The Fray, show’s opener dazzle Elliott with alternative rocking

By Connie Lee

Staff Reporter

Publication Date: 01/12/2007

Pattie Quackenbush | Senior Photographer

A dramatic light show begins The Fray's performance at Elliot Hall of Music Thursday night.

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It may have been a dark night in the middle of January, but opening band MuteMath and headliner The Fray illuminated Elliott Hall with a performance of lights and energetic music Thursday evening.

Of the majority of audience members who were not previously familiar with MuteMath, a significant number became new fans and left the concert hall doors impressed with its energy and intense sound. They played both old favorites from their EP album, such as “Control” and “Reset,” as well as new material from their brand new self-titled CD, “MuteMath.”

Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas, bass player for MuteMath, was impressed with the energy from the crowd. “Everyone was into us and checking us out,” he said, which is not always the reception an opening band receives.

His assessment is not wrongly suspected.

“They know how to entertain,” says Alex Gonzales, a senior at Valparaiso High School. While lead singer Paul Meany’s bandmates emphatically played percussion behind him, he delighted the crowd with antics such as writhing and jumping on his keyboard.

By the time The Fray members walked onto the stage, the audience was already properly energized. To the ecstacy of their fans, they began by singing their Platinum hit, “Over My Head” and followed with other songs such as “Look After You” and “Dead Wrong.”

And just when the crowd was getting comfortable with the show, the band shocked everybody with a few surprises. Guitarist Dave Welsh played a solo that he wrote in dedication of his brother only hours before the concert. Also, lead singer Isaac Slade came out and performed a spotlighted slow song solo.

“I especially liked it when he went a capella,” said Viviana Gonzales, a junior at Ivy Tech.

But perhaps the most impressive was when the flood of individually-suspended light bulbs that descended from the ceiling to accompany The Fray’s other massive hit and final song of the night, “How to Save a Life.” The aesthetic beauty created of the illumination left many in awe.

“I thought it was cool how they had the lights drop down like the cover of their CD,” said Elizabeth Gladson, a freshman in the College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences.

Matt Voxburgh, a freshman in the College of Liberal Arts, said he would come for a repeat performance.

“I would definitely see them again if I had the chance.”