The Fray - New Album & Jan/Feb Club Shows

[kmom]

Way to go....Katelyn!

[oreolover000]

that's awesome katelyn! I hope you have a blast ;D

[Yuliya]

yay Katelyn!! I hope you have an awesome time!

[katelyn]

thanks guys! tonight's show was a lot of fun! the highlight was probably meeting them. now, i've met a fair share of bands, i just never thought i'd get the chance to meet these guys. they've always just seemed so..."big" and inaccessible. it was really cool though and they were super nice and also very adorable. watching soundcheck was pretty neat too. the show itself=lots of drama. i'm going to write up a little review so i'll post it here when i'm done in case you all want to read it. i'm sorting through all my pictures and videos now, hopefully it won't take too long.

[RunningAway]

too cool. i'm glad you got to go!

[RunningAway]

vh1 is doing a sweepstakes to win tickets to the NYC show. its a really cool prize complete with hotel accomodation, transportation to the show and more. though, probably 1 in a million chance to win. :/

www.thefray.vh1.com (to enter)

from what i read of the rules, you and your guest have to be 21 or over. also, i was confused about multiple entries. the way i read it, if you couldn't use multiple email addresses in the same day....so does that mean you can enter once a day with different addresses? i'm not sure. if someone could read it and let me know what you think.

[Yuliya]

The impression I got was that you can only enter once per day. If you use different email addresses, but your personal info is the same, they will void your other entries for the day. If the personal info changes, it'll keep the entry, but I don't know if you want to do that. But it seems like the next day, you're free to resubmit.

[RunningAway]

ok thanks. just wanted to make sure i was reading that right.

[katelyn]

True to form, I wrote another really long review. If you’re really curious about our night, bored, or have a lot of time on your hands, enjoy! If you just want to read my opinion about the actual show, skip to the second to last paragraph haha, the rest is soundcheck, meet and greet, and all the events leading up to the show


I really didn’t think I’d get to go to this show. After trying to get tickets the minute they went on sale and finding nothing, I figured my chances of getting into the sold out show were slim. Sure I could have bought the $100+ tickets for sale online, but that would have been a poor choice given the current state of my finances. So needless to say I was quite excited when I heard PST was offering the chance to win prize packs for the show that included a meet and greet, entrance to a “soundcheck party”, and tickets to the show. It was a raffle so I entered at least 50 times, hoping to up my odds a little of being chosen. When my phone woke me up Tuesday morning I looked at the number, didn’t recognize it, and put it back down. Then a thought shot through my sleepy brain…what if it’s PST. So I answered and was told I won the raffle! I was psyched…as was my sister when I texted her at school and asked if she’d like to meet The Fray, haha. When we saw them last it was at a huge outdoor amphitheater so I was thrilled for the opportunity to see them at a much smaller, 800 person capacity venue.

We were told to meet at the venue in between 5 and 5:30 for the soundcheck. My sister came home from school and took a power nap while I had to make a quick run to the post office. We left about 15 minutes late, which by our standards is not half-bad but I knew if we ran into traffic we’d be in trouble. Luckily it only took about an hour to get there and find a parking spot. We got out of the car and instantly started shaking it was so cold. We were shocked to see 2 girls in line already, I don’t know how they were doing it and they still had about 3 hours to go out there. The radio guy said we might have to wait outside but thankfully the venue let the radio winners wait inside in the small lobby area. We waited there for what seemed like a really long time. I didn’t mind. We were warm and we could hear the band on the other side of the doors starting to soundcheck. They were mostly just checking the volume levels of the instruments and mics and stuff. Eventually their manager came out and said they wanted us to see an actual soundcheck and that we’d be able to go in and watch, ask a few questions, then we’d get pictures with them. We went inside and it was a mess, haha. The opening band had only loaded in as far as the standing area so we kind of stood amongst their stuff.

Soundcheck was very cool to watch. They weren’t very interactive with us which I didn’t really mind. I kind of liked watching them do their own thing as if none of us were there. Isaac did explain that soundcheck parties worked one of two ways, the band gets everything set up then plays a few perfect songs for people or they play bits and pieces and we’d get to see them work all the kinks out and stuff and get a more authentic experience. They opted for the latter. They jammed together for a little bit, these were either new songs that I’m not real familiar with yet or just stuff they were making up as they went along. They’d stop every once and awhile and adjust things. I couldn’t really tell the difference but it made them happy. My sister was amazed at how picky they were about the sound, they made a lot of adjustments. They discussed whether or not to do the acoustic version of “How to Save a Life.” I guess they’ve been playing it acoustic but since this show was being aired on NPR (which I did not know ahead of time) and Philly has the biggest NPR station in the country (according to Isaac) he thought they should maybe play the normal version. None of them really had an opinion then but they somehow settled on acoustic because that’s what they played during the show. To finish up the soundcheck they played most of “Over My Head” and a piece of “We Build Then We Break.” Then the radio guy told us we were getting our pictures with the guys. My sister and I kind of dawdled since my plan was to hang out near the end of the line hoping we might have a little extra time with them at the end. Now for some reason we lined up facing the back of the theater, while the band was still on stage. And for some reason we all felt like we needed to face the front of the line, I’m not sure why, I guess we thought the band was done. Then they told us they’d do one more song so I made a quick about face. It must have looked funny because Isaac was watching and laughed. Then it was a little weird cause everyone kind of still stood in the line behind us and watched the song, haha. It was another new one that I didn’t know the title of. I should have jotted down a lyric but forgot.

After that the guys grabbed jackets and stuff and came down from the stage. For a second I was scared we were going back outside. Luckily they just wanted to look nice for pictures I guess. The radio guy gave each of us a signed poster of the guys. When it was our turn we went up and introduced ourselves to them and they personalized our posters. They were all very friendly and nice. We didn’t have a whole lot of time but we had a very short conversation and then they took our picture. I ended up next to Joe (yay). We thanked them and Ben told us to enjoy the show. We were not looking forward to going back out in the cold but at this point we were starving. I looked at my watch and realized that we had been inside the venue for at least an hour and a half. We had an hour until doors opened and decided to go down the street for a quick dinner of delicious cheesesteaks. After we ate we bundled back up and went to get in line for the last half hour before doors. My sister grabbed a spot in line while I passed the rest of the time by promoting Cavashawn and handing out fliers to people in line. I was impressed, everyone was really friendly and most seemed genuinely interested. The crowd was also a little older than I expected, a few teenagers with parents, but mostly college-aged kids and older. I thought it might be a pleasant crowd to experience a concert with, apparently their dispositions changed the second we entered the door of the venue.

Doors opened and everyone was anxious to get inside and out of the cold. By time we got to the stage we were about 4 people deep in the crowd, not terrible. Although apparently, my sister and I are a bad combination at concerts. As hard as I try not to, (when I’m not in the front row) I always end up behind giants. This was no exception. My sister on the other hand, seems to attract every rude person in the crowd, more on that later. I was still cold an hour later when the opener, Vedera, hit the stage. They were getting ready and doing some last-minute tuning when the four guys of The Fray walked out on the stage. They came out to introduce Vedera, which I thought was incredibly nice. Of all the shows I’ve been to I’ve never seen anyone do this before and I don’t really know why, I think it was a really great idea. Vedera, by the way, rocked. I really enjoyed their set and their vocalist has an amazing voice. Really great band. I thought set change would be really quick, all The Fray’s equipment was already on the stage, all they had to do was remove the extra drum set. Well set change took way longer than expected. During this time there was a lot of shifting going on in the crowd. Like I said, my sister attracts the rude ones. Well, this couple started pushing their way up through the crowd and stopped right in front of her. I nicely asked if they intended on staying there which started more drama than I intended. This girl insisted on arguing with my sister and talking about her to other people. Beating up on a girl at least 5 years younger than her, I hope she felt good about herself. Anyway, she continued to be an issue but eventually a few songs into the show most of our problems were solved when I was able to shift out from behind the two giants in front of me and another girl pulled my sister up in front of the rude problem-couple. I still had the loud, drunk, singing girls to my left and a few more pushers behind us but I was able to put up with them.

The show itself was awesome! I wasn’t able to write down the setlist but I’m almost positive they played all 10 songs from the new album. They also did Over My Head, She Is, All at Once, Look After You, and acoustic How to Save a Life. They had some fun banter during the set. Isaac complained about the frigid temps; he said it’s cold in Colorado but it doesn’t barrage you like it does here, haha. For the first song of the encore Isaac came out by himself. He asked the crowd if we wanted piano or guitar, he ended up on the piano. He talked about how it was like he walked into someone’s house who just gotten a new piano and they asked him to play a song. He said he hadn’t played it in awhile and fumbled around on the piano for a bit trying to remember then launched into “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.” I’m a huge Disney freak and it reminded me of Toy Story. I enjoyed his cover, I thought it was a good choice for his voice. Although I wasn’t real familiar with all of them I enjoyed the new songs and have high hopes for the album. There were a few songs in the set that really stood out to me. All the “old” songs were fun because the crowd got really into them and I thought acoustic HTSAL was really gorgeous. Of the new ones I liked You Found Me (really emotional and touching live), Syndicate (most likely going to be one of my favorites from the album, I really like it and I think it has great single potential), and Ungodly Hour (really nice song and Joe’s voice just sounded so pure and pretty, it’s almost not fair for two such great singers to be in one band). Possibly my favorite song of the night was Happiness. I instantly fell in love with that song when I first heard it the last time I saw them perform and I’ve been loving it ever since. Isaac and Dave just did such a beautiful, beautiful rendition, it was amazing. Unfortunately it was also the last song of the night.

Right after they finished I glanced down at my camera and missed Joe throwing his pick right in our direction. All I know was that all of the sudden people were on the ground, bumping into my legs, and clawing at the floor (ew). I quickly figured out what must have happened. My sister said the pick had actually hit her square in the chest and bounced off. This is another one of her specialties, having picks thrown right at her and then not ending up with them. I really need to find a new concert buddy (just kidding!). We stopped at the merch stand on the way out to grab a free Vedera sampler and have a quick convo with the band. Then it was back out into the cold only to wait in the line to get out of the parking garage. Despite a few issues we had a really fun time and enjoyed the night immensely. Loved that it was free and loved that we got to do the extra stuff even more ;D

our photo with the guys (unfortunately it's a little blurry):


my photos from the night are up on my facebook. ironically, despite all the lights on the stage, lighting was poor for photos so it was hard to get any good ones without using the flash which i usually don't like to do. if you want to see and aren't friends with me or don't have an account send me a PM and i'll send you the link!

my videos (it was hard to get more than a clip of anything, i had to hold my camera really high which got tiring really quickly):
Over My Head (Soundcheck)
We Build Then We Break (Soundcheck)
You Found Me
You've Got A Friend in Me (Cover)
Happiness

[RunningAway]

those videos are great! i'm glad you had fun despite the rude people.