Live Review: Frightened Rabbit

There’s nothing like the anticipation of singing along to some of your favourite songs and a stupidly warm autumn evening to get the drinks flowing. 

As such, The Triffid’s beer garden is the place we make a beeline to 20 minutes before Scottish melancholic-rock royalty Frightened Rabbit, or ‘Frabbit’, are due to take the stage. As we gulp down some quick beers it's hard not to hear a surprising number of non-Aussie accents, and it soon becomes clear that seemingly every Scot in Brisbane is in the Newstead venue.

When the quintet finally walk on stage, there's a surprisingly short rapturous applause. The crowd’s failure to scream their heads off with excitement — compared with other crowds — turns out to be because everyone seems to be here for the music rather than being atop shoulders to snap the best ‘grammable video. 

The set's opener, Get Out (off 2016 album Painting Of A Panic Attack), receives an almost-whispered sing-along, allowing the weathered timbre of Scott Hutchinson to soar through the ex-airplane hangar. While Hutchinson entrances the Thursday-night revellers, his brother Grant is already going hard with his dramatic and animated drumming style, while lead guitarist Andy Monaghan attacks his tremolo arm for most of the song.

After an atmospheric outro, Hutchinson decides to address the fact that Frabbit hasn't played Down Under since Laneway 2014. "I believe it’s been too fucking long, thanks for not forgetting about Frabbit!" he says in a lilting Scottish accent. From the audience’s reaction, it seems he’s been immediately forgiven.

A chugging guitar riff and crashing drums signal the beginning of this reviewer’s favourite Frabbit tune, Holy. Apart from being an absolute bangin’ tune with some blistering overdriven tones from Monaghan, the song showcases the band’s occasional three-part harmonies, which are roughly sung back by the adoring crowd. 

A slight stumble between songs brings out some comedy from Hutchinson: "I’m feeling a wee bit tired, it’s a… long journey to get to here,” he sighs. However, fan favourite This Modern Leper seems to inject plenty of life into his crippled body and heart. Hundreds of voices support Scott’s ode-to-a-masochist and we all shake some tail feathers along with the song’s infectious folk beat. 

Delving back into Painting Of A Panic Attack, only the true Scots in the crowd happily dance along to the gloomy alt-rock soundscape of Woke Up Hurting. The Aussies, seemingly listening to the lyrics and wanting to give Hutchinson an empathetic hug, shuffle from side to side like awkward teenagers at a high school dance.

At the last ring of the synth notes, a heckler (presumably wanting something a little lighter in content) screams for a certain song. Hutchinson replies cheekily with, “You just can’t chuck that kind of song in now, you’ve got to consider the pace of a rock show!” before launching into I Wish I Was Sober. Dubbed “like, the saddest song ever” by a nearby audience member, the tune does help pick up the room’s vibe thanks to some glorious pulsating bass-synth parts and Grant’s signature animated facial expressions.

Introduced as a song "about fucking", Hutchinson delivers one of his most passionate vocal performances in Fast Blood, while the atmospheric ballad Blood Under The Bridge conjures up some god-awful attempts at Scottish accents by some nearby Aussies as they sing along. 

Possibly the only song in the set that isn’t self-defeating, the upbeat indie-rock tune Nothing Like You, heralds an explosion of guitar from Monaghan’s amp and dancing from the The Triffid crowd. Hutchinson’s shirt steadily becomes transparent with sweat as he struggles in the chorus to be heard over the adoring crowd. The dancing continues with the accidentally romantic folk tune Old Old Fashioned. No one seems to be able to escape the folky hoedown’s infectious rhythms, and the oh-whoa-oh-whoas screamed in the bridge are surely heard across Fortitude Valley.

Kicking off the encore, Hutchinson walks on stage with an acoustic guitar but without his bandmates. A deafening applause and a "Thank ye' so fucking much!" seemed to drastically de-tune his guitar, which he hilariously swears at. The solo rendition of My Backwards Walk sounded both triumphant but weighed down by signature lamenting lyricism, but the truly amazing line, “You’re the shit and I’m knee-deep in it,” has plastered a smile to everyone’s face.

Painting Of A Panic Attack opener Death Dream continues Hutchinson’s love affair with punishing lyricism, but the shouted chorus canon creates strong ebb and flow throughout the atmospheric track. As if they sense that the song has had a lullaby effect, Frabbit jump into Woodpile. Once again, hundreds support Hutchinson’s voice, and the glorious alt-rock wall of sound drives many (this reviewer included) to jump around like slightly drunken maniacs. 

While we all sensed that this was coming, a sombre feeling washes over the crowd as Frabbit finish their set on The Loneliness. While the waves of overdriven guitars and euphoric singing and clapping along is a glorious way to end the set, many are clearly craving more.

While many bands formed in the early 2000s are still releasing new music, none can claim they’re still as brutally honest at assessing their own life experiences, and passionate about their music, as Frightened Rabbit. They may be five albums deep, but Frabbit still know how to yank at all your heartstrings and still make you want to dance.