When Fat Dog frontman Joe Love takes to the stage, his presence is somehow halfway between that of a cult leader addressing his followers and any man you might encounter on a Tuesday night in a pub. He captivates the crowd, compelling them to move, sing, and bark along with him, but he does so with a thick London accent and a beer in his non-strumming hand. Love and the rest of Fat Dog brought a dynamic atmosphere to the stage at Toscadura last Saturday, on the fourth night of the POP Montreal festival.

There is a degree of self-irony about Fat Dog’s style of performance, full of crowd interactions that come across almost like inside jokes that have stuck over time—crab-like dance moves synchronized within the band or call-and-response barking with the crowd. The result is a surprising intimacy, where the audience is shown a somewhat unfiltered view into the musicians’ genuine personalities. Keyboardist Chris Hughes has said, “Some people make more thinky music, and I think we make more dancy music.” This perspective seems to ring true in the way the band presents their music onstage.

Hughes’ statement should not be taken to mean that Fat Dog’s music is not well thought out; in fact, for how maximalist and chaotic their work can sound, their sound onstage is impressively tight, seamlessly mixing the digital sounds of dance music with more analog instrumentation. It is easy to forget, for example, that multiple percussionists are playing for their synchronicity. Then, of course, more is happening between the two musicians than can be reproduced with only four limbs. The band finished their set with their song Running, my personal favorite in their as yet short catalog, which served as a climactic end to an intensely energetic show. Audience members could be seen emerging from the front covered in sweat and with very little energy left—a sure sign of a great show.