Concert Review: Frightened Rabbit Is Fearless At MHOW
I begin my review with a slight story. Before I went to see Frightened Rabbit at Music Hall of Williamsburg, my friend had, literally and randomly, told me that my spirit animal was a rabbit. On my way to the show, I kept on thinking of the Donnie Darko rabbit, and wondering what a choice it is to make this jumpy, anxious creature your symbol. Yet, leave it to music to redefine and heighten what you deem as less.
The magic of a Frightened Rabbit concert can be divided between two, interlocking factors: the first being their melodized anxieties. As I said with Phoebe Bridgers, I truly feel Millennial music speaks to this generation’s “quarter life” crisis. By age 25, we are asking the same questions as a 50 year old like, “Did I make the best choices?” Yet, Frightened Rabbit sing to the never-ending nature of choice. Tracks like “Living In Colour”, “Keep Yourself Warm”, and “I Wish I Was Sober” embrace that life is a constant choice, of which your emotional highs and lows are really about accepting that you have an option. It may not seem like a “hard acceptance”, but it is both empowering and terrifying to realize that, no matter what adversity, you still control your choice for joy.
Frightened Rabbit – No Real Life [Official Audio]
Scott Hutchinson’s rustic voice paints through Frightened Rabbit’s melodies like a man determined to build a home but struggling to enjoy his house. From “Swim Until You Can See Land” to “Who’d Kill You Now”, Hutchinson constructs his vocals to frame how hard we try to invest in our lives without feeling like it is a failed investment. The seriousness of that thought is veiled through melodies that hop and skip like a sonic rabbit; somehow, always bouncing forward even through lyrics singing about being stuck. It seemed symbolic to humanity’s rabbit-like capacity to keep going, and resulted in the second factor/ reason their concert is so magical: the crowd.
Frightened Rabbit – I Wish I Was Sober [Official Video]
I have never been to a concert where everyone cheered before every song like they were on a rollercoaster about to drop. Literally, every track garnered a “YES!” and a full on chorus sing-along. The happiness was contagious, and deserves because Frightened Rabbit know how to create a climatic hook. Their songs fill your heart as if life was a stereotypical, “romcom” where you decided you loved the “girl” or “guy”, and were going to blissfully stop their flight away and fearlessly declare your love in public. Songs such as “Good Arms Vs Bad Arms” and “Floating On Forth” exhilarated in arrangements, and ignited within the audience a revelry in the capacity to choose for your life rather than the usual mourning we have over our choices. For More Information On Frightened Rabbit Click Here.
Frightened Rabbit – Get Out [Official Video]
