Thursday 07/12/06 Kasabian, The Fratellis @ SECC, Glasgow

The Fratellis are a band built on mythology. Their history is full of dubious tales that may or may not be true (they all worked at a fairground for example). Unfortunately, there’s another myth that’s been created about the Fratellis. That being that they’re actually a good band. In fairness, the cavernous surroundings of the SECC probably isn’t the best place to hear their booze (or Iron Bru) soaked glam rock. Still, nearly everything produced sounds a lumpen, leaden muddle. Then, just when you think things can’t get any more pedestrian they roll out the strum of ‘Whistle For The Choir’, a track with all the vitality of a pensioner slowly going round the supermarket.

Thankfully, Kasabian are a band now built to playing arenas and seem more accustomed to the setting. They’re also blessed to have two lynchpins of the highest quality. Vocalist Tom Meighan swaggers around like an experimental fusion between Ian Brown and Liam Gallagher while guitarist Serge Pizzorno snaps into the backing vocals like a rabid terrier finding food. They have that superstar quality in spades.

Oddly, the tracks that work best are those from their self titled debut rather than their more recent and more complete effort, ‘Empire’. The raw aggressive punk of ‘Reason Is Treason’, the dance heavy  ‘Processed Beats’ and then, in the encore, the two football terrace style anthems of ‘Club Foot’ and a closing, majestic ‘L.S.F’, the perfect combination of their baggy beats and heavy rock influences.  From ‘Empire’ the title track stands out, a huge thundering beast of a song while Pizzorno’s vocals on ‘Last Trip( In Flight)’ add to the other worldly air that accompanies it. It’s an extravagant spectacle too.  Like all titanic bands there’s light show and huge monitors flanking the stage.

And yet, something isn’t quite right. No matter how they dress it up some of the material is poor. There’s lengthy versions of ‘Apnoea’ and ‘By My Side’, the former simply turgid electro heavy sludge and the latter a monotonous attempt at creating another sing a long anthem. Many of the tracks are set for stadiums yet that bludgeons any subtlety into the ground, leaving it a quivering mess.  The one attempt at changing the pace, the Pizzorno vocal of ’British Legion’ is such a damp squib of a ballad that it is swiftly forgotten.

Kasabian are clearly a damn good band. However the greatness that they obviously seek is still some way beyond them.