Frightened Rabbit // Norwich Arts Centre - 14.03.10
Airship
Some of you may remember Airship from when they supported The Twilight Sad back at the end of October last year, and some of you may remember the review of that gig at the end of which I wrote that I hoped they would have developed their sound a bit more if I had the chance to see them again. Well, I think that they have a little, but unfortunately not in the way I would’ve hoped, and instead of those positive elements coming through (those bits of Mew-esque sounds), they’re now sounding a bit closer to Starsailor which can never be a good thing. I still think, however, that they’re capable of better things and have my fingers crossed that they can pull themselves up out of this strange early 2000s sound that they’ve slipped further into.
Frightened Rabbit
I’ve never seen Frightened Rabbit live before and was particularly interested to see what they would do with some of the older songs which, on record, are much more stripped down and bare than their most recent release, ‘The Winter of Mixed Drinks’. And I was not disappointed as they sounded fantastic and the audience was suitably responsive. I spotted a number of people mouthing along to some of the older songs, but evidently there’s been a quick uptake on the new album because, particularly on ‘Swim until you can’t see land’, the audience were joining in with the newer material too.
The sound this evening was clear as a bell and you could hear all of Scott Hutchison’s vocals, his Scottish accent coming through and somehow adding weight to the lyrics. And his banter is great too; this is clearly a band who enjoy playing to a crowd and like to engage with them on a level that you don’t normally see. This isn’t a band trying to distance themselves or remain aloof, they’re evidently proud of their music and want you to know it. And rightly so.
The encore, too, was something a bit special, with Hutchison eschewing any kind of amplification and standing right at the front of the stage to sing with just an acoustic guitar, before being rejoined by the rest of the band at the end of that number to finish off the evening in style.
The Arts Centre was pretty full that night, so hopefully the majority of you reading this will have got to witness this fantastic band in action, but if you didn’t, keep your eyes and ears open and make sure that you don’t the next time they’re in town.
BBV
