Last night, the final day of April, I trekked over to The Hi Fi to catch one of my new favourite bands Frightened Rabbit.
I have listened to their album a couple of times, though not enough to know lyrics to sing along to – but enough to know that I was listening to Frightened Rabbit!
When they came on stage, the place absolutely erupted – the venue was packed of either honest-to-god fans from Day 1 or the kids who fell in love with the Frabbit at Groovin’ The Moo last weekend.
I’m not really one to dance along to things at gigs, I like to stand and listen (I’m also very conscious of being in people’s way) but from the minute they started playing – They opened the show with ‘Holy’ - I was moving – and not just the generic newcomer nod of the head or tap of the foot, I was bouncing around like I was across the road at the Flume concert.
Now – while we’re on that note - The boys from Frabbit had a funny little banter about rocking up to the venue and seeing the Flume Fans lined up outside the Hordern and thinking “Our demographic is rather different in Australia to anywhere else” the audience joined in with the playful banter on the obvious sightings of underage girls in nothing but a pair of denim underwear and tops that are meant to be worn UNDERNEATH their clothes.
My absolute favourite song of the night (apart from The Woodpile – my now-favourite song) ‘Late March, Death March’ would have to have been the stand out performance of the evening for me. Especially as he opened the song with an anecdote about his preschool aged niece telling her teacher that her all-time favourite song was ‘Late March, Death March’ – instead of the obvious Old McDonald Had a Farm – brilliant.
Another banger song of the night would have to have been ‘Oil Slick’ that roller coaster riff would have to be one of the coolest I’ve heard in a very, very long time.
About mid-way through the set, Scott stayed onstage alone to play a little solo version of ‘Poke’ which was an absolutely beautiful performance filled with lost-love nostalgia and followed up by ‘Good Arms, Bad Arms’ where the band slowly rejoined him on-stage – and I mean, who doesn’t love that guitar opening with the pedal? It sounds like Dory speaking Whale – in the most beautiful and best possible way.
They wrapped up the “show” with ‘Acts of Man’ and soon returned to the stage for the encore wrapping the show up with my now absolute FAVOURITE song ‘The Woodpile’ (From latest album Pedestrian Verse), ‘Living In Colour’ and ‘The Loneliness and the Scream’ from their 2010 album The Winter of Mixed Drinks.
This show was one of the best I’ve been to in quite a while (let’s also just say that the recent shows I have been to includes Paramore, KISS & Motley Crue and I’m heading to TOOL on the weekend..)
I give the show 5 Frabbits out of 5!
Getting home was a different story though – between the hundreds of millions (ok, it was probably more like 5,000) tweeny things pouring out of the Hordern Pavilion after Flume… contending the carpark was awful – Turns out it’s still cool to sit in your car and continuously toot your horn at nothing… But hey – not even that could have dampened my spirits on the night!
Words & Pic by Amy C
