Snow Patrol Dodge Theater 07.18.207

By Steve Shugg, FromTheCrowd.com Contributor

Snow Patrol are one of those bands where you’re not sure how their live performance is going to be, because most of their singles are a little slower, and not the most upbeat. However once Snow Patrol took stage, all doubts and uncertainties were gone.

Opening up with some of their most popular songs, like ‘Chocolate’ and “Hands Open’, they proved that they are not just a ‘singles’ band. Their stage presence and lighting spectacular made this show one of those that you walk out of simply feeling better about yourself. Even after lead singer Gary made his quip about the Phoenix heat, which seems like a must do for all acts coming through the valley, he was still able to combine his quirky remarks with raw musical talent; a skill that seems to be overlooked in a lot of shows these days. He even took the time to interact with the audience in between most of their songs; even when a fan threw a “Sheriff Gary” badge on stage.

It was also a treat for fans to learn what most of the songs were about, and the inspirations behind them; sort of a mix between “Behind the Music” and “Storytellers”. As far as front men go, he is definitely the right man for the band. Snow Patrol are definitely one of those bands whose live performance and studio albums match so well, that you can’t help but think that they are pulling a Milli Vanilli. However all one has to do is listen and experience all they have to offer to understand that this band is definitely going to be around for a while.

Hot Hot Heat Dodge Theatre 07.18.2007

By Carl Stephens, FromTheCrowd.com Contributor

I should have known what I was in for upon reading the name of their band, but I am not one to judge someone on name alone, so I sat down cold beer in hand to listen to Hot Hot Heat.  This was the name of the band opening for Snow Patrol last night at the quite comfortable Dodge Theatre.

At first I thought it was just something in one or two of their songs, but the pattern carried through their entire performance.  I love a good chorus just as much as the next guy, but seriously, please don’t make an entire CD from your last  game of Scrabble, one single word score at a time.  In the middle of their performance, I for some reason imagined the bobble-headed mini-Bob Dylan looking front man as a smurf trying to jump-start his synthesizer.  Believe me, I was just as curious as you may be as to how this image catapulted into my brain.   A few more songs later I realized, it was because it was like listening to what would possibly be the result of four smurfs starting a garage band in their mom’s mushroom.  But instead of repeating the word smurf over and over again, they picked a new word or phrase for each song.  Oh and instead of wearing white pants and a hat, they wore cool headbands.  Well at least one of them did, the others may live in hot hot envy.

I must give them credit for one incredibly creative twist though.  In their song “Talk to Me Dance with Me”, they sang the line “you are my only girl”, but then shook things up by following that with “but you’re not my owner girl”, and repeated both about a dozen times.  I haven’t seen that kind of clever since I last picked the petals off a flower one at a time in a childish attempt to contemplate hypothetical affections… incredible stuff really. 

Apparently they are releasing their next album in the middle of September.  It’s called “Happiness”, which I can only assume to them involves getting paid to write three sentences put to repetitive music.  I think they originally wanted to call themselves “Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Heat”, but someone one cowbell short of being Bruce Dickinson slapped them with a three word limit.  Or perhaps a thesaurus is not in their budget, and they think “hot hot” means the same thing as “crash and burn” or perhaps “flaming”.

So many questions so little time, but the one question I’m not asking myself, is do I want to hear them perform again… now where did I smurf my smurfing smurf?

The Fray Dodge Theatre 07.16.2007 Review II

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

The Fray ‘How to Save a Life” Tour 07.16.2007

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 Stephanie Baldwin

As an obvious ode to their association with medical shows… ha just kidding.  The Fray show, at the Dodge Theater on July 16, demonstrated that The Fray do not take themselves too seriously, poking fun at their own success of their insanely popular “How to Save a Life”, in relation to medical shows, but more importantly showed their fans that they have completely matured into their role as a headlining act.  Ladies and gentleman, The Fray have learned to entertain.

Armed with fabulous lighting, improved set list and stage production such as film clips to accompany their songs, The Fray, skyrocketed their entertainment value and performed one of the best shows Phoenix has seen, not only from them, but all artists in some time.    If you have been a long time Fray fan and been to any number of their shows, you have known in the past that, you would always hear great live music, however, the stage presence and performance factor might be on… or off and this often had to do with the crowd themselves. 

Last night, while the pit and selected areas, stood for the entire show and really seemed to be “in” to the performance, a great deal of people remained seated for a good deal of the performance.  I know that this can be interpreted as the crowd, not being “into it” (which was not the case), and this is when, from prior experience, the performance aspect of The Fray would retreat, however, this was not the case last night.  The Fray entertained the entire 90 minutes of their set, often yelling out to the crowd to encourage them to stand up… in some cases, it was effective; however, it didn’t deter The Fray, it only enhanced their performance.  Isaac Slade, the lead singer of The Fray, who is usually seated at his piano for an entire performance, was up and active, walking around the stage, playing to the crowd.  Trust me, the crowd was soaking it up, but they I am certain they appeared a bit lifeless to the stage. 

One of the highlights of the night came from a lighthearted cover performance.  The Fray typically features a cover song every performance, and for this show, they performed “Shakira Shakira”, which had Ben Wysocki, their drummer performing many of the vocals.  It was perhaps one of the most entertaining moments that the Dodge Theater has seen.  Everyone was standing as Isaac had requested, calling our sections that had not stood.  Walla, the crowd became active participants, laughing, singing along and enjoying the moment, that countless fans ensured would be on YouTube by midnight as they filmed the performance.  After it was over, well, the crowd all sat down again… what is with Arizona crowds?

The show was concluded with a three song encore, in which Isaac paid tribute to their humble beginnings with shows here in Phoenix, six in total, and thanked the fans that been there from the start. He let the crowd know that The Fray would be taking a year off, and hopefully recording a new CD in that time frame, which of course, the audience roared with delight.  At the conclusion of the show, the fans were abuzz with the entertaining performance, many proclaiming it was the best show they’d seen in a long time in the Valley.

Eisley at the Dodge 07.16.2007

By K. Mac,  www.FromTheCrowd.com Contributer

Eisley, currently on tour with The Fray, is a family affair. The band is composed of the Dupree siblings Chauntelle, Sherri, Stacy and Weston and their cousin Garron.  Eisley, like most bands had the difficult task of finding the perfect combination of musicians. Their earlier bass players were friends of theirs, first Amy Whittaker and then Jonathan Wilson. However, with Garron now filling the bassist position, the onstage chemistry cannot be denied.

The band opened with “Memories,” one of the two songs of the evening from their 2005 debut album “Room Noises.” Someone new to their music might not know quite what to make of their eclectic sound. It catches the listener a little off-guard at first, because it is so different. However, if that listener paused for a moment and truly listened, they would realize that this difference they hear is the key to Eisley’s success.

Categorized by most people as Indie Rock, Eisley’s songs show a wide variety of beats and vocals. There are some songs which have gentler background sounds and there are also those that have strong drum beats and energetic guitar parts. In short, there is something to be found for everyone among Eisley’s works.

Perfectly at home on the stage, Eisley’s touring experience showed. They  played well, kept the show going at a good pace and interacted with the audience. About halfway through the set, the lead singer started singing a different song than the rest of her band-mates started playing. Laughing, apologizing and staring over, Eisley proved that they’re just in it to have fun.

Just before leaving the stage, Eisley played their new single “Invasion.” Recently released on iTunes®, it is by far the most popular selection of the 38 items that Eisley has available to consumers. For the first time since they hit the stage, there were a few voices around me that joined in with the lyrics. All in all, the crowd seemed to respond positively to the songs that were played in their thirty minute set, be they new songs or older tracks. If you are looking for a change of pace musically, check out their sophomore record “Combinations,” due to be released the 14th of August 2007.

Haste The Day Review 07.11.2007

By KMac, Staff Reviewer

    You may not have heard of “Haste the Day,” but you’re sure to in the future. I had the privilege to talk to Jason Barnes, one of the band’s guitarists, in a pre-show interview. When asked what separates “Haste the Day” from other bands in his genre, he replied that the other four members, Stephen Keech, Brennan and Devin Chaulk, and Mike Murphy all sang and harmonized very well together. Armed with this knowledge of what to look for, I watched their performance from the crowd.

         Watching the performance, I realized that even had I not had the opportunity to meet with Jason, I would have noticed the superior vocals. Although “Haste the Day” does not have the stage presence of the more experienced bands, they more than make up for it with their sound. People in the crowd unfamiliar with their music were able to understand the words in their songs, a rarity at an event such as Warped Tour, when yelling incoherently into the mic often prevails.

        Although “Haste the Day” did not hold the attention of as much of the crowd as they could have, one must keep in mind that they hit the stage well after the gates opened. This may not say much elsewhere, but here in Phoenix that means that the early energy of the Warped Tour fans had vanished as they had been enduring 110+ temperatures and the brutal desert sun for five hours. However, the crowd did seem to enjoy some of the bands mellower vocals, especially the song “American Love.” They also had a very energetic following in the center of the crowd. The fans fists were banging in the air enthusiastically, exactly matching the movements of the guitarists head.

        All in all, “Haste the Day” puts on a good show. The remarkable vocals, clarity of speech and well played instruments mesh perfectly.  “Haste the Day” is definitely a must see band on Warped Tour.