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Review Fri Sep 25 2015
The Fratellis Brought the Heat at the Vic
It must be somewhat odd for the Fratellis to come to Chicago. A discography dating back to 2006, almost a decade of touring together, a well established band with a well established catalog and yet they're most famous in Chicago for approximately 10 seconds of the opening lines of one song from 2007. Weird. Even after extensive research (aka I Wiki'ed it), and reading up on Rocky Wirtz's adoption of the song in 2010 as the Blackhawk's scoring song in order to attract a younger fan base, I still don't entirely understand how that happened.
I can see the appeal of the Fratellis' sound as pump-up music though. Just give "Baby Don't You Lie to Me", the newest single off their 2015 album Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied, a listen -- I defy anyone to try to deny the fact that their heart beats a little faster when Jon Fratelli lets out that war whoop at 2:35. Last time I went running on the lakefront I accidentally sang it right along with him and scared the crap out of some of my fellow runners.
Everyone and anyone knew that the entire crowd was waiting for Chelsea Dagger, but the threesome of brothers is clearly loved for more than just that. Taking to the stage, the crowd broke into applause as the group broke into "Henrietta" from Costello Music. The band spent the rest of the night pretty much just zig-zagging between hits from the 2007 album and tracks from their 2015 release, moving onto "Baby Don't You Lie to Me" (during which Jon skipped his 2:35 battle cry -- I was very upset), "Flathead", "She's Not Gone Yet But She's Leaving", "For the Girl", "Me and the Devil" and "We Need Medicine."
The band is a well oiled machine, with Jon leading at the forefront, rocking his signature white hat over his eyes, playing so hard he's dripping sweat, and speaking between songs in an almost unintelligibly thick Scottish brogue. The band left the stage and the crowd cheered for an encore with shouts of "Chel-sea! Chel-sea!" until the band took to the stage once again. When they played Dagger for the crowd they didn't even bother singing the "Badada badada" parts -- the enthusiastic blackhawks fans had that covered.
Rachel / September 29, 2015 12:52 PM
Hi Celeste,
I love your article on The Fratellis at The Vic in Chicago! Im wondering if you know that the song line up was exactly?
They are one of my all time favorites and I just can't remember the order and if Ive missed one or two!
Thanks!
Rachel