Frightened Rabbit October 12, 2012 Minneapolis, MN

Amy, Lynna, Me, Nikki, Jen

I went to Minneapolis this past weekend to see Frightened Rabbit in concert. This was one of those things that I'd been looking forward to for so long that I was a little nervous it wouldn't be as good as I'd hoped.

Turns out there was no need to worry. The concert was everything I'd hoped it would be and more. They played all the songs I wanted to hear except "Keep Yourself Warm", but according to a review I read about the Chicago show the night before, Scott has a cold so he had to cut out some songs.

Modern Leper

After listening to an opening band that wasn't ... bad, per se, all their songs just sounded the same, it was finally time for Frightened Rabbit!!

Old Old Fashioned

I have their live album (songs from The Midnight Organ Fight) and I've watched videos of live performances so I knew they would give a brilliant performance. But nothing quite prepared me for actually being there: the atmosphere of the crowd; the energy of the band; hearing "Living in Colour", "Swim Until You Can't See Land", "The Loneliness and the Scream", and all the rest of the songs live; listening to Scott tell the story of how he wrote "Boxing Night" ... it was a surreal experience and one I won't forget anytime soon. 

Grant - Old Old Fashioned

There was a lot of bantering back and forth between Scott and the crowd - with a lot of people asking him to marry them. A couple of guys even asked Grant to marry them except they referred to him as "Scott's brother". Scott said something along the lines of "You should probably learn his name first."

Scott told a story about how he and his older brother used to gang up on Grant when they were younger. I wish I could remember the story because it was really funny.

Anyway, after telling us all how he used to pick on Grant, Gordon suggested that Scott might not want to turn his back on Grant. So, for The Twist, Scott turned the microphone around and faced Grant.  As Jen put it: "... he did sing a good portion of The Twist with his arse in my face. :)" Yes, that's right, we were front row, center! I don't care how much my feet hurt by the end of the night (I was wearing my "sexy" boots), it was worth it to get there an hour before the doors opened!

The Twist

If I had to pick a favorite part of the show, it would be the encore. The encore opened with Scott playing "Scottish Winds" on his acoustic guitar.  "Scottish Winds" holds a special place in my heart ever since I saw a video of him playing it acoustically. But to see and hear it live was something else. I could watch this man play the guitar for hours on end and never tire of it. He followed it with "Poke", which is an incredibly beautiful song. Jen said it perfectly:  "Best show ever. There might have been tears." 

Scottish Winds

"Good Arms vs Bad Arms" started with just Scott playing and then one by one the band members joined in. Except for Grant, who was giving Scott a hard time for his earlier story, and standing just off stage. Scott finally stopped playing and told Grant to stop fucking with him and Grant made his way on stage. Scott picked back up where he'd left off and they finished the song. Hands down my favorite version of that song I've heard yet.

All too soon the concert was over. I could have stayed and listened to them the rest of the night (though I might have taken my boots off). Scott threw his guitar pick and it landed right in front of us. I didn't see where it landed, but Lynna did and she grabbed it for me. Eeeep! So, yeah, I have Scott's guitar pick - signed, even. :)

Simon from Olympic Swimmers

We hung around for a little bit after the lights came back on. Lynna got Gordon's set list from the cute roadie, who turns out isn't really a roadie at all, but a guitarist for Olympic Swimmers (another band from Glasgow) and he also tunes guitars for Frightened Rabbit.

Gordon came out to help take down the stage, and Lynna asked him to sign her set list. I had purchased the Sing the Greys CD to complete my collection so I had him sign that. Amy got him to sign her shirt - except that the shirt was wrinkled so his signature ended up looking like "Gorky". LOL

Then Scott came out and we asked him to sign our stuff too (that's when he signed his guitar pick). We chatted with him for a little bit. He told us that they'd be back in the spring touring for their new album which comes out in February. YAY!! Somehow I ended up telling him that I'd driven from Missouri for the concert - 9 hours one way. At hearing that he held out his hand and we shook hands. We talked a little longer, and I think I told him that he should come to The Blue Note here in Columbia if they do come to Missouri next year.  There were other people waiting to get Scott's autograph and pictures though so we left. Grant had come back to help take down his drum set so we got his attention and had him sign our things as well.

Grant had hash marks on his jeans and when Amy asked him about them he said there was one for every hour they spent in a room at Customs the day before. They'd gotten held up for 5 or 6 hours coming back into the US from Toronto because they'd not declared their money correctly or some such thing. I guess US Customs seized over $20k of their money.  They were understandably pissed.

Me and Scott 

We were about to leave when I decided that I wanted my picture taken with Scott so we walked back over to him. When I asked if I could take a picture with him he said something along the lines of, "For 9 hours, of course you can have a picture".

After that it was time to leave. :( I will see them again next time they come to the States. If they make it to Missouri I'll see them here, otherwise, I'll be going back to Minneapolis! This is one show that I will not miss!


This was truly one of the best nights of my life and I'm so lucky to have shared it with Jen, Nikki, Lynna and Amy! Love you guys!

Must give a shout-out to Jeri Smith-Ready because without her this night would not have been possible. She's the reason I know Lynna, Jen, Nikki & Amy, and the reason I know who Frightened Rabbit are.

Set List:
Modern Leper
Old Old Fashioned
The Twist
State Hospital
Fast Blood
Music Now
Head Rolls Off
Swim Until You Can't See Land
Boxing Night
Backwards Walk
Square Nine

Encore:
Scottish Winds (solo acoustic)
Poke (solo acoustic)
Good Arms vs Bad Arms (acoustic, w/ band joining in one by one as they came back on stage)
Living in Colour
The Loneliness and the Scream

Teaser Tuesdays: Darkness Unbound

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Kissing another Aedh is like flirting with the sun.  There isn't another sensation quite like it."


~ p. 108 Darkness Unbound by Keri Arthur

Thoughts on My Soul to Save

Finished my re-read of My Soul to Save a few days ago.  I didn't have as much trouble keeping out of my head the knowledge of what happens in future books as I did with the first one.  While re-reading My Soul to Take I kept thinking about how much Nash changed (and not for the better) in the later books and that kind of took away some of my ability to enjoy it.  Not so with this one.  Some random thoughts I had while reading:

• Tod has a much bigger role, which I liked. Because one can never have too much Tod! :)
• I'd forgotten that Tod could be ... for lack of a better word, dangerous and vengeful.  I mean, he took that Dekker guy and just handed him over to Avari and didn't regret it.
• I'd forgotten the scene where Nash had his first taste of Demon's Breath.  
• I like how Kaylee and her dad are still figuring out their relationship.  It's written so realistically.  
• It made me laugh when Tod interrupted Nash and Kaylee. I hadn't remembered him doing that quite so early in their relationship.
• I finished reading and wanted to dive into the next book right away. 
• Rachel Vincent does a fantastic job of really sucking you into the characters - their lives, their feelings - so that you feel like you're there with them when they're trying to make their decisions.  You can feel their internal struggles.  

All in all I'm enjoying my re-read of this series.  I'm discovering new things that I missed the first time around, falling in love with the characters all over again (yes, even Nash and yes, even knowing what he does to Kaylee), and falling in love again with the world that Ms. Vincent has created.

My thoughts on Undone Deeds

I finished the latest Connor Grey novel Undone Deeds by Mark del Franco tonight.  And I loved it though I'm still trying to come to terms with the ending.  So many questions were answered and there was a definite feeling of finality to Connor's story.

And that's the part that I'm having trouble with.  I love Connor and I love his world.  And I'm not ready to be done with him or it.  According to what Mark posted on his blog, there could be more books set in the Convergent World, but if there is, will those books be more of Connor's story or be told from the point of view of someone else?

There is already another series set in the same world, but starring a different set of characters.  I've read the two books in that series and while the stories are good and the characters are interesting, I prefer Connor and his story and characters.

So I'm left with a feeling of satisfaction overall, but it's tempered by the knowledge that this might be the last Connor Grey book.  I really hope it's not.

5 of 5 stars ... even if this isn't a proper review.

Thoughts about "My Soul to Take"

Instead of writing an actual review (because I basically suck at them) I decided to go with just putting down some thoughts I had while re-reading My Soul to Take.

• It was very interesting to go back and see Kaylee and Nash's story from the very beginning knowing what I know about how their relationship changes over the course of the books.  I found myself questioning everything Nash did or said, trying to find hidden meaning or some indication of his addictive nature.  
• I'd forgotten just how snarky Tod is in this book.  I remember thinking he was a cool minor character during my first read, but I was definitely all about Nash then.  
• Knowing what I now know about Nash and Tod and their relationships with Kaylee, colored how I looked at each of them.  This is not a bad thing, but I almost wish that I'd re-read My Soul to Take before Nash got addicted to frost and before the events that happened in If I Die. Because I will never again be able to read about Kaylee and Nash's relationship with the innocence of that first read.  
• I remember how much I loved Nash and how he was the only person who was truthful with Kaylee.  And how much he loved her and would have done anything for her.  It almost killed me to remember how horrible he was to her when he was addicted to frost.  
• I've re-read book series before (too many to count) and I don't remember the consequences of each character's decisions in later books in the series having such a profound effect on how I felt when re-reading the first book.
• Even knowing what what happens in later books affecting how I saw the characters didn't make me love this book any less the second time around.

And ... that's all I can think of right now.  (Note to self: write this post sooner than three weeks after finishing the book!)

Change of plans

Yeah, so, as it turns out, I suck at writing reviews.  I've tried.  I really have.  But every review I've tried to write comes out sounding ... well, less than stellar.  Even the ones where I absolutely, positively loved the book *THIS* much (pretend I'm holding my arms out as far as they can go here).  I don't know why this is.  I can be articulate when I want to be.  So why not when I want to tell people how awesome (or not awesome) a book is?  I dunno.  It's one of life's mysteries.  And I'm done beating myself up about it.  After all, there are a TON of book blogs out there so I'm just going to stick with what I do best:  random musings.

Yep, I've decided to just start writing down my thoughts on books.  Which is kind of like a review, but much more informal.  Should be easier, right?  Right.  And if my random musings happen to be incoherent, well, that's the beauty of randomness.  It doesn't have to make sense.  (Just go with me here, k?)

Since I'm participating in the Soul Screamers Reading Challenge, I thought that I'd tackle My Soul to Take for my first attempt at a random musing.  Hopefully I'll be able to get something written up this weekend.  Why not now, you ask?  Well, because it's late and I need my beauty rest, that's why.  And I need time to get my thoughts in order.  Er, I mean, time to think about what I want to randomly muse about.

Teaser Tuesdays: Enclave

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Unlike the others, this place had an air of majesty, even in its disrepair.  I could tell great things had happened here."


p. 185
Enclave, Ann Aguirre


I chose these two sentences because of what they're describing: a library.  Isn't that a great way to describe a library?  Yeah, I thought so too!