Australian
audiences could be forgiven for feeling jaded. It comes off like an
actor reciting lines when the touring act tells us how much they love
Australia, how lucky they feel to be here, blah blah and repeat. When
Frightened Rabbit tell you they’re thrilled to be in the country,
though, you have to believe them. Not only because they’ve built a
reputation for bare-chested honesty that would make Conor Oberst blush,
but singer Scott Hutchinson was simply too tired and too stunned to
lie.

Having
sweated through their clothes before opener The Modern Leper
was halfway done, at least half the band looked ready for a good lie
down. Who could blame them? On their first tour to include Australia,
packed to the gills with national Laneway Festival dates and a support
slot for Echo & the Bunnymen the night before, a little sluggishness
is to be expected.

In
spite of his heavy-lidded eyes and my-kingdom-for-a-chair posture, nothing
could disguise Scott Hutchinson’s sincere joy at the fan response
to Frightened Rabbit. Through the night, he confirmed his words over
and over, looking over the densely packed crowd with awestruck eyes.

Ripping
through a set dominated by tracks from their 2008 album Midnight
Organ Fight, the crowd responded with gusto, often drowning out
Scott’s vocals as they sang along. The only person in the room more
forceful than the audience was Grant Hutchinson, who juggled frenetic
drumming and backing vocals with grinning aplomb.

Mixing
some new material into the set, it was encouraging to see that unfamiliar
songs like Swim Until You Can’t See Land stood up alongside
the better-known material, boding well for the forthcoming album
The Winter of Mixed Drinks.

The
energy was clearly a little short, as confirmed by the lack of an encore,
but Frightened Rabbit were still an impressive bunch. Their next tour,
whenever that might be, will see them play bigger venues, to bigger
crowds.