Prior to seeing this clip (in which the band explodes like ordnance at about the 3:50 mark), Glaswegian trio Frightened Rabbit was simply a new band that had made a superlative record full of heart-on-sleeve indie rock. But seeing the clip of "Square 9" from the band's first U.S. appearance in January vaulted our esteem for the act considerably and had us immediately imploring the lads to come to Boston. Ten months later, Frightened Rabbit more than made good, delivering Sunday night and into Monday morning an excessively sweaty, shattering set whose pace and energy grew and grew and grew until the band almost literally played itself right off stage. The show was the band's last in America after a five-week stint here.
Glasgow's finest unassumingly took the stage around 11:30, said some how-dos, and dug in for a remarkably intense 40 minutes, during which sweat dripped, lyrics were hollered, and drums were beaten so severely -- almost out of all proportion to the rest of the music, but somehow never overplayed -- we wouldn't have been surprised to hear them beg for mercy. The trio proffered about a dozen songs, beginning with a blistering take on the "Modern Leper" and eventually closing -- if memory serves -- with exceedingly revved-up renditions of "Square 9" and "The Greys." Upon the completion of the latter track, the lads dropped their guitars on the floor and walked off. In between there were raw and raucous renditions of much of the material from the so-nice-they-released it twice Sing The Greys record and a handful of tracks we expect will feature prominently on Frightened Rabbit's planned sophomore set.
It was not all cacophony and mayhem, as there were some quieter points. These included the goose bump-raising, a capella opening to the stellar "My Backwards Walk." Another cut not featured on Sing The Greys, "Old Old Fashioned," was also relatively subdued. We were surprised not to hear "Go Go Girls," but Frightened Rabbit has no shortage of great material. The boys are back in the UK now and will embark on some tour dates there at the end of the month. In the meantime, enjoy an MP3 of "Modern Leper" that Frightened Rabbit was giving away at its MySpace page earlier this year. It's a hot rocker, and we highly recommend buying the band's live set from SXSW to hear the version they played in Austin last spring. We'll link to the buy page for that below, too. Oh yeah, here's a link to the pictures we shot last night.
Frightened Rabbit --
[right click and save as]
[buy Sing The Greys from Newbury Comics here]
[buy Frightened Rabbit's live set from SXSW from EMusic here]
Frightened Rabbit: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr
Previous Frightened Rabbit coverage:
Greys Over America: Frightened Rabbit Prep Next U.S. Onslaught [w/ Interview]
Frightened Rabbit Releases Sing The Greys In US Oct. 2
Saturday Night's Alright For Frightened: New FR Live Set
Show Us Yours #5: Frightened Rabbit [MP3s]
Coming To Your Local Bandstand: Frightened Rabbit [MP3]
2 comments:
What, no mention of "28 Degrees Taurus" . . .
Umm, isn't your name H-Dawg from Accounts Receivable.
I wanted to mention that band and to say some nice things about The Brother Kite, but I was distracted by TV more than usual and finally just cut and run.
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