Frightened Rabbit Silences the Crowd in Chicago

Posted on May 9th 2010 11:00AM by Garin Pirnia

It didn't happen until nearly the end of their 75-minute set Saturday night at Metro in Chicago, but Scottish group Frightened Rabbit managed to hush their sold-out crowd into silence.

For most of the evening, the band performed fairly upbeat and feel-good songs from 2008's breakthrough record 'The Midnight Organ Fight' and their latest, 'The Winter of Mixed Drinks.' But the acoustically-driven 'Poke' shifted the tone. For the first song of the encore, lead singer Scott Hutchison returned to the stage alone with his guitar and stood before the audience playing the emotionally charged ballad. At the very end he slowed the song down to a whisper. The audience caught onto the quiet moment and "sshhed" the chatterers to the point where there wasn't a sound in the house except for Hutchison's lovely "oohs." As soon as the song ended, the crowd burst into cheers.

Opener 'Skip the Youth' roared through the venue with crashing drums, thrashing guitars and Hutchison's thick Scottish vocals. All of the songs bubbled with ardent emotion, especially the fast-paced 'The Modern Leper' and 'Backwards Walk,' when Hutchison closed his eyes and sang. Hutchison interacted with the crowd making sure they shouted out the "old" in the toe-tapping 'Old Old Fashioned' and clapped their hands to the jubilant 'The Loneliness and the Scream.' Showing their adulation, some fans formed a small pocket in the crowd and jumped up and down during the vibrant 'Living in Colour.'

"This song is about meeting a shark in the middle of the ocean," Hutchison said, prefacing 'Mixed Drinks' song 'The Wrestle.' Afterward, he seemed overwhelmed when he stated, "This is still kinda big for us," referring to the fact that last time they played Chicago, it was in a much cozier venue. 'Keep Yourself Warm' rounded out the evening with a bit of wisdom: 'It takes more than f---ing someone you don't know to keep warm,' and with chilly temps outside, Frightened Rabbit offered a better alternative.

Frightened Rabbit on AOL Music