Not really. But on Saturday night, there was a lot going on in Asbury Park. I chose to make a stop over at The Wonder Bar for Jeff Raspe's celebration of 25 years on Jersey Shore radio. That meant that I had to miss the Frightened Rabbit / Augustines show over at The Stone Pony. The costs of being a one-man operation.
Family friend, young Frightened Rabbit fan, and person to whom I've entrusted the care of the cooldaughters on multiple occasions, Sarah Hough, bailed me out, though. She attended the show as well as the pre-show meet and greet and was kind enough to submit a recap. Molly Fichter attended with Sarah and provided some photos.
Here's Ms. Hough's take on the evening.
Frightened Rabbit / Augustines at The Stone Pony
by Sarah Hough, photos by Molly Fichter
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Frightened Rabbit / Augustines show at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. I was also lucky enough to go to the meet and greet with Frightened Rabbit beforehand. I was pleased to find that every member of the band was polite, charming, and welcoming. The meet and greet itself was well organized and never felt over calculated.
Augustines (formerly We Are Augustines) put on such a good show to open the evening that it could have been a concert within itself. From the first song, they had their audience totally involved. Lead singer / guitarist Billy McCarthy had everyone laughing with his stories of a previous show at the Stone Pony and acted like a total rock star on stage, running up to the drummer to play a riff and standing at the very edge of the stage in an attempt to get the audience even more involved. One thing that really struck me about Augustines was the fact that each of their songs sounded different. Sure, each song sounded like theirs, but I never got bored. This was probably due, in part, to the seemingly thousands of instruments Eric Sanderson was playing.
At eleven o’clock, Frightened Rabbit took the stage with “Holy.” A crowd that already seemed past the point of getting any more excited did just that. The band played songs off of all of their albums, and Scott Hutchison was as charming as always. He repeatedly spoke about how glad he was that the venue was a fairly small room, and soon enough, the crowd was grateful for that as well. What was already an intimate show became even more personal when Scott Hutchison switched over to an acoustic guitar and stepped away from his microphone to play “Poke.” Hutchison’s voice, just audible over the quiet hum of the crowd, set a mood like no other show I’ve ever attended.
Couldn't agree more with the review. It was a great show. I was there primarily to see Augustines, who I saw open for Gaslight Anthem when they were called Pela several years ago. It was funny that Billy McCarthy kept referencing that show as the night Gaslight kicked their a$$. He was fantastic and they put on an incredible show. I look forward to future shows with them headlining.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I was only a little familiar with Frightened Rabbit and was totally blown away by their show. They sounded great and the lead singer was very charismatic. His solo acoustic was something to be seen and his interplay with the crowd (including playing some intro riffs to 90's alt classics like "alive") kept the mood light. The crowd was great and was obviously very supportive of the band. The final encore with the crowd chanting the melody to "the loneliness & the scream" was amazing. I'm happy to report that I'm now a FR fan and am actively exploring their back catalog.
Between you and Sarah it sounds like it was a fantastic night. I'll keep an eye out for the next time either of these bands are nearby.
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