Frightened Rabbit haven’t made it anywhere near as big as Kings of Leon, asserts lead singer Scott Hutchison during the mid-way point of the band’s frenzied, beer-soaked set at The Academy. But they’ve been around for a lot longer.
A quick Google search of their history might put that into question, and the singer – who isn’t a known giver of fucks about other bands’ popularity – makes his claim with wry humour. But in the back of your head you do wonder how an outfit this good, with such a huge and varied back catalogue, aren’t selling out the 3Arena yet in the same way that their Tennessee counterparts are.
It’s all the better for the dedicated Frightened Rabbit fans amongst us who rub shoulders congenially to watch the Scottish band kick off their two week Irish tour. Up-and-coming Dublin singer Eve Belle serves a light aperitif of earnest love/break-up songs, as well as a thoughtful cover of Dire Straits’ ‘Romeo and Juliet’, before the main act takes centre stage.
By this time, a chorus of the band’s most rousing song, ‘The Loneliness’, has filled the room, led by a group of Scottish lads who prove the point that the lead singer jokes about early on – whether he’s in Australia or Ireland, people from home follow him wherever he goes like parasites.
Kicking off with the synthy, keyboard-led ‘Get Out’, the first single from the Frightened Rabbit’s newest album Painting of a Panic Attack, the lads make it patently clear that the set will be a mix of old and new.
Two songs later, the established classic that is ‘The Modern Leper’ floods the room and we’re dancing and singing our hearts out. With each song that Frightened Rabbit belt out, the crowd seem determined to show that they know it, that they can sing it of by heart. The humility on Scott’s face is plain to see as he looks out at the hundreds of people singing the lyrics that he wrote.
The comprehensive set sees new songs ‘Wish I was Sober’ bleed in with ‘Old Old Fashioned’ and ‘Head Rolls Off’. At one point, the crowd is asked to hold up their phones and record the performance of ‘Woke Up Hurting’ so that, to quote Mr. Hutchison, “some marketing cunt” can film it for a music video.
An encore brings the slow, lyrically dark ‘Death Dream’ to the fore, followed by Pedestrian Verses’ ‘The Woodpile’. But the song we’ve waiting for – ‘The Loneliness’ –acts as the finale and is belted out so ferociously that everything seems to pale in comparison. The crowd chant the song back at the band with such passion that the sing-along continues long after they’ve said their goodbyes to us. Still thirsty for more and with no hope of being moved, the band decides that it’d only be wise to do a second encore. ‘Keep Yourself Warm’, with its plainspoken lyrics (“It takes more than fucking someone you don’t know to keep warm”) serves as both a fitting close the affair and a warning to any overly-zealous Frightened Rabbiteers looking to have a one-night stand...
A stirring performance from one of the most consistently brilliant bands out there.