Wintersleep
Despite a home-country crowd that seemed to be in their corner Wintersleep still had to prove themselves in the first few songs, and they proved to be up to the challenge. This quartet consists of some of the finest musicians assembled in a rock formation and so their live performance of recent songs such as In Came the Flood and Resuscitate only served to prove this fact, and in doing so win over the crowd further. There was an even newer song (Margaret?) played as well which was slightly slower and darker than the majority of their stuff but progressed nicely. Mind you there was a slight mid-set lapse, with one of the first renditions of their biggest hit Weighty Ghost that did not wow and bowl people over. However after a couple more songs in purgatory they were able to win us back over with the instrumentation and passion in their final few songs, culminating with the undeniable Oblivion. Although it was a supporting role, and songs like opener Hello Hum had to be trimmed, they still were a Canadian force and a great opener for the likes of the Scots in Frightened Rabbit.
Frightened Rabbit
There was nothing timid about these lads who came out to a rapturous response from the early sell out audience. The lead singer, Scott Hutchison, seemed at ease in his role and genuinely seemed appreciative of the love and energy pouring to the stage all night from the Easter audience all hopped up on chocolate rabbits of their own. Along with his cohorts they poured the energy back to us through the music as there was a wall of bass and guitars, with an acoustic guitar always present amongst them, and some keys and synths, plus a sixth member joined a handful of songs usually as secondary percussion like on Late March, Death March. The band had come onto my radar due to this year's release, Pedestrian Verse, and they played a number of favourite tracks from it including Oil Slick as well as what must have been older material dating back to their beginnings in 2004. Others around me ate it all up, singing along (some louder than others, many who shouldn't have been) and being delighted by the greatly entertaining band.
Partway through the set the band was excused and the lead singer played a solo acoustic number before having the electric guitarist, who at time sounded like a lap steel but wasn't, join him for the next track. During this Hutchison lost his place in the song and then stopped to have us all wave to the bunny-eared bartender who had distracted him before carrying on and having the band swarm back in to close the tune out. Speaking of closing out - the finale was Acts of Man and it is my favourite live song of the year thus far. It began even quieter than the recorded version and built up even stronger. By the time the strobe lights were pulsing so was the dynamic drumming and the guitars wailed to crescendo that saw Hutchison toss his guitar down to the stage before exiting to the sounds of reverb. Phenomenal!
Despite this climax the techs moved around the stage carefully (and slowly) setting things up for the encore which consisted of The Woodpile and Living in Colour. The very last song saw all the Wintersleep boys join them back on stage in a blissful rock'n'roll love-in.
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