After months of using friends in New York to get my Frightened Rabbit fix, they finally made it out to L.A. and opened for Pinback last night. Coming off of a hangover from a Halloween rager we threw the night before, I was excited to see them, but was only running at 70% or so.
The crowd was good for L.A. and surprisingly well informed about F.R. It was a huge venue for them, but up front it felt fine, although it has to be somewhat daunting for an opener when the crowd is near silent between songs. I sensed it was out of respect. A good deal of the crowd was awfully young, which is fine, except that I was a little uncomfortable about the company I was keeping when I overheard the 15-year old in front of me question whether it was English or Scottish that was spoken in Scotland. Seriously? That’s in the running for the dumbest thing I’ve heard all year.
Besides my favorite non-album track, “Modern Leper,” they played a couple new songs: a new one that I’d never heard (”Old Old Fashioned”), as well as “Fast Blood,” that I heard off of the eMusic recorded show from SxSW. And for the record, Grant on the drums is an absolute monster. No Halloween costume required. Hint to Tucson: tomorrow night at Solar Culture. Austin: November 1st at Emo’s Jr. New York: Pianos November 9th.
Here’s another new one that I originally posted for the mix back in June that I couldn’t seem to get them to play last night:
: Frightened Rabbit – Head Rolls Off :
