Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Frightened Rabbit, Takka Takka, Oxford Collapse

I've been pretty bad lately with the whole post-show discussion thing. I post a few photos, promise to discuss the show the next day, and then completely forget about it (or actually just choose not to do it).

Well, I wanted to be sure to say a few words about last nights Frightened Rabbit, Takka Takka and Oxford Collapse show so that no one gets the wrong idea about my comments about the size of the crowd and the Frightened Rabbit/Grey's Anatomy connection. (I actually had a hard time writing "Grey's Anatomy" - I've spent the last few years referring to it as Gray's Papaya.)

Just to be clear - Frightened Rabbit were fantastic. Who knew that a band with three Fender Telecasters and no bass could rock so much? (To be fair, they did pull out the bass for a couple of songs.) A lot of it had to do with their drummer, Grant Hutchison, who hits his cymbals about as hard as anyone I've ever seen. A lot also had to do with the quality of the music, and, as I've pointed out, their album, The Midnight Organ Fight, is among my favorite releases of 2008 so far. If you have a chance to see them, you absolutely must do so.

Similarly excellent were Takka Takka. They really seem to be getting comfortable with playing their new stuff live, and they're taking some of the songs in different yet interesting directions than they do on the album. I've made this comparison before, but I really do see these guys as following the mold of The National. I wouldn't quite put them on that level yet, but if they continue to progress as they have in the course of two albums, I think they have a lot of exciting things in store for us down the road.

As for Oxford Collapse, well, they had a crap-load of energy. I honestly wasn't a huge fan of their songs themselves, but maybe that's because I'm just not that familiar with their music. I'll be keeping an eye out for their new album, Bits, which comes out on Sub Pop in August, and maybe they can convince me yet.

Edited to add: SPIN really enjoyed the show too.

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