The Fray Dodge Theatre 07.16.2007 Review II
July 17, 2007 by FromTheCrowd
Filed under Concert Reviews
From the Crowd will have two staff reviews of this show. One, from a long time Fray concert follower and another from someone who saw The Fray for the first time with last nights show. If you’d like to contribute a fan review of the show, please visit our contribute page.
By K. Mac, FromTheCrowd.com Contributor
The lights go out and the crowd starts making noise in anticipation of the headlining act. A green line jets across the stage’s digital backdrop. One by one, the silhouettes of the band members can be seen walking onto the stage. The traveling green line transforms into a heart monitor, showing a pulse right at center stage and the crowd erupts. The Fray begin to play their set with the only the lighting from the digital screen illuminating their silhouettes. As they continue to play “She Is”, the stage begins to be lit.
After their stellar entrance, their light show proved to be a slightly overwhelming. The strobe lights being used were a bit blinding and the fan on my left, Carrie, commented that, “You almost needed sunglasses just to watch.” The early light show was a little excessive, and took attention away from the true talent of the band. However, the colors on the digital backdrop did work very well as the show progressed. The production utilized colors that created excitement, such as red, yellow, a barcode pattern that moved horizontally compressing and decompressing in such a fashion that it was interesting to glance at but did not steal notice away from the performers.
The light show did become softer for the gentler songs. Lanterns lowered from the ceiling and hung at various levels, the white lights inside blinking intermittently. The lightshow switched to the cooler colors of purple and blue, fitting of the sound being generated on the stage. With the song, “Vienna” the lanterns turned into 3-D screens, and reverted back to the red and yellow color scheme with a varying pattern this time.
The Fray introduced one of their new songs, called “Dixie” with a light-hearted warning that it was “country.” Not being a fan of country music, I was apprehensive. However, “Dixie” is just The Fray with a bit of a country influence. As the song played, a semi-blurred view of blue skies, puffy white clouds and greenery displayed on the digital backdrop, emulating a car as it travels down the highway, adding to the charm of this track and getting smiles out of the audience.
Isaac Slade, the lead singer, then treated the crowd to an anecdote of his childhood, and then threw a bunch of Polaroid pictures into the pit, accidentally hitting a girl in the face with one of the pictures. Apologizing, he dedicated the next song to her and the band began playing the mega hit, “How to Save a Life.” Old family videos played on the digital backdrop once again adding to the performance as the lanterns were lowered adding even more ambiance to the performance.
On a side note, I’ve always been saddened by the way; the drummer of band is tucked away, hard to see behind the percussion instruments of his choice. It was a treat when Fray drummer Ben Wysocki came to the front of the stage with conga drums. Isaac rallied all of the audience members to their feet, stating he had to introduce a special guest to the crowd. He then announced that Ben was going to treat them with some vocals. The crowd applauded and the band began to play a cover song, as they traditionally do in concert, however, rather than the typical Beetle song; it was Shakira “Hips Don’t Lie”. The crowd ate up the spoofed cover, singing, smiling and laughing hysterically.
Having never seen The Fray in concert before today, I cannot say how it compares to the other shows they have put on here in the Valley. However, I can say that these guys know how to perform and please a crowd. As was heard backstage, they have “flawlessly balanced sound.” They have stage presence and charisma. These four guys put on a show that should not be missed for anything
