When The Fray first burst onto the scene in the early aughts, the Colorado-bred band introduced the world to a profoundly life-affirming form of alt-rock: timeless but inventive, arena-sized in scope but firmly rooted in raw emotion. Over the coming years, their soul-searching songwriting and high-powered sound led to earning four Grammy Award nominations, scoring a multitude of Billboard top 10 hits, and amassing a passionately devoted worldwide fanbase. Their single “How To Save A Life” spent a staggering 58 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the “unofficial theme song” for Grey’s Anatomy. Rolling Stone praised their "stick-in-your-head hooks and eloquent narratives," while the LA Times called their music “melodically rich.” The Fray’s debut album How To Save A Life (2005) is certified 4x platinum in the US and has been declared one of the best-selling digital debuts of all time.
I saw The Fray live at the BottleRock music festival in Napa Valley earlier this year, and they were the best act the whole weekend.
With their new album Helios having been released this year, this is the perfect time to go see The Fray in person and see what all the fuss is about for yourself.
It was a hot, sunny, sweaty day, but, reinvigorated upon hearing The Fray, everybody still got into it and moved with the music. The crowd basically lost their collective minds the instant the opening notes to How to Save a Life were played, and the enthusiasm and energy carried over throughout the whole set.
The music was great, with all of the radio classics that everybody sang along with (How to Save a Life, Never Say Never, Over My Head) and their lesser-known songs all being played perfectly and with tons of passion. It was a nice change of pace from the rest of the music at the festival, since the piano helps give it all a really chill vibe even though everybody’s going crazy enjoying the show.
The lyrics to all of their songs have some real meaning too and keep you thinking long after the adrenaline from the show has come and gone.
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