French For Rabbits – The Tuning Fork November 20, 2015

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FF6Better known overseas than in their native New Zealand, Wellington’s French For Rabbits kicked off their NZ tour with a small, but perfectly-formed set of dream-pop gems at Auckland’s Tuning Fork.

French For Rabbits is the vehicle for singer/songwriter Brooke Singer, who has just returned from a solo tour of Europe and is back with her bandmates for a 4-date jaunt through New Zealand, beginning in Auckland.

Joining the band is Grayson Gilmour, who opened the evening with his own collection of dreamy pop songs. Armed with an electric guitar and a battery of electronic effects and loops, Grayson’s songs seemed to drift off the stage. Occasionally the technology threatened to get in the way, as it sometimes has a tendency to do with these one-man bands, but Grayson managed to stay connected to his songs, even as he stepped on pedals and flipped switches to create his atmospheric soundscapes.

French For Rabbits wasted little time in following Grayson, with just a 10 – 15 minute wait between them. As Brooke revealed on stage, this is the first time the band has played together in a while, and for this tour they are comprised of guitarist John Fitzgerald, drummer Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa and bassist Fraser Ross. Singer was handling keyboard duties and occasionally played acoustic guitar…which is how the show began, when they opened with Goat, a tune from the 2014 album, Spirits.

“I won’t be the first to say I’m sorry, even if it’s my fault”, sang the petite Brooke, in a voice that, for me, brings to mind Joni Mitchell and Hollie Fullbrook of Tiny Ruins.

The band fell in delicately behind Singer as the song revealed itself to the audience and when it finished you could feel the reluctance of the crowd to applaud, no wishing to break the spell the band created on stage.

Singer then put her guitar aside and addressed her keyboard, which, initially, didn’t want to cooperate causing a false start for the song, Spirits. But that was the extent of any technical difficulties and the band sailed through their 11-song set in just under an hour.

Along with tunes from their album and 2012 EP, Claimed By The Sea, Singer introduced a number of new songs destined for a new album to be recorded in the new year. A highlight of those songs was one called The Weight Of Melted Snow, which perfectly captured the essence of the band with its poetic lyricism and fragile melody.

They wrapped up their set with The Other Side, then left the stage, but were quickly called back for an encore. It was just John and Brooke who returned to perform what Singer described as “our saddest song”, Day Shift.

Hopefully these four dates will raise the band’s profile here in their own country…they deserve much more recognition than they’re getting right now.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Ivan Karczewski:

French For Rabbits set list:

  1. Goat
  2. Spirits
  3. The Weight Of Melted Snow
  4. Woke Up To A Storm
  5. Cold
  6. When The Lights Go Out
  7. Claimed By The Sea
  8. A Ghost’s Broken Heart
  9. Deadwood Don’t You Hold Me Back
  10. The Other Side
  11. Day Shift
Marty Duda
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