This past Saturday night, the Fratellis took to the Paradise in Boston to re-affirm their stamp on sing-along, bounce-along indie rock. And the lively Glaswegian trio did it with a mix of new and old.
Blazing through a 22-song set, the Fratellis, back out on the road to support outstanding new disc Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied, scorched through their decade-plus catalogue. The band kicked things with “Henrietta,” an animated track off of 2003’s Costello Music, to get their party started. Following up an old favorite with Eyes Wide’s first single “Baby Don’t You Lie to Me,” gave a good indication on how the night’s festivities were to proceed.
Costello Music’s tracks were well-represented on the setlist and well-sung with passion and enthusiasm by the sold out capacity crowd. The familiar “Flathead” seemed to spur a collective pogo wave throughout all of the song’s brisk three-plus-minute length, including the still-catchy-after-all-these-years “ba-da-ba-ba-da” chorus.
Saturday’s set was filled with many fun, sing-a-long moments, but it was not without a moment of pure unabashed adorableness. Before launching into Costello-era ballad “It’s Whistle For The Choir”, which in its own right was a really sweet little love song, frontman Jon Lawler (codename: Fratelli) told a story about a fan telling the band about using the tune as the first dance at their recent wedding. “Baby Fratelli” was bolstered by a robust sing-a-long from the crowd, and during the encore, The Fratellis ripped into their best-known hit, “Chelsea Dagger,” amid a chant from the crowd for the tune. Upon first note, the crowd sang right along with Lawler.
Of course, it’s hard to not think about hockey when it comes to perhaps the Fratellis’ biggest hit. Just over two years ago, that song was the bane of Boston hockey existence during the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Finals, as it served — and still serves — as the Chicago Blackhawks goal and victory song. The wounds of that six-game series where the ‘Hawks defeated the hometown Bruins may have not quite healed on the ice or with the Gallery Gods inhabiting the TD Garden, but for one night at least, the association between that song and recent sports memory was a thing of the past.
If anyone was still hung up on hockey alliances, the new Fratellis material soothed things over. “Me and the Devil” sizzled in the middle of the sweaty Saturday night, and “Imposters (Little By Little),” a modern-sounding take on Clapton’s “Lay Down Sally,” if there can be such a thing, sounded like a barbecue sauce drenched offering from the Scottish trio. “Desperate Guy,” a mid-tempo lovelorn song off of the new album, shone especially brightly at the beginning of the encore. Lawler also quipped that Saturday night was the song’s live U.S. debut.
The show’s opener was Boston’s own Vundabar. Their set of lo-fi(ish) guitar pop tunes including local fave “Holy Toledo” and selections from their latest effort, got the crowd into the proper rock and roll mood.
Follow Greg Cameron on Twitter @greg_cameron.