz in the air as QMU fills up early doors. The room is already nearing capacity when experimental support band RIP Magic (yet to release their first single) are on stage. But it's the genre-busting London five-piece Fat Dog that the excitable crowd are here for tonight. Rock. Pop. Electro. Punk. They’re sort of... all of the above? A chunk of the audience have seen the group before and are reminiscing about their anarchic performance at Stereo last year: “It’s the craziest gig I’ve ever been to”; “I was physically dragged into a mosh pit.”

Packed shoulder to shoulder and pushing up against the barrier, people are in the mood for a wild show. And Fat Dog are happy to oblige, kicking off the theatrical and frenetic set with Vigilante, the driving opening track from their debut album WOOF. It’s a cinematic prologue of a song. 'It’s fucking Fat Dog, baby!' frontman Joe Love screams, 'It was the light at the beginning of time!'  A mosh pit immediately emerges. A few songs later, it encompasses most of the room.

For the first few songs, Love stalks the stage like a natural leader, dipping back to vibe with his bandmates before lurching forward to corral the crowd. Most of his time is spent face to face with the audience, either perched on the barrier like the pit’s playful ringside conductor, or in amongst it – crowd surfing, parting the sea of people and grandstanding while a chunk of the audience crouches at his feet. Peace Song, the band’s sunny recent single, provides the only moment of near-rest for the audience, who briefly stop jumping to sway and sing along.

At one point something goes wrong with the band’s mixing deck. It’s a snag which might disrupt momentum in a more traditional show. But chucked into the madness of a Fat Dog performance, it only adds to the chaos. A few seconds after the technical difficulties are identified, there's a room-wide chant on the subject: “Re! Set! The Desk! Re! Set! The Desk!”

It’s an urgent, captivating show pulled together by driving drumbeats, which reach a galloping peak on the menacing King of the Slugs. Drummer Johnny 'Doghead' Hutch typically wears a latex doghead to perform, although the mask is missing tonight. One fewer crazy detail in an enjoyably bonkers live show. A thrilling reminder of how immersive, memorable and fun live music can truly be.