The Fratellis Live At The Academy

For the second time in under a year I was asked by my good pal Shaun to accompany him to go and see the new British hit band The Fratellis. The first time I saw the band they were a support act to Kasabian at the M.E.N. arena. Big venue loads of people there but unfortunately not many saw the Fratellis set as they were probably still at the bar getting themselves drunk at the extortionate M.E.N. prices, only to throw most of it at each other during the Kasabian set. I have to admit, apart from the chart stuff I hadn't really heard much of the two band's so it was a learning night for me, but being experienced in going to gig's over the year's I feel I can safely know when a band can "do it live" and perform at the top level. Well safe to say after that first gig I am sure Kasabian lived up to the pre-gig hype about them being a great live act but on the night I felt the Fratellis had a lot they could prove as a headline act on their own. I remember a few years back going to see Def Leppard and the support act blew them off the stage. The support was The Darkness and they went on to have a two album stint at the top but suffered from a problem which a lot of band's seem to at the moment, their first album's are just too good and a second album is just too much for them to cope with as they never seem to hit the heights of the first (I'll get on to this comment later).

Costello Music by The Fratellis has definitely been one of the album's of the year, and not surprisingly the band won Best British Breakthrough Act at The Brit Awards. I'm sure the album will probably win some more awards as well, as they seem to have captured a new style of a rock/glam /indie genre all of their own. Many of the tracks on the album are anthemic, and have easy to sing-along choruses, catchy guitar riffs, and also you find the songs could translate well into acoustic style, which I have found in the past to be a benchmark to a great rock band. It's almost as if you wouldn't be out of place seeing Jon Fratelli stood outside one of their gig's busking to the crowd to get them warmed up for the forthcoming event.

So onto tonight's gig. We left early to get to the Academy at Birmingham, a venue I had never been to before, and with neither of us having been to it we left early to make sure we beat the Birmingham traffic. We need not of worried as the venue was incredibly easy to find, just yards away from the Bullring shopping center. Its amazing the place's you miss when your shopping with the wife!! We first went to a pub just yard's from the Academy called Scruffy Murphy's. This place was like a dream come true for me, an obvious choice for a pre-gig beer. It just screamed out that this place was a rock pub, and no bloody Stella on was about the only downside to the place! Not to be too dejected from the lack of real lager (had to be content with Carlsberg. As far as I'm concerned the bloody Danish can keep the stuff). We had a couple of light ale's in the pub and then made our way to the growing queue of Frat's fan's waiting to get in the venue. We had a slight detour as we tried to queue jump by buying another drink at a bar adjoining the venue, but this proved to take longer than the original queue, so we re-joined the main queue outside and got in, in no time at all.

A quick scan round the venue found us in a place not to dissimilar to our own Sugar Mill in Hanley, albeit on a much grander scale. It's a run of the mill concert venue with the smell of beer stained floors and walls. One downside I will mention is the lack of merchandise stalls or at least the size of them, tiny hole's in the wall that looked like converted cloakroom's but at least the gear was up to date!!

The first band on was The Enemy. They can only be described as LOUD! Not really my cup of tea. These guy's can be easily described as a band who clearly want to make a noise. Non of their song's really stick in your mind as "future big hits" but they were clearly crowdpleaser's on the night. Unfortunately for them I think having a pouting guitarist who mouth's the lyrics while the singer tries his best to scream them at you has been done already several times before.

Onto the main event, The Fratellis. One more thing before I comment on the gig though, Shaun had told me of a ritual the band has started while the stage crew is setting up. The band has a tag line "Mon The Fratellis", which by all accounts, fan's adapt the line onto picture's and artwork to give a montage of amusing shot's which is played on a white screen on the stage. All very good stuff and, along with Shaun and the rest of the people there on the night, we all tried to spot the more difficult to find one's (the Yellow Page's ad is particularly hard to spot!) All was going well until they dissed Aerosmith on one of the pic's. Now I'm sure the band themselves don't have any input into the pic's so I won't knock them, but to the person who did this pic I can only say get a life. When The Frattellis have achieved what Aerosmith have achieved then mock,but not before. Rant over on to the gig.

The Frat's opened with the album opener Henrietta, one of the best track's on the album and an instant crowd-pleaser. The beer started to fly about the venue, as is customary at these smaller gig's and throughout the first few numbers Jon had the crowd bouncing with several tracks off the album including Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night and Flathead. The band then threw in a new track presumably off the next album called Pretty Like A Girl,Filthy Like A Boy which continues in the same vein as the current stuff. All the albums carries well onto the live set,and after only seeing the band as a support act previously, they also make an excellent headline act. The lad's converse well with the crowd, obviously knowing that they will join in with the sing-a-long stuff such is the catchiness of the track's. Towards the end of the main set they hit the crowd with three absolute stonking live track's Baby Fratelli, Whistle For The Choir and the awesome Chelsea Dagger. These three track's may be the one's that stand out in the future of the band as their benchmark song's, but as live track's go these are probably some of the most crowd-pleasing, rip-roaring song's you will ever hear live. The crowd is almost salivating at the thought of the band playing these three, and obliges by going crazy as they play through them. As they leave the stage you know the encore will be coming soon, as it always is for headliners,and The Fratellis don't disappoint.

Jon ventures back on the stage to do an acoustic version of Cigarello which kind of blended into For The Girls, which is the track he usually does,still bloody excellent though. The other guys come back on stage to do the final two tracks,Cuntry Boys & City Girls and finally a cover of Goldfrapps Ooh La La which the band has put there own slant onto, and has made their own, an excellent end to a great gig. These guys can play their stuff live well and do put on a great, albeit short, show but this is their first album so this is to be expected. To the point I was making earlier about first albums, I hope they guy's stick to what they are good at, making catchy song's with great guitar riff's and don't try to become another in the long line of one album wonders we have had around in the last few years. I'm sure they have the potential to carry themselves a lot further, as they already have the foundations to go a long way with a great band logo and extremely sale friendly merchandise. I hope the Fratellis have a great future, and with a busy summer schedule booked with the V-Festival and Glastonbury on the card's this year I'm sure a lot more people will be delighting to their fantastic live performance's.

MON THE FRATELLIS!