Often live shows are more than a gig, almost a family gathering, and the Frightened Rabbit diaspora came together in Glasgow, both on and off stage, for what was a special and emotional night.
Darren Wasteland opened the night with some experimental rock featuring pan pipes that left the audience bemused. Moving onwards, his set bounced between rock rap verses in a vein similar to Jamie T and purposefully grating noise rock that challenged the crowd, although there was a definite pocket of superfans in there.
Next up Haiver came to the stage – fronted by former Frightened Rabbit bassist Billy Kennedy, and usually “loud and shit,” pronounced Billy in typically self-deprecating form. Having realised “I shouldn’t swear, there’s lots of family and kids here” he doesn’t even last to the end of the sentence before “fuck it” is declared.
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Starting with ‘Give’, they swiftly moved on to the ‘cover’ of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘Roadless’. Haiver isn’t an attempt to put the legacy of Frightened Rabbit in the past but to celebrate that legacy in a new form. It’s a short set of hauntingly beautiful songs intertwined with anecdotes of the past.
Next up the headlines arrived, as a “Stripped Back” Twilight Sad featuring just James Graham and Andy MacFarlane wasted no time by getting straight into ‘Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave’ and then ‘That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy’. While a lot of people were excited about the prospect of a stripped-down tour – it sold out immediately – it is hard to imagine everyone was prepared for it to be such a befitting occasion. St Lukes is a beautiful venue with the band in front of the large organ pipes, the crowd as well as the lineup filled with friends and family, and James’ voice carried flawlessly through the room.
When the crowd clapped to James announcing new songs, “Wait until you have heard it” is the reply; thankfully the crowd just clapped even more when ‘Designed To Lose’ and ‘Chest Wound To The Chest’ are finished. Similarly to Haiver the set was intertwined with reminiscing about the old days with dedications to Billy Kennedy. This wasn’t just a band with a support act but a group of people with a shared story.
“Sometimes you lose yourself and these gigs are helping us find ourselves more,” explained James nearing the end of their set. It was an earnest, sincere statement to end one of the most intimate and heartfelt shows that most people will be lucky enough to be a part of.
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- The Twilight Sad / Haiver / Darren Wasteland - 16 December 2024