Tonight
is a good night, the rains dispersed and the sun
had come back out for the last few hours of the
day, its really starting to feel like summer,
and what better way to kick of the summer season
than with a band who have a handfull of summer
anthems, the mighty Fratellis.
As it’s a Friday it’s an early opening
and so I only manage to catch the last song of
support band The Recorders, who sound great, with
their MGMT style continental sound including dance
style keys under an aray of bass and high pitched
vocals. The crowd don't really seem to be into
them, but they are here for a different style
of indie. I enjoyed the song though, and hope
to catch their whole set in the future, as it
was fresh and upbeat.
We have a half hour wait before The Fratellis
take to the stage, the lights go off and they
unveil the bass drum which is illuminating the
stage with a red light, the band then slowly walk
onto the stage and kick of the show with 2 off
their biggest hits, Creeping Up The Backstairs
and Henrietta. They sound awesome, they’ve
been broken up since 2009 but you’d never
have guessed with the sound they have, its fresh,
its composed and its fun. The band seem to be
enjoying themselves and through in an extra few
notes here and there especially Baz Fratelli who
adds extra guitar licks into sections, making
the songs sound different and more unique than
from their recordings, but don’t worry its
nothing to crazy just nice guitar solo here and
there. All the levels seem great too, with their
3 man band it’s good to see they get a good
sound as most bands these days have at least 2
guitarists to fill the sound, The fratellis are
a traditional rock group in this sense, they do
bring on an extra member for a few songs on keyboards
though, but this adds more to the atmosphere as
like most gigs, the keys aren’t turned up
loud enough to notice and just add a bit of backing.
The
crowd are a bit quiet tonight, even though the
first few songs it seems as if there’s a
barrier between the band and the stage, that is
until they play Vince The Lovable Stoner and the
crowd start singing and Woo Hooing, they then
keep this energy up through the rest of 25 song
set which includes all of their debut album Costello
Music, 6 tracks from Here We Stand and a few new
tracks. Because of the sheer amount of tracks
they play that the band don’t spend much
time talking to the crowd but that’s ok
as I think most people would rather they play
more music than fill the time with idle chit chat.
The
band come close to the end of their set and it’s
clear that this room is full of people who don’t
go to many gigs as they reach Milk And Money and
tell the crowd good night, the room is split as
allot of people start to leave and get irate that
they haven’t played their biggest hit Chelsea
Dagger, but before too much chaos brakes out,
The Fratellis take back to the stage to play Shameless
and Seven Days before shutting the chants of Chelsea
Dagger up by playing this hugely iconic anthem,
it goes down a storm and the crowd is more alive
than it has been all night, with everyone singing
along. The band then play A Heady Tale to wrap
things up, which was good but probably should
have been played before Chelsea Dagger as quite
allot of the room starts to leave before they
finish, it’s almost as if the songs exit
music even if it is upbeat.
Overall tonight’s been great, The Fratellis
have never been one of my favorites but like most
people their hits have always been the background
to my student summers of past, and it’s
good to see a traditional style rock band back
on the scene playing great modern music with an
old style twist. The band have finished their
small sold out tour of the UK now but they’ll
be back around by the end of the year with a new
album in tow, so go check them out
4/5
Review By James Daly
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