The Fray - By Mark Forrer
Let’s be honest here, before Friday, I’d liked the Fray, but I’d always got them and The Script mixed up, lets face it, they do sound pretty similar.
I was also telling my friend that I’d interviewed ‘the bald one’ who I was convinced was the drummer; and refused to believe what mark was telling ,me that in fact he was the singer, okay, my bad!
But first of all, we had to get the support act, Brett Dennen out of the way, who was just a little bit AMAZING! I mean, fair enough, he might not be to everyone’s taste, and to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure if it was a girl or a boy until he started talking, but as far as support acts go, this is one to the finest I’ve seen in a long time!
He was practically a one man band, well, apart from having a bit of help from his mate John Solo. He played guitar, blew his little harmonica and sung his little heart out… by the end of the set I wanted to put him in my pocket and take him home!
Anyway, 9pm came and it was time for The Fray to make use of the gigantic piano that had been hoarding the stage since I walked into the academy; yet I was made to eat my words as Isaac Slade sat down at the piano and gave me a lovely view of his back for the next hour and half.
Okay, so that’s not entirely true, and he did waltz around the stage for half of the night, but unless you were on the left hand side of Academy One, there was no way you were checking out Isaac tampering with his keys, which was a bit of a shame.
Nevertheless, I was far to preoccupied with checking out Dave Welsh, the lead guitarist (and occasional keyboard player) who is actually the hottest man I’ve ever seen on stage at Academy One in my life…. So what if I haven’t been that often!
The crowd obviously couldn’t get enough of the band either - whichever of the blokes caught their eye - as they belted back line after line of songs as the guys made their way through their back catalogue, and won me over with a brilliant cover of Kanye West’s Heartless.
So, if you’re torn whether to check out a pretty little indie band this summer, I would recommend The Fray in a heartbeat, I mean, I - a die hard metal fan - was texting everyone in my phonebook after 15 minutes telling them how mind-blowing this gig was… and that’s got to count for something right?
See our full gallery of The Fray Photos here
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
Photos By Mark Forrer