ON the night that Lady Gaga was giving the North-East a lesson in flamboyance in Newcastle, Frightened Rabbit opened their altogether more modest tour down the road in York.

I counted six lights on the stage. One of those was out.

But there’s no need to dress up the music of this Scottish outfit. It already has certain epic, stadium-filling qualities that at times sound far too big for an intimate venue like The Duchess.

Swim Until You Can’t See Land is a case in point. Their best work to date, in my view, and an indication that the band’s newly-released third studio album, The Winter Of Mixed Drinks, will give them a shot at breaking onto some bigger stages this summer.

Having said that, I keep expecting this band to “do a Snow Patrol” and belatedly break into the mainstream.

They are admittedly nervous enough playing this small stage. But that insecurity adds to their charm.

Songs like The Modern Leper and My Backwards Walk rely on the vulnerability of singer Scott Hutchison, whose voice trembles and breaks, but always remains in absolute consonance with the music.

Less is more, then.

Someone should tell Gaga.