Seattle Subsonic

I Was Promised We Were Promised Jet Packs

September 18th, 2009

Dissuaded from arriving earlier by my ticket, which had a 9:30PM start time, we missed the entire We Were Promised Jetpacks set that wrapped at 9:40PM. That’s some crap.
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Twilight Sad was already playing a somber rock set. The band was fairly motionless, even while playing some heavier sounds, and I tired of the lead singer’s melodramatic rom-antics fairly quickly. Dressed in a Kurt Cobain-esque striped sweater, the singer weeped into his hands and dropped to the floor way too many times. It’s not my thing; but they had the workings of decent band if the singer were to just rock out. I place them somewhere between Cut Off Your Hands and Dredg; bands who’s over-dramatic lead singers were less than tolerable to watch and all of which preceded amazingly upbeat headliners (planned contrast I suppose).
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Frightened Rabbit was brilliant. I had found their CDs a bit mellow, but the live performance was stellar. The passionate Scottish accent dominated Scott Hutchison’s vocals. The lyrics were not discernible as on the recordings; but like the Cave Singers, that may not always be bad thing. Maybe I’m naive and misinterpreting a foreign accent, but there seemed to be a true earnestness to Scott Hutchison, in his singing and banter with the audience, that made me think he would be easy to know. He seemed appreciative to be on stage, which I rarely sense from artist’s anymore. It felt like the whole sold out show was listening to him from a small bar in Scotland full of friends. That was a strange and comforting feeling.
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Scott fiercely played the guitar like a fire house he didn’t have control off; guitar pointing towards the ceiling as he spun around the stage. The drummer tore away with long drumsticks and the rest of the band carried the same enthusiasm. The encore was a given and Scott returned by himself, guitar still around his neck, and crooned out a stirring acoustic version of “Poke”. Then band returned for one last song, “Keep Yourself Warm”. I was sold.