Frightened Rabbit & We Were Promised Jetpacks, London Scala

Nearly a year on from the release of the slow-burning success that is ‘Midnight Organ Fight’, Frightened Rabbit interrupt their ‘Quietly Now’ tour to return to the capital for a celebratory full show. Aided and abetted by FatCat labelmates We Were Promised Jetpacks and supported by the most congratulatory sell-out crowd you are likely to find, it is obvious from the get go that all the ingredients for a huge sweaty sing-a-long are mixing quite nicely.

With so many fans having learnt every word for the headliners WWPJ had a tough task stealing any of their limelight, but, for a very short while, they managed to do just that. The blazing glory of upcoming single ‘Quiet Little Voices’ shows the band at their awesome best, but rather than being a one-off becomes just another string in their already quite impressive bow. Their post-punk flits between the delicate and the incredibly loud with frontman Adam Thompson often stepping back from the mic and entertaining the crowd with his lung capacity a la a raucous Scottish Mariah Carey with a taste for fine ales and quirky lyrics. They use the fiercest of melodies without ever over complicating things and you can’t help but feel drawn in by lyrical charm, yet by the time they leave the stage we’re exhausted. This foursome conjure up memories of early Futureheads, if slightly less angular, and are more than ready for a headline tour of their own.

The evening’s main attraction kick off with their most recent single ‘I Feel Better’ and even then belt through favourites like ‘The Modern Leper’ and ‘The Twist’, every song given a full overhaul. It’s like listening to ‘MOF’ on shuffle as they find only ten minutes for a ‘Sings the Greys’ medley, which they undersell by introducing as an ‘excerpt from our crap first album’. It seems like there will be no let up until mid encore Scott Hutchison steps out into the crowd and treats them to an unplugged version of ‘Poke’. Brother Grant is soon back to bash the skins with all his might as the last remaining tracks from ‘MOF’ are belted out. It is always refreshing to see a band that play it better live and Frightened Rabbit do just that.