Frightened Rabbit Play Special Stripped-Down Set in San Francisco

On Tuesday night, Frightened Rabbit opened up the first of a two-night, crosstown stand in San Francisco with a different kind of show -- the band unplugged for an acoustic storyteller set at the intimate Rickshaw Stop. On Wednesday, the band will plug back in to headline the famed Fillmore.

"The plan is to just enjoy playing the songs in a different context," frontman Scott Hutchison told Spinner before the Rickshaw show. "It's just a chance to be a bit more intimate and feel less pressure to get things 'just so.' I like them to be a somewhat ragged affair."

And while the show itself didn't feel ragged per se, it certainly felt informal. Running through catalog highlights such as 'The Twist,' 'Nothing Like You' and 'Fast Blood,' Frightened Rabbit kept things loose, not only bantering but fully engaging the crowd throughout the set. Obviously comfortable with a microphone, Hutchison used the space between songs to speculate about whimsical things such as the nature of beer and, at one point, even told the audience to help themselves to donuts that he claimed were in a bucket on the tour bus. "We're nothing if not generous," he joked.

As planned, the setlist was generally par for the chorus but Frightened Rabbit did dust off some old gems -- including 'Be Less Rude,' a song they haven't performed live in three years -- as if to offer the audience audio donuts. The gesture was not only due to the generosity, but also because cameras were rolling; the show was filmed for future use.

"It's nice to take the songs back to their bare bones," Hutchison told Spinner, "almost like stripping them back to how they sounded when they were written or demoed." And indeed, the stripped-down show did seem to offer insight into Frightened Rabbit's songwriting sensibilities -- and now they're back to the full-on electric rock show we've come to expect from these Scots.