As myself and a friend make our way around the venue into the main room, we strike conversations with some of the friendly faces littered about the venue. It seems they’re all here for the community of Ferocious Dog fanatics who have a shared admiration for the band and the events they put on. It’s like a mini festival. Ahead of the release of their new EP, The Town Hall Session, on the 21st May and a headline show at the Bodega on the 6th June, Fudge. are supporting Ferocious Dog, playing Rock City’s main stage for the first time. Being the first on the larger stage, Fudge. are expected to bring the audience together by themselves, a feat which doesn’t seem to scare them.
With the intro, ‘Jekyll & Hide’ underway, the crowd is meagre and a bit shy. As the first track, ‘Walrus’, comes to an end though, Cam brazenly states “do us a f**king favour” as they ask the audience to get closer. Being from Leeds, the band exude a Yorkshire warmth and it works wonders as the crowd happily expands. Unexpectedly, the term, “my gs”, is thrown around from time to time but it seems to work for the ranging demographic in the audience. As the performance goes on, their presence brings even more people into the crowd, solidifying the band’s status as ones to kick off the evening’s proceedings.
Being the biggest show Fudge. has graced their presence with to date, it would make sense if the band were slightly nervous. This doesn’t appear to be the case though as frontman, Cam, brings himself down from the stage towards the audience and joins the moshpit. He exclaims “I need a bit more from you” before heading into ‘Money To Be Made’.
Cam lightly reinforces his first speech afterwards, repeating “I need a bit more from you”, whilst cracking open a beer on stage as the crowd gets incrementally bigger between each track. Fudge. are next joined on stage by Matthew Bond from fellow Leeds’ band, Dim Imagery, (with whom they are co-headlining their upcoming tour), and he then moves into the moshpit to also crowd surf.
‘9/10’ sees the lighting move into red and yellow and Cam holds a banner round saying Fudge., turning his back towards the audience so they can see the name in all its glory. The band are proud of what they’ve produced, with some of Fudge.’s tracks highlighting Cam’s vocals as they begin with just lyrics and no backing music, the audience taking their time to see what the band really have to say. In this vein, Cam declares that the band are “here saying what we need to say”, which is a welcome nod to the fact that this is their biggest stage yet and they’re not here to compromise.
‘Y.F.F.G’ is the next track on the setlist, integrating the audience into their live performance, instructing us “When I shout oo, you’re going to shout ‘Come on then!“ Final song, ‘Bulls’, immerses the stage in green lighting, Cam hopping into the crowd yet again and into the most raucous mosh pit of their set thus far. I’m sure that by this point many members of the crowd will be considering seeing Fudge. again on the 6th June, and in a much more intimate venue, might I add.
And there it ends – “We’ve been Fudge. And you’ve been f**king beautiful.”
Photo courtesy of Fudge.’s Facebook page.
