“Take the next day off work, wear your most comfortable shoes, get ready for the hangover cause we’re back, bigger, better and stronger than ever.” That was the statement issued by Barry Fratelli on his band’s (the aptly named Fratellis) website. Considering the Fratellis’s Splendour in the Grass sideshows sold out fast enough to announce even more sell out shows, Barry’s little recommendation had obviously been heard by fans and at the Hi Fi Bar for two nights he and the band had a chance to prove the hype of this tour to an adoring Melbourne crowd.
The first tick for the Fratellis was obvious with their zero-bullshit approach to playing, evident when they came out with minimal fanfare and jumped straight into Mistress Mabel. Their skill was immediately evident in their professionalism and tightness on stage (not counting a couple of hiccups along the way) and the Fratellis needed little in the way of gimmicks to aid them. The automatic crowd pleasing opener had the tightly packed front half of the venue jumping about immediately, though through somewhat of a strain that bouncing couldn’t carry on consistently for the remainder of the set. It seemed that no matter what the Fratellis did, with the exception of a couple of numbers, the crowd couldn’t get their desired, “next-day-off-work-worthy” mosh going.
A couple of tunes that couldn’t escape some ecstatic dancing though were My Friend John and A Heady Tale; both new tracks that seemed to have the band as excited as the crowd, with front man Jon Fratelli – complete with his sweat-drenched frizzy hairdo – claiming that Melbourne had been the crowd most obviously excited about the new material. As for everything else the Scots said in between tracks, there was little the crowd could do to actually comprehend what was coming from such a thick accent – so much so that only a random selection of punters throughout the venue actually started clapping when he gave the order later on.
Whilst new numbers from Here We Stand were getting the most attention from the band, older favourites did manage to shadow a lot of the fresher stuff. The guitar hooks and shifting vocal styles of Henrietta stood out, but the real highlights for the Fratellis were those that inspired participation from the crowd – namely Chelsea Dagger. Having heard the band’s live set from Splendour on the radio over the weekend, it seemed strange that when the track featured there was none of the trademark, nonsensical chanting that makes Chelsea Dagger so fun. This was because the audience on the radio weren’t hooked up with microphones. The Hi Fi crowd made short work of high jacking the favourite though and along with the chanting came a fairly raucous bounce about.
The encore came by after no time and it seemed that new track Shameless was the one people had been waiting for, with the unmistakable riff revving punters into a healthy mass bound immediately. By the gig’s conclusion, it seemed safe to say that the band’s statement mentioned earlier was pretty much correct in referring to their show – with new sing along, dance friendly tracks complementing their older favourites and with a much more solid show too.
