The Fratellis are the music that has been missing from our lives for a while now: true, honest, rock and roll; with a dash of Hawaiian luau, a splash of 1950s senior prom and a whole lot of frantic rockabilly with distortion. With some spectacular swing beats and more “do-oos and woh-oh”s than you would think possible, The Fratellis bring with them a certain Glasgow pub charm that is guaranteed to have you throwing your arms around a stranger and belting out your favourite anthems with gusto. It inspires a feeling of brotherhood between fans, which is perfect, considering the choice of name for the band; “Fratelli” means “brother” in Italian.
Sold-out Capitol was packed literally to the rafters. Anyone who didn’t secure a position near the stage, or on the rail of the balcony while The Silents were playing, had to be content to hear, rather than see the show; or face the crush of people and give up breathing in exchange for seeing. Either way, when the band hit the stage and burst into their first single Henrietta fans erupted immediately into an excited sea of excited cheering.
Singer Jon Fratelli (John Lawler) seemed overwhelmed with the reception they were receiving from the excited crowd – he asked “So is this a normal Thursday night in Perth?” to which the crowd cheered enthusiastically, possibly because they heard the word “Perth” or maybe to create the illusion that Perth is a really lively place on a Thursday night, (if only!) Although, if more bands the calibre of the Fratellis grace our quiet city mid-week, we may just see an end to the dreaded “dullsville” label that’s being bandied about these days.
The show became increasingly dramatic as the night progressed, there was a quieting of the crowd and the lights went down. Suddenly, Lawler was standing alone on stage, bathed in a shower of blue light, with only his guitar and the microphone for company, as he sang the opening lines of Whistle for the Choir. The crowd, as is necessary in times like these, embraced each other and got out their lighters, (or for the tech-savvy generation, their mobile phones) and sung and swayed along to the irresistibly catchy chorus, only becoming more impassioned as the rest of the band joined in.
By some kind of divine intervention, it seems they managed to employ Jesus to help out drummer, Mince Fratelli (Gordon McRory). Jesus was there at the exact right moments to turn the microphone in front of McRory so he knew when it was time to sing, and pulling it away as soon as possible, so as not to interrupt the manic thrashing of arms as he made good use of every part of the drum kit. It seems plain that McRory must have been kicked out of the high-school swing band for being too rock ‘n’ roll. Midway through the set, he moved away from the jazz-inspired rhythms to indulge in a bit of good old fashioned drumsterbation, which had the crowd well and truly riled up as they lead into Chelsea Dagger. At this point the balconies threatened to collapse under the persistent foot pounding and joyous dancing.
There were a few stand out moments of the evening: at one point a girl leaned onto the stage and gave what one can only imagine was her phone number to keyboardist, Will Foster, who took it, glanced at it with a bemused smile and put it aside for safe keeping. A fan also handed a CD to Lawler between songs, which he took off-stage, pre-encore and signed for her; now that’s what’s called looking after your fans!
While mostly well-behaved, the crowd became a little rowdy on occasion, with two lads being dragged out the back after a mosh-pit tiff, which actually stopped Lawler mid-song as he checked out the action in the crowd. Later in the set, as a man surfed the crowd to the front, and was promptly removed (by the neck!), bassist Barry Fratelli (Barry Wallace) stopped playing, leant down and motioned for the bouncer to “settle down”.
After an encore including the much anticipated song Flathead, McRory was left alone on stage to rumble out an impressive drum solo, showing off his double-kick skills and making sure that every part of his kit was given a final work out to leave the crowd in awe, already planning the camp-out for the next sell-out gig.
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