Frightened Rabbit at Coney Island

Frightened Rabbit, an indie rock/indie folk band, played at the Siren Festival in Coney Island on Saturday, July 18, 2009. The band consists of Scott Hutchison, Grant Hutchison, Billy Kennedy and Andy Monaghan. Frightened Rabbit started underground but worked their way up.

On the song “Modern Leper,” the acoustic guitarist first played simple strokes along the guitar strings at a fast speed, which sounded like three piano keys being pressed at once. The vocalist Scott Hutchinson started with a slow pace as he sang “A cripple walks amongst you” with his hoarse, somewhat accented voice. Then the drums came in, sounding as if thunder was hitting. The bass joined in with quick light strokes, speeding up the song’s pace.

”Old Old Fashion” started off with an acoustic guitar that sounded like a stuttering person. The bass soon came in afterward, with a roaring sound. This song was played with more of an indie folk style, while the others in the set sounded more like indie rock. The lyrics referenced technology: “I’ll turn off the T.V, it’s killing us, we never speak, there’s a radio in the corner, it’s dying to make a scene.” Let’s forget today’s technology, the band seemed to say, and go to old-fashioned technology because that’s when voices told the story.

”The Twist” didn’t really have an enthusiastic feeling to it when it started. The lyrics at first also did not sound right as vocalist Scott Hutchison sang “Do the twist in the twisting outfit, the loose tie with loose limp wrists.” Later on he sang, “You twist and whisper the wrong name I don’t care nor do my ears Twist yourself around me I need company I need human heat.” It seems in the lyrics the twist is a dance, and by doing it with the girl in the song he has company. The beat was good, as it began quickly with fast guitar strokes. The song flow got better when the chorus came in around mid song. The song could have been better like Poke and Floating in the Forth from the album The midnight Organ Fight.