Owl John, Bottom Lounge, Chicago, Illinois

Owl John is the assumed moniker of Scott Hutchison, founding member, lead singer, and primary songwriter of the Scottish indie rock band Frightened Rabbit. While Hutchison is the only official member of Owl John, his debut eponymous album under that name includes full instrumentation with participation of several session musicians. So just like with Damien Rice, I didn’t know quite who to expect would be on stage. As with Damien Rice, it was just Hutchison on stage with a guitar. His Chicago show was only one of three shows he would be doing in the US as Owl John while on his way from a European tour to Los Angeles, a city he hates but now calls home after falling for a girl and following her there.

The Bottom Lounge is quite small with standing room for probably only a couple hundred people. A single open space makes every spot in the room a good one. The show, advertised as starting at 8pm, didn’t actually start till 9pm, which was a bit annoying. That meant that after the opening act, Hutchison didn’t take the stage until 10pm. Fortunately, the bar outside the stage provided a large, nice area to kill time.

Upon taking the stage with his guitar, Hutchison quickly proved himself to be a superb entertainer. He was absolutely hilarious with a smartass quip or funny story about everything. Sometimes it was tales of home or touring that he no doubt told a thousand times. Other times, he would just riff on things that audience members yelled out.  In all seriousness, the level of laughter from the audience would be appropriate for a comedy club, not the indie folk set of an artist often known for writing depressing lyrics. Of course, everything was at least 50% funnier and more charming because of his Scottish brogue. Also, I at first forgot that his name was Scott. So when recounting stories in which people were speaking to him, I thought he was implying that they were referring to him by his nationality, as if someone would say to me, “Hey American.” After the concert, Lindsey and I tried to remember as many of his stories and as much of his banter as we could, as follows:

• Can we get the reverb turned up?...I sound like God up here.” [It was then turned up way too high for his next song, but then dialed back a bit]
• “I once played a show with my fly down. Luckily some folks in the front slipped me a note. Now, mind you, it was a note like concrete poetry. They took what should have been one line and turned it into a poem. So they slip this paper on the stage and I'm like, ‘O, a number, that never happens.’ Or if it does, it's 'Scot, call me – Dave' and I'm like ‘Thanks, Dave, but I'll only be calling if I need some plumbing work done.’ So I start reading this note. The first line is just 'Scot' and I'm like, ‘well, that's me, okay, keep reading.’ 'Your fly,' and then I'm like, ‘well, thanks! no one's ever said that to me before.’ But then I notice there's no apostrophe, so I keep reading ‘... is down.’ Well, fuck. So now before the show, I was just in the toilet and before I came out, I double, triple checked everything... [someone yelled, ‘Prove it’]…‘Prove it?! How am I supposed to do that?’… [more inappropriate yelling]…‘People, it’s a Wednesday.’”
• "Yeah, a lot of my songs are depressing. My fans probably worry I’m a complete mess all the time. This one time, we were about to start making a record, and I had just been through a break up. Someone told the manager at the label we were with, and he was so excited, all: ‘Yes, the record is going to be fantastic.’ It was, but we ended up leaving that label, so it didn't work out for him.”“So I moved to LA because I fell in love… [Everyone in audience exclaims ‘awww.’]… Don't worry, I'm still in love. That's all great, but LA is shit. You live there for three days and hate yourself. You all are very lucky you live here. Chicago’s a great city…[Girl in the audience yells out, ‘there are red light cameras here too’]….You have what? Oh, you mean they snap you when you run the lights? Well, is that really so terrible? Is it really infringing on your rights? You can't just hop in your car and run red lights for fun....That lady's never coming to another Frightened Rabbit show.
• “[Mentions something about guys who wear backwards hats] I was playing this one show in Montreal and there were these two guys with backwards hats in the front row screaming the whole show for ‘The Twist.’ I mean, they were going crazy for it. Quite honestly, it was a pleasure to not play it for them. A few of my friends that were in the audience that night and standing by these guys told me after the show that they overheard the guys in backwards hats saying they love the song so much because it was what they were listening to when they crashed their boat. Crashed their boat? Really? Anyone else here crash their boat to a Frightened Rabbit song?
• [Someone shouts after hearing the first chord of a song, recognizing it was the start of a song they wanted to hear] “Oh, is that what you wanted to hear? One chord? A nice F/G? Because I can just do that for the next hour. F/G, F/G... You know when I was a kid, maybe five years old, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. I picked Eric Clapton. You know his Unplugged show, at the start of every song there's this big applause…every song. And I thought 'man, wouldn't that be great? That's what I want.' Now it happens for me and I realize that it’s really fuckin annoying.”

While the stories and banter made the evening particularly memorable, I loved the music as well. He played only a three Owl John songs, opting for a setlist heavy on Frightened Rabbit including a song from Sing the Greys (2007), six from The Midnight Organ Fight (2008), a pair from The Winter of Mixed Drinks (2010), and four from Pedestrian Verse (2013). After playing “The Modern Leper,” his first Frightened Rabbit song of the evening, he explained “Ah, you didn’t think I was going to play all new stuff. You think I’m fuckin stupid?” He also claimed, “So I don’t have a setlist, I play whatever you yell out basically. However, after lots of yelling for songs, he admitted, “Ok, one of you yelled the one I wanted to play; the whole thing is kind of a fallacy.” However, not every request was accepted. When someone yelled out “Freebird!,” he quipped, “Did that really just happen?” Someone else responded, "We were all thinking it. “He replied “No, we all were not. I believe you are alone in that, and after this, will be alone for a very long time.” Someone else kept yelling out for the song, “'Keep Yourself Warm.” He explained, “No, I'm not going to play that song now. I play that song and everyone leaves to go cut their wrists. I know you're not all familiar with putting together a setlist, but it's all about pace.” “Keep Yourself Warm” didn’t make it into the setlist that evening. Perhaps his single best comment of the night was when he asked, “How about a request from the people over there who won’t shut the fuck up? Maybe if I play the one song you really want to hear, you'll shut up and then leave and go to some douche bar.”

I had always casually enjoyed Frightened Rabbit, but had listened to them more in depth in anticipation of the show. Hearing it live, even striped down versions, made me appreciate it even more. It also made me want to see a full Frightened Rabbit show immediately. When I got home, I even turned on some more of their music, which is very uncharacteristic of me.

Setlist:

Hate Music

The Modern Leper [Frightened Rabbit song]

State Hospital [Frightened Rabbit song]

Los Angeles, Be Kind

The Oil Slick [Frightened Rabbit song]

Backyard Skulls [Frightened Rabbit song]

The Woodpile [Frightened Rabbit song]

Nothing Like You [Frightened Rabbit song]

Red Hand

Old Old Fashioned [Frightened Rabbit song]

My Backwards Walk [Frightened Rabbit song]

Square 9 [Frightened Rabbit song]

The Twist [Frightened Rabbit song]

The Loneliness and the Scream [Frightened Rabbit song]

Encore:

Floating in the Froth [Frightened Rabbit song]

Poke [Frightened Rabbit song]