Ferocious Dog

Week 48 - Pagan Blog Project. Free pass for the letter X, so here's a blog I wrote earlier this month.

Yay! I got a bobble hat!!!

The red ink from the Rescue Room stamp, really does not want to wash off.  But that's OK, it is a reminder that last night actually happened.  Sure my muscles ache from being bounced around like a pinball and my clothes are in a soggy pile in the wash basket BUT the whole night is a tad hazy and Otherworldly.

I've read some great reviews of this band before and I've always thought I could write a really good one. I'm not a music journalist, I just love music. All sorts of music and it really is the food for my soul.  This is why I wanted to be a DJ since I was a kid, making mixed tapes up from the charts and doing the dodgy talk over... and these days, I have my own radio show.  And that's where my journey with Ferocious Dogs starts.  Back in 2012 I was organising the first Pegged It Rally and received an email from Dan asking if his band could come and play for us.  I listened to the tracks he sent and would have booked them then and there if it wasn't for the teeny tiny budget I had, to pay for a band.  There was no way I would pay them a penny less than what they deserved.  I was dead keen to play their music on my show though and wangled a copy of their debut album Hell Hounds. It's fair to say that a Ferocious Dog track is in my show playlist every week and other DJ's I have introduced to FD, love and play them loads too.

Imagine my glee when I heard they were playing Rock and Bike Fest in 2013.  I covered the event for 100% Biker and wrote this:

The band I’d really wanted to see was Ferocious Dog, an originals band that I’ve followed for a while now. I was ready to jump in that pit and mosh around like a nutter but after seeing it in action, decided that I was no match for it. It was one of those that if you took your eye off it, it sucked you in, ground you up and spat you out the other side. Ferocious is about right! A great band, excellent material and a real crowd pleaser - they bought their own moshpit with them, how hardcore is that!

That was my first time. The second time was a couple of days after my birthday in March and a week after I had a double knee op. I went to the sold out Rescue Rooms gig, in a wheelchair knowing how animated the audience got, but I really didn't care.  For that whole time, I forgot I was in a lot of pain, I forgot about the people banging into my knees and I bounced up and down in that wheel chair.  The icing on the cake was Ken saying happy birthday to me... granted he got my name wrong but the look on his face later when I said 'did you mean Naomi?', was priceless lol.  I always get called Natalie for some reason... *shrugs*  Incidentally, my arse was too wide for that chair and the wheels scorched my thighs to the point of having to leap out of it and hobble along on the crutches. My mates had a great time in it hahahaha.  This brings me back to the third time. Rescue Rooms had sold out yet again, which as most of you will know, was the second time this year that Ferocious Dog had achieved this. The ONLY unsigned band to do so in the venue's history and only two other acts had managed it, one of them being Jake Bug.  I was determined to be in the middle of the mosh this time - damned right!

I said earlier that it was Otherworldly and that's cos I swear there's some kind of magic going on.  I don't know how these music journos write about crashing drums and fat rifts because I didn't hear individual instruments. That is not to say I don't know how to listen to just the fiddle player or just the bass guitar... you just don't get to with this band.  You are 100% caught up in the Moment.  There is no individual player, there is no band, there is just the Music.  The world just spins by as the Dance takes you and you release those inhibitions and are Free.  Yes, capital letters... if you've been and seen them, you're probably nodding. If not, go and you'll see.

by me

According to legend, every standing stone was once a dancer who got carried away with the music and danced on the sabbath.  So here you have a band, capable of invoking that spirit of the dance in every single person in that room.. all 500 of them.  Everyone singing, fists pumping the air, spinning around, bouncing about, climbing up high and being caught up in the Moment.  Like others, I went over and landed on my arse. I lay there laughing my head off, immediately friendly hands were there to pull me back up and push me back in to the fray.  I've been in my fair share of mosh pits and as mental as the Hell Hounds are, it's friendly.  One moment the room is going nuts, the next it's still as someone is climbing up on shoulders, not wanting them to fall in the surge.  It was all over too soon, yet they'd played every song - time stopped for the Dance.  As we all poured outside to cool down, it was a like a steam room as cold air hit hot sweaty bodies.  Everyone was dog wet and grinning.

Ferocious Dog are a combination of genuinely lovely people, amazing musical talent with thought provoking and meaningful stories behind the lyrics. Tragedy, history, betrayal, love, protest, fun - signature moments in our times.  I was at the Kill the Bill protests. I know people who were miners or were at Beanfield. I have lost a 'brother' in a similar way and all that entailed and all of this powerful emotional stuff, is wrapped up in insane music that carries me away.  I'm glad they don't want to be tied down with a record contract - you can't harness that kind of spirit.

If I had to use just two words to describe Ferocious Dog, they would be - fucking awesome!
Love you guys, you put a smile on my face - thanks!

Best gig pic ever! I'm in there somewhere.  Taken by Pete Waggy 

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