Frightened Rabbit & Airship @ Birmingham Academy 2, 12th March 2010
The fact that Frightened Rabbit are an indie band from Scotland instantly means they have a lot to live up to. The country that gave the world deep fried mars bars and bagpipes has made up for this tenfold by producing some of the most important indie bands of all time. From the 80’s to the present day through The Jesus & Mary Chain, Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub, Idlewild to name just a few, it’s a rich musical history that the five piece from Selkirk have to follow. Maybe it’s unfair on the band to instantly make these comparisons but I guess it comes with the territory. Even if it’s just the music press drawing all the comparisons, the Scottish link will no doubt be made.
Onto the gig. The support came from Manchester band, Airship, a four piece who are apparently still unsigned. I found this quite surprising as they played their set which was overall pretty good, lots of energy to their performance. A couple of tunes reminded me of Snow Patrol and some of the guitar parts of the Britpop era but not completely in a negative way. They’re obviously just starting out and by the looks of their tour schedule aren’t doing things by halves. After supporting Frightened Rabbit they’re off round the country again with fellow indie rockers, The Joy Formidable, and even head back to this very venue on 20th March. The band’s first single, Algebra, is out soon so it will be interesting to see what comes of this after theses support slots. They certainly come at the indie genre via a more rock route and this was something that shone through in their set. The audience seemed fairly impressed with Airship and likewise the band thanked the audience for their support.
After a fairly quick change around (incidentally, tonight’s gig had a 9:45pm curfew) the headliners, Frightened Rabbit took to the stage to a big welcome form the Birmingham crowd. The band has just released their third album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, so are touring the UK to tie in with this before heading off to Europe then the US. From doing a little research on the band it seems they already have a good reputation from touring and favourable reviews from previous American tours. Front man, Scott Hutchison, took pleasure in announcing that their new album was currently number five in the indie charts but also his shock in Simply Red being at the top spot. I know it’s pretty shocking, isn’t it?
There’s a maturity to Frightened Rabbit’s songs which, to me, stands out from so many other current indie bands. Scott Hutchison’s voice is powerful and it certainly came across to me that he’s the leader of the band, dictating the pace and tempo of the performance. I did think halfway through the set that he was almost like band leader or conductor. I would guess that the audience was made up of a mixture of old fans from their first two albums along with new recruits and people such as myself who came to see what the fuss was about. A lot of the audience knew the words to songs such as ‘Old Old Fashioned’ and ‘The Modern Leaper’ but even the newer ones such as ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ had people singing along. The Academy 2 is a decent size venue for a band like Frightened Rabbit and I would say it was two thirds full which was positive.
My only real criticism of the show was there wasn’t a great deal of variety in the songs and most seemed to follow a certain structure of starting slow and gradually growing into something more epic. It’s a harsh criticism on my part to be fair though because what was possibly lacking in variety was made up for in passionate lyrics, a soulful, engaging voice and just seeing a band who are themselves and not trying to jump onto any type of band wagon. I’d only heard a couple of their songs prior to the gig and nothing had really stood out but after seeing them live I will be definitely seeking out their records and giving them a go. Many of the current crop of indie bands will come and go but I can definitely see Frightened Rabbit having a longer, more respectable career.
Review — Chris Thompson
Photos — Katja Ogrin