Great Scots!: Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad live review
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Frightened Rabbit setlist
The Twilight Sad setlist
03/26 Cincinnati, OH Bogarts
03/27 Louisville, KY Headliners Music Hall
Frightened Rabbit came on stage at ten. I get the impression that they’ve been touring a while with the same roadie, because on cue, he came on stage to add or subtract things
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Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN- March 21, 2013
The very warm (when will they get ceiling fans to circulate the air?), sold-out Varsity Theater in Minneapolis played host to a powerful Scottish double bill of Frightened Rabbit, touring in support of their new release, Pedestrian Verse, and The Twilight Sad, who recently released an album of remixes from their last album, No One Can Ever Know.
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TWILIGHT SAD
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Instead of bringing their known ‘wall of sound’, The Twilight Sad was stripped down for this tour, into a more personal threesome of vocalist James Graham, guitarist Andy MacFarlane, and drummer Mark Devine. This formation of the band really brought the lyrics and essence of each song into the forefront, demanding the audience’s attention to the band bathed in minimal light.
Beginning with ‘That Summer At Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy’, the band made its way through 8 songs in a solid and well-received 40 min. opening set. ‘Sick’ and their finale ‘Cold Days From the Birdhouse’ were standouts, with Graham declaring he’d join the crowd in drinking, to watch the Frightened Rabbit set, to great applause.
Frightened Rabbit, a Scottish six piece named for singer Scott Hutchinson’s chronic shyness as a child, had no such fears and hit the ground running, with ‘Holy’, from their newest release, a song that perfectly builds momentum and is an ideal opener. From there, into ‘The Modern Leper’, that started the crowd’s chorus singing for the evening.
This was followed by a rousing ‘Old Old Fashioned’, which proved their mark in helping define the current Anthem Folk movement, so prevalent on current radio airwaves. Much like Led Zeppelin, The Who, and The Rolling Stones did in the 60’s by taking American blues, re-inventing it and giving it back to us with amps turned up, the current crop of UK artists including Frightened Rabbit and Mumford and Sons, have taken Americana folk and roots, amplified and anthem-ized it, and again have the Brits ‘beating us at our own game’.
Vocalist Scott Hutchinson waxed poetic about his previous trips to Minneapolis between songs- getting stranded in town in snowstorms, drinking across the street at the college bar, and in general how well the Upper Midwest audiences have embraced the band from the very beginning; this proven by the Varsity show being the first sellout of the current tour.
A feverish ‘Oil Slick’ was followed by a passionate ‘My Backwards Walk’ and the slow building ‘State Hospital’ before the band left the stage, leaving only Hutchinson and his guitar for a heart bleeding ‘Poke’ and ‘Good Arms vs. Bad Arms’, holding the crowd in rapt attention to every lyric sung.
With the full band back on stage, the big sound returned, closing with a literally blinding ‘Acts of Man’ which ended with a raging avalanche of riffs and flashing strobe lights, winking across the elaborate logo set pieces and backdrop. The three song encore of ‘The Woodpile’, ‘Living in Colour’ and ‘The Loneliness and The Scream’ got the party started up all over again, ending the evening on an emotional high note and an exclamation point as to why Anthem Folk is as popular as it is, particularly when done right by these spirited Scots.
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Frightened Rabbit at the Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (03/21/13) |