25 August 2009

''Fuck Off Bono''


the picture was half inched from here

The Rabbit’s ‘homecoming’ presented me with a slight dilemma, to say the least. On one hand, there was the opportunity to see two cracking support bands in the shape of The Moth & The Mirror and Meursault. On the other hand, Celtic were playing Arsenal in the most important tie of the new season so far. What was it to be?

On first tonight The Moth & The Mirror. Celtic actually passed the ball around quite nicely at times in the first half I’d say, although never really looking to be too much of a threat to the Arsenal goal. N’Guemo in particular played well, as did Aiden McGeady, a persistent nuisance to Arsenal down the right wing. We were unfortunate to lose the first goal in the lead up to half-time due to an ugly deflection and caused the heads to go down a little.

And now Meursault. Celtic seemed to lose a little of the optimism they had held throughout the first half. Passes were off the mark, first touches were shite, second touches were tackles and confidence was low. In fact, the only danger to the Arsenal goal was Gallas’ sliding clearance from Fortuné’s threatening low cross. A similar low cross at the other end was turned into Artur Boruc’s goal by The Heid himself, who’s had an horrendous three weeks. Finishes 0-2 and it’s time to head to The Queen’s Hall. Feel kinda bad that I missed both support bands but I’m definitely going to see them both in the near future.

For a slightly different experience, my date for the evening (the lovely Peenko himself, although I hope he doesn’t tell his wife about this…) and myself head for the seats upstairs rather than the sweaty crush in front of the stage. Frightened Rabbit kick off with The Modern Leper which is pretty good. One slight downside however, and this continues throughout the set, is the sound. The PA is obviously not designed to fill a hall of this size, and the speakers (similar to these) are hung facing down onto the crowd below with no care taken to make sure people above would be able to hear properly. This results in the band sounded a wee bit dead and far away, and it’s easy for conversation to take place at normal volume.

To be honest, I wasn’t too impressed by the new songs Steve and Living In Colour, though I rarely am impressed upon hearing something for the first time so there’s absolutely no doubt that they will grow on me. The other newbie, Swim (Until You Can’t See Land) was excellent however. The best song of the night is Backwards Walk which provokes at least a minute of applause at the end. Other highlights are Poke and Keep Yourself Warm which both provoke the usual Frightened Rabbit mass sing-along, with Scott barely having to sing a word of the former.

It’s a good gig although not my favourite by this band. People were raving about it afterwards though, saying that it’s the best gig they’ve ever been to etc but I just didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as others did. The sound definitely put a wee bit of a dampener on it for me, as did the lacklustre performance of Square 9. It’s my favourite Rabbit song but is ruined by the fact that Scott doesn’t appear to sing it any more and simply moans and wails it. This is so much so that you can’t make out individual lyrics and you can’t sing along with him. Sad times. Maybe a wee break from playing it will do the song the world of good, refreshing and rejuvenating it, as Scott sounds sort of bored whilst singing it.

It’s a good night out though, and a very energetic performance by the band. It’s just disappointing that the PA wasn’t up to the job. Not their best either, but maybe I just wasn't in the mood.


Set List
1. Modern Leper
2. Fast Blood 3. Old Old Fashioned 4. Good Arms vs Bad Arms
5. New Song (Steve)
6. Twist 7. Backwards Walk 8. Swim (until you can't see land)
9. Heads Roll Off
10. Square 9
Encore #1
11. poke 12. New song (Living in Colour)
Encore #2
13. I Feel Better 14. Keep Yourself Warm

Scott Hutchison plays a solo gig at the Electric Circus in Edinburgh
on Saturday the 5th of September.
Tickets


10 comments:

  1. Two encores? Did they do that just to piss you off? :)

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  2. lol, I said the exact same thing when they did it. I guess that shows they don't come on here, I put that down to fear

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  3. From where I was on the barrier (which I got by a miracle, you guys missed the free for all Queens Hall created by merging two queues and then having everyone wait in the bar area prior to opening the hall) it was a heck of a performance. It was 19th time I've seen them and in my mind their best. Their live show has improved a lot. They sound different, more polished now than they did a year ago. I still couldn't believe how many people were in the hall. It blew my mind really seeing as back in May last year I'd seen them with 20 people in Dundee.

    As for the new material, I loved the full band version of Swim and I think Living in Colour has single written all over it, which would explain why it's coming out as one in the near future (hopefully still November). Steve didn't really impress me but I'm willing to believe it'll be a grower.

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  4. I didn't actually miss the free for all at the start, only decided to see the game once I was actually in Queens Hall. it was mental. we were only about 15/20 people from the front of the queue in the bar then they started another queue at the other side of the door meaning I had no chance of getting to th front. not that it mattered once I left.

    As for the gig, I really believe it could have been great for me had the sound been a bit better. It sounded like a mushy dirge at times. I think my fave rabbit gig was the lofi christmas party though. Thoroughly drunken scott was mental.

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  5. I shamed myself a lot that night

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  6. I'm glad I stayed sober to watch you and wullie's antics that night. can you remember any of it?

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  7. I remember kissing everyone, and getting Scott to wear a santa hat. The rest is a blur,not sure if I want to be reminded (do I?)

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  8. Nah, I think thats enough.

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  9. I was gutted I missed that gig. My hours worked out so it was possible to have made it but it would have involved trains + accomodation and I had no money to speak of. I had also seen the boys in Edinburgh (that was the gig they pulled out Snake and It's Christmas for us) and Dundee the week before so it wasn't too bad. haha.

    There were still loads of U2 posters around Glasgow on Saturday every time I saw one I thought of Scott from QH and just laughed to myself. Oh and Glasvegas supported U2 so that just makes it even worse. Ewww.

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  10. Cool! you got rocked! you did a great performance.

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