Monday 15/12/08 The Fratellis, Sergeant @ The Roundhouse, London

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Back in 2006 the Fratellis came crashing on to the music scene on the crest of an Artic Monkeys shaped wave. Two years and two albums later they are still going, despite being constantly lambasted by music critics for their simple pub rock band approach to song writing. They achieved great chart success with the debut but their follow up has not been received well and John Fratelli has been on the offensive since the release date. Tonight they play the second night of their two night tenure at the Roundhouse in Camden, not bad for a pub rock band.  

Before they take to the stage fellow Glaswegians Sergeant are first on the bill. Touted as one of the bands to break big next year, they are full of confidence and their spell supporting Oasis seems to have rubbed off on Nick Mercer; for most of the performance the singer swaggers, Liam Gallagher style around the stage. Their sound is clearly rooted in the sunshine pop of the nineties. ‘Sunshine’ and ‘I love It Here’ are so La’s sounding that I feel like I’m back in school again listening to best of Shine 94. However it’s not all jangly guitars and Pop harmonies, debut single ‘K-OK’ has a much sinister and darker sound.  For a band so young they are incredibly tight and Mercer has great voice which doesn’t falter once during the set.

With the roundhouse now full, a voice comes over the Tannoy and announces please welcome ‘The greatest Living Rock Band in the World’ - quite a claim for a band so early on in their careers. As you would imagine they work their way through tried and tested singles ‘Chelsea Dagger’, ‘ Mistress Mable’, ‘Creeping Up The Back Stairs and the crowd love it - there are scores of middle aged men and women dancing in the rafters, but I’m just stood still in the middle of it all confounded. Their appeal seems to be simple rock music with a nice catchy chorus, which even the most musically bereft person, can sing along to. Radiohead this is certainly not, John and co seem content bashing out songs that Status Quo would be proud of.

OK maybe I’m being little harsh. They do try and expand their sound on a few new songs, and the bass player is wearing a pink Floyd t-shirt, which is probably the most artistic moment of the night. But when they crank up the reverb and the distortion to try and create one of those much sort after walls of sound, the crowd just seem bemused by what’s going on and happily wait till they can all chant ‘ do d do, do d do’ once again. Clearly they are nowhere near being the greatest rock band but they do seem to be serving a purpose. If you fancy going to gig to get pissed and chant along to catchy rock songs at the top of your voice, then they’re the band for you.

The Fratellis - Winter UK Tour