The Fratellis performing their Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied Tour at Rock City on Wednesday 16th December 2015


Images and Review by Kevin Cooper

The Fratellis came to Rock City last night and put on an entertaining show that was worthy of the wait for this rescheduled Nottingham date. It is almost ten years since they burst onto the scene with their debut album, Costello Music, and now they are back to promote their latest effort, Eyes Wide Tongue Tied.

Opening with new track Baby Don’t Lie To Me; a high tempo retro rock ‘n’ roller with the kind of chorus that didn’t leave you in a hurry, this Glaswegian trio stuck to the business of working through a packed set list of old favourites and new material.

Frontman and guitarist Jon Fratelli performed passionately, but delivered very little banter to this unusually restrained crowd. Amongst the airing of old favourites like Henrietta, Flathead, For The Girl and She’s Not Gone Yet But She’s Leaving was stand-out newbie, the Springsteen-esque Imposters (Little By Little), which mixed some warm country rock flourish into their formula. The band rattled through 18 songs in no time at all, before finishing the set with Too Much Wine.

A fairly subdued audience were inspired into a brief frenzy as Whistle For The Choir and Baby Fratelli prompted mass sing a longs. But the number that everyone had come to hear came in the encore. Chelsea Dagger was there, joyously received as expected. It is a shame that this remains their signature tune, heard at football grounds and other sporting events across the county every weekend, because The Fratellis are more than this one song. They offer genuine rock ‘n’ roll from a band who seem to have moved away from their early pop sound, but who are haunted by the success of that 2006 hit.

Not that the song isn’t catchy..duh duh duh da, da da duh…