On Friday October 5th I had the chance to witness a concert of a band that I’ve been wanting to see for years. The Fratellis finally honored Belgium with another visit after so many years. Better even, they came to one of the most beautiful venues Belgium has: De Casino.
Astonishing Vocals
Opening for The Fratellis was a band called Mona (****) from Nashville, Tennesee. I had never heard of this band although they managed to impress the Belgian festival crowds before. And to be honest they managed to impress me as well. Mona came in with a simple set up and the attitude of a punk rock band. They opened up with a strong bass and guitar sound and when the singer started: My lord, what a voice! the whole room went silent in awe. Forty five minutes have seldom passed so quickly.
After a surprisingly short change over the moment we all anticipated arrived: The Fratellis (****)! At first glance Jon’s side of the stage looked like a Fender Vintage Custom Shop sale displaying multiple lovely red relic Telecasters that account for about half of that typical Fratellis sound. Both Jon and Barry came up wearing hats as if they’d ran away from the Peaky Blinders set with Barry‘s looks immediately radiating that true Glasgow feel.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/141075073@N05/30377187987/in/album-72157702224921774/
Old meets new
Right of the bat they opened with Stand Up Tragedy, an upbeat song from the new album and a great opener to set the mood for the rest of the show. It soon became clear that they weren’t planning on just giving the people an “In Your Own Sweet Time”-showcase as they smoothly transferred into Henrietta, one of their oldest hits dating from 2006. The crowd went nuts when they noticed that the night would be a fine mixture of old and new with a well appreciated focus on their hit album “Costello Music“.
The Fratellis are a live band!
All and all we must admit that in a live setting Jon has proven time and time again that he’s much more than an underrated guitarist that only writes three chord songs and catchy “lalala”-melodies for commercials and football stadiums like some critics have described both him and Jack White over time. The band absolutely blew the crowd away with Barry‘s rolling bass licks, Mince‘s super tight drums and Jon‘s ever so clean vocals and raw guitar sounds aided by Will Foster‘s keyboard fondling. And not a soul attending this show will say otherwise!
Setlist
- Stand Up Tragedy
- Henrietta
- Baby Don’t You Lie To Me
- Starcrossed Losers
- Imposters
- Whistle For The Choir
- For The Girl
- Sugartown
- Flathead
- I Am That
- Everybody Knows
- I’ve Been Blind
- Creeping Up The Backstairs
- She’s Not Gone Yet
- Ole Black ‘n’ Blue Eyes
- We Need Medicine
- Baby Fratelli
- Too Much Wine
- Desperate Guy
- Chelsea Dagger
- Runaround Sue
Check out the rest of the photos right here:
https://www.grimmgent.com/the-fratellis-mona-de-casino-sint-niklaas-photo
