IN THE CITY // Frightened Rabbit

Last Wednesday , Glasgow natives, Frightened Rabbit graced the stage of the Empire and put on a solid show. Belfast being the last show on their UK tour, they said other than home, Belfast was one of their favorite places to play. They opened for Death Cab for Cutie almost 3 years ago, in St George's Market, and received a warm welcome, which apparently keeps them coming back.

They opened with Skip the Youth, a bold move as it is not one of the singles released from their new album The Winter of Mixed Drinks // released back in March //  The song’s intro last almost 2 minutes giving plenty of time for the crowd to engage and get pumped. Swiftly and smartly they transitioned into Modern Leper / classic / , which provoked the crowd into a sing along! I’ll say this now, most of the show was indeed that, a sing along. Including audience participation where we all hummed or oooh’d the horn bits from the album recording.

Old Old Fashioned, which they couldn’t not play, is probably everyone’s favorite song. It’s about getting back to just simple things. We allow so much to come between us in our fast-paced, technological world, we sometimes forget how to really communicate with each other /even though we have so many ways of communicating….go figure/ or really enjoy each others company as maybe our society once did.

The frontman Scott Hutchinson, writes some of my favorite lyrics. The words to Twist, which they performed and everyone actually did the twist to, are quite clever. It paints a lonely picture of strangers dancing, they don’t know each other, she even calls him by the wrong name, but he comes to the conclusion at the end of the last verse that strangers though they be, they have something in common - they both just need some human contact. I think we can all relate to that.

The rest of the band left the stage as Scott traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic and heartachingly strummed out Good Arms vs Bad Arms. It was beautiful. The audience sang out the melody / which on the album is played on a slide guitar?/ along with him. It was magical. Probably my most treasured moment of the whole evening….but frontman whipping off his guitar, kicking over the mic stand, then stumbling to find the mic cos he had a verse and a chorus to finish was a close second.

They played the perfect mix of their new album. second album and only one song from their first album which according to them no one really listens to. He did regale the tale of how the song Snake came to be. Airport security, wooing some girl with a stuffed snake from Ikea….it didn’t work. If you didn’t make it to this show you missed out on quality music, genuine emotion, a few antics, and an old fashioned good time.

IN THE CITY is a weekly article written by
Leah Gallant that looks at city life, culture,
music and events in Belfast.

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—-loved the article—great Leah!

By Karen Gallant. Posted on Wednesday 15th Dec 2010 at 12:00

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