Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It always seems that the choice of music that a group comes out on stage to is a huge indicator of how the evening might progress, as if it is a secret message being audibly sent to the crowd, a musical Morse code filled with important notes and playful notation advising the audience of the adventure ahead. If The Stranglers for example can come out to their own Waltz In Black and Marillion at one time to La Gazza Ladra; it only is surely appropriate that Scotland’s The Fratelli’s, with all their high eyebrow cool and playful intentions, appear back in Liverpool to The Can Can.

The Infernal Gallop, the energetic riff in which The Fratelli’s unleash a sense of musical prosperity, of producing songs from the very start of their career in which the music was readily accepted and seemingly played at every sports event, through to the very latest, and incredibly recent release of In Your Own Sweet Time; an infernal gallop indeed, running with a series of playful imps, of seeing devils and gods relish the infectious nature of their work and one to which the Liverpool Olympia’s audience responded to with the same expression of joy and style.

It is a style that captured the time and thankfully has continued onwards, their initial burst into the conscious of the music loving audience was one that spilled over into the mainstream awareness with ease, a recognition of being perhaps at the start of something new after a decade of the so called Brit-Pop scene which tore people down the middle and alienated others; this is a band that readily unified with their energy and popularity. It was the consciousness bursting effect that was very much in evidence as for over 90 minutes the band once more took the crowd in a direction that The Infernal Gallop would have been proud to have been associated with.

With a mixture of old and new straddling the set, The Fratellis could do no wrong, appealing to those who were caught up in the initial and fruitful head of steam and deliberate kindly take-over of the airwaves and through to the more up to date releases in which should be considered thoughtful musings, all delivered with the same Fratellis’ sense of humour.

With songs such as Stand Up Tragedy, Henrietta, Starcrossed Losers, Whistle For The Choir, Sugartown, Flathead, Laughing Gas, Cuntry Boys & City Girls and Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night relishing the chance to stand out and look out into the Olympia’s audience, of arm waving, passionate memories being rekindled and the humour on people’s faces being worn as a badge of honour, it is no wonder that The Fratellis still feel more than a band on stage plying their trade, they are the epitome of what should be seen as the new wave of resurgent pop-rock that returned with a bang just as the new century was in its infancy.

A welcome return to a group that know how to raise a smile and whose lyrical expression is insurmountable; this may have been an infernal gallop, but it was sent by angels on a mission to kick start Spring in all its glory.

Ian D. Hall