There's really no way to reach me...

Went to see The Fray perform a sold out show at the Orpheum Wednesday night. Kyle Riabko was the support act. The 19yr old Regina native had a strong voice....kinda reminded me of Shaun Verreault and Adam Levine with his tone and the fact that he really likes to hit those high notes.

The Fray came onstage and opened with Little House, backed by some glaring beams of light. I completely adore their album and it's been in heavy rotation over the last while. I felt the pacing and energy of the first few songs could have been stronger, as they slowed down the tempo a bit for their early upbeat numbers such as She Is and All At Once. The guys have just got back on the road after a one month break, so they were still starting to get back in the shape of things.

Once they hit their stride in the set, the songs sounded great. I was quite impressed with Look After You and the nicely extended outro that accompanied it. Vienna also had a really intense intro that built up for about 3 minutes before the lyrics kicked in.

I felt the lighting tech made some questionable decisions at times by turning on the houselights halfway and leaving them on during parts of songs....which kinda took away from the intimacy and setting of the atmosphere and music.

Singer Isaac Slade came out for the encore and did something unique as he decided to play a song solo with no mic and his acoustic unplugged. I've seen this done before at smaller venues such as Richard's, The Stanley, and the Commodore....but this was my first time seeing it attempted at a larger venue size that seats around 2800. It was quite well received, apart from some drunken and inavoidable screams and cheers inbetween....still, a pretty special moment.

Some other highlights for me from their 1hr 15min set included Over My Head (Cable Car), Trust Me, and How To Save A Life.



Note: Hundred on the setlist was not played. It was substituted for Isaac's untitled solo acoustic song.