If one thing was predictable about reformed Merseyside group The Zutons’ gig in Dunfermline last night, it was the response to what’s undoubtedly now their biggest song.
Originally a hit for the band in 2006, Valerie reached modern classic level the following year, when Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse covered it in jazz-club style.
But PJ Molloys’ packed audience clearly haven’t forgotten the bluesier, bittersweet original, as phone cameras came out and voices were raised to loudly sing along.
The band could have been dining out for years on the popularity of just this one song, but instead they quietly split after three albums in 2009.
A low-key live return happened in 2019, but – following the pandemic and a spell in rehab for singer Dave McCabe – the full reunion is go next month, with the fourth album The Big Decider and a tour of large stages.
This tour of small venues, then (which also calls at Dundee’s Fat Sam’s), is a chance for the band to get up to speed and for audiences to remind themselves they have more than one song.
Six-piece can ‘make a lot of noise’
What many might have forgotten, though, is just how exciting a live band The Zutons were, writing fiercely memorable indie-pop songs with a raw, rock ‘n’ roll edge.
A live six-piece, they make a lot of noise, with the rest of the group often harmonising behind McCabe’s already-powerful vocal to send it through the roof.
The set was bookended with two performances of the irresistible Zuton Fever, with Abi Chan’s (nee Harding) blazing, ever-present saxophone lines towering over the guitars.
Their wealth of good songs from back in the day includes the raw-chorused ballad Confusion, the infectious singalong riff of Don’t Ever Think (Too Much), and the barroom rockers Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love? and You Will You Won’t.
Crucially, however, the new music – as produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers and the Lightning Seeds’ Ian Broudie – also fit perfectly, with the airy, pastoral ballad Best of Me, The Big Decider’s country funk and rocker Creeping On The Dancefloor all standing out.
The energy from the band and in the room was enormous, as though everyone is keen to make up for lost time.
The Zutons play Fat Sam’s Dundee on March 7. Tickets on sale via Live Nation.
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