One of the most smartly matched double bills to be dreamed up this
year came to The Fillmore Detroit this past Sunday night with Fitz and the
Tantrums and Capital Cities co-headlining along with openers, Beat Club. Fitz
and the Tantrums and Capital Cities are both known for their feel-good retro
pop music and both brought their high energy showmanship to the Fillmore stage.
Los Angeles-based outfit, Fitz and the Tantrums, are having a huge
year with the single “Out Of My League” hitting number one on multiple radio charts and their sophomore album More Than Just
a Dream poised to have long legs at radio. They kicked off the year with a
show at Saint Andrews Hall and an opening slot on Bruno Mars’ The Moonshine Jungle Tour.
Their Sunday
night set brought the frantic energy and soulful delivery that Fitz and The Tantrums
fans have become accustomed to. Fitz, aka Michael Fitzpatrick, and Noelle
Scaggs share back and forth male-female vocal duties for most Fitz and the
Tantrums songs which gives the band a dynamic way to deliver stand out hooks and melodies. They kicked off their Detroit show with the pink heart found on their album cover illuminated on stage and the words "more than just a dream" repeating as they took the stage and launched into the song "Get Away." Their live set contained songs from their both of their studio albums,
including the popular tracks “Don’t Gotta Work It Out”, “Breaking the Chains Of Love” and
their smash-in-the-making “The Walker.” Fitz also included a cover of The Eurythmics
1983 single “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These)”, encouraging the audience to
partake in repeatedly singing the “keep your head up, moving on” line. More Than Just A Dream tracks “Break The Walls” and “6 AM” also made it into the electrifying Fillmore set. Fitz encored with their first single “MoneyGrabber”, during which pink and white confetti was explosively launched on to the thrilled concert goers.
Capital Cities are one of the music industry’s biggest
success stories of 2013. Their debut set, “In a Title Wave of Mystery” was
finally released in June of this year after the lengthy release of “Kangaroo
Court” and the inescapable “Safe and Sound.” Their album features 1980’s influenced pop
hooks with high energy dance beats. The Fillmore stop was their third time in
Detroit in 2013 following a stop at The Shelter in May and Sterling Height's Mo Pop Festival
in August. Their recognition and stage size may have
expanded, but their stage show still seems as intimate as it did at The
Shelter.
The Los Angeles based group consists of former jingle writers, Ryan Merchant and Sebu Simonian, who incidentally met on Craigslist. Capital Cities performed the majority of the tracks on their debut album including the anthemic "Patience Gets Us Nowhere Fast", the jingle-esque "Love Away" and the Andre 3000 assisted "Farrah Fawcett Hair." The Capital Cities stage show involves a lot of dancing, instructing the crowd in line-dancing to the The Capital Cities Shuffle during "Center Stage" and the band pantomiming during the funked out "Chartreuse."
Capital Cities also threw in a cover of "Stayin' Alive" by The Bee Gee's, this time curiously mashed up with Weezer's "Come Undone (The Sweater Song)."When performing live, they add three additional stage musicians including charismatic trumpeter, Spencer Ludwig. Capital Cities finished their set with their smash hit "Safe and Sound" complete with the added high energy EDM remix by Cash Cash tacked on to the end.
Beat Club, another Los Angeles-based band, kicked off the night with a genre defying eclectic set of synth-pop, punk, and rock music.