Frightened Rabbit was not afraid to bring heady tunes to Seattle’s hipsters

May 16, 2010, at Neumo’s

By Jonathan Shipley
Published: May 18th, 2010 | 10:00pm

If there was ever a band or an album that helped a person through hard times, it would have to be Frightened Rabbit and their smash hit The Midnight Organ Fight (Fat Cat). Listening to lead singer Scott Hutchison’s melancholic, though ironically hopeful, songs somehow makes it seem all okay. The same could be said of the Scottish band’s set at Neumo’s where they played to a hopeful and delighted crowd with a raucous jubilee of tunes—some off their Midnight album, and some from their wise-cracking new album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks.

The sold-out, all-ages show was packed with bearded men sporting shaved heads and short-sleeve-wearing women with colored bob haircuts who started cheering for the band as they walked on stage and quickly tuned their instruments before a boom of red lights and hot sounds. Hutchison, in his blue button-down shirt and white Converse sneakers, bobbed about like he was in the midst of a seizure and wailed his poetic lyrics into the mic. His bandmates, Grant Hutchison (thrashing on the drums with maniac gusto), Billy Kennedy, Andy Monaghan, and Gordon Skene (interchangeable on guitars, keyboards, and backing vocals) followed Scott’s lead, playing solidly and hard with a no-nonsense, workman’s ethic. “Modern Leper” brought cheers from the crowd. “Old Old Fashioned” had heads bobbing, legs shaking, and the crowd warmly (too warm in Neumo’s small space) singing along.

“Thanks,” was as much as Hutchison would say between songs before busting out into the next. Relentless they were, with sweat dripping off their mopped heads, guitar picks in an assembly line from worn-out use, and half-empty water bottles from numerous and quick guzzles. Mixing new song “The Wrestle” (“Bare those teeth to me / Please my eater / You can sit only / Naked with fear”) with older favorite “The Twist” (“Twist yourself around me / I need company / I need human heat”),the company of listeners twisted, hopped up and down, shimmied, and shook as the music pulsed through the room while Huchison’s eyes were closed as he sang—in near ecstasy or near exhaustion.

With an encore of three songs, including Hutchison offering a solo acoustic of “Poke,” the crowd clapped for more and so they gave the crowd what they had been so hopeful for—the forlorn’s anthem, “Keep Yourself Warm.” The whole room seemed to chant along as the drums boomed, the guitars and keyboards had gone full tilt, and the lyrics were sung so shatteringly truthful.

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Frightened Rabbit official site

Frigthened Rabbit MySpace page

Fat Cat Records