Monday 8th March 2010 @ Thekla, Bristol

A handful of songs into Frightened Rabbit’s sold out gig at the Thekla and their ever-engaging chief songwriter, Scott Hutchinson, reminds the crowd of the last time the band played in the city; namely supporting US indie legends Death Cab For Cutie at Colston Hall back in the Autumn of 2008. Though tonight’s surroundings may be slightly less grand than that, no-one could deny that the band’s journey since then has been anything other than a successful one. Constant touring led to word-of-mouth praise and sent Frightened Rabbit to the top of many end-of-year lists, both on these shores and in the US.

Tonight’s gig in support of their newly released and much-anticipated third album, The Winter Of Mixed Drinks, finds the band on fine form; moving and thrilling the crowd in equal measure. New songs such as Skip The Youth, Nothing Like You and Foot Shooter, the latter surely being one of the bands finest songs to-date, are greeted as rapturously as any of the favourites from 2008’s breakthrough album, The Midnight Organ Fight. Despite the dark subject matter (…Organ Fight was famously written in response to the break-up of Scott’s relationship), songs such as The Modern Leper, Old Old Fashioned and The Twist are always more uplifting than depressing.

A solo-acoustic version of Poke to start the encore, performed from the front of the stage both unplugged and microphone-free, is a genuinely moving moment even with the crowd singing along to every word. The rest of the band then re-join Scott for a rousing version of Living In Colour before the crowd departs with the epic crescendo of closing track, Keep Yourself Warm, still ringing firmly in their ears. On tonight’s showing, it’s surely only a matter of time before Frightened Rabbit are back in the Colston Hall - this time as the headline act.

www.frightenedrabbit.com

Tom Johnson