From The Back Row

I'm Katie. A reading gaming piano playing Nerdfighter with love for many things.

The Fray are my favorite band.

I have an imaginary friend called The Doctor and we live in the TARDIS.
I have a Typhlosion named Araris.
I love The Daily Show and am part of the Colbert Nation.
Tony Stark, Garrus Vakarian and Varric Thetheras are my homies and
Fred and George are my brothers. I hang with Batman and some know me as the Oracle.
Long live the car crash hearts.
DFTBA.

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2/22/12 - Portland Show, The Crystal Ballroom, The Fray and Scars on 45

We got there early enough that the line wasn’t long at all. It was me, James, my Dad and his lady-friend Tami. Dad and Tami basically ejected James and I out of the car to get in line so they could find a place to park and go sit in a bar where it was warm, leaving us outside to freeze to death. It was okay, though, we stood between two pretty cool adultish guys that laughed at my freakoutishness with James. I didn’t know if the buses were for Scars on 45 or The Fray or their roadies, but either way I was stoked to be standing right next to them. A guy got came out and opened one of the little hatches where the luggage is and the man standing behind James and joked “There’s your chance! Climb in!”

When we got inside, the place was really beautiful. The stage was small and intimate, and the ballroom itself was, of course, a very nice ballroom. It is THE Crystal Ballroom, after all. It’s kind of a thing in Portland. 

I didn’t take this picture but I had to show you what it looks like. The windows were covered and it was night, but you get the picture. Lovely room. 

We were among the fourth-ish row of people. Not that there were intelligible rows, per se, we were all kinda packed in, but whatever. Dad and Tami went to sit in the chairs on the second floor balcony.

The wait was so long. I was trying to explain: “James, no, I haven’t just been waiting for 2 hours. I’ve been waiting for THREE YEARS AND TWO HOURS.” But he didn’t quite understand my impatience. I even tweeted to David right before they came on stage:

https://twitter.com/#!/_fromthebackrow/status/172561064284790784

But before that, we were privileged with witnessing Scars on 45 take the stage. God, they were FANTASTIC! They really were, and they had super cool accents. I’m definitely going to buy some of their stuff and so is James, you guys should seriously check them out. It was such a breath of fresh air after weeks of watching high-schoolers perform Spotlight tryouts to finally see some professionals getting shit done. They’ve toured with Jack’s Mannequin, too, which is a cool tidbit. I particularly remember “Beauty’s running wild”, “give me something”, and “Heart on Fire”… Their piano guy Nova was really funny - did a funny dance at one point. 

Then, we cheered the soundcheck guys as they were uncovering the boys’ stuff.

S+S, baby.

And when the guys finally came out, it was just amazing. I mean if Scars on 45 were a breath of fresh air, The Fray were a free-falling thrill. I mean, obviously I expected amazing, and I knew I was going to enjoy myself. This is my favorite band, people. But DAMN! Effortless, flawless, amazing. 

I don’t remember what exact order they were in, but they played these songs: Munich, Turn Me On, Run For Your Life, The Wind, Here We Are, 48 To Go, Be Still and Streets of Philadelphia from S&S, Syndicate, You Found Me, Never Say Never, Ungodly Hour, Happiness and Uncertainty from the Self Titled, and Cable Car, HTSAL and Look After You from How To Save a Life.

I didn’t really like Here We Are before, but OH MY GOD IT’S AMAZING LIVE. It all blew me away, every single bit of it. Joe ended the concert with Uncertainty and Ungodly Hour which I was DYING to see live, and I recorded Syndicate video on my iPod as well as the audio from a few of the other songs. They did this really cool thing at the end of Cable Car that I loved, a lot more than the thing they’re doing at the end of Turn Me On. During Be Still, Isaac stopped playing the piano and started singing without his microphone and shushing people. Of course, they couldn’t shut up, and I couldn’t stand the annoyed/disappointed looks on the guy’s faces as they stared at us. Made me mad at the crowd in the back that wouldn’t stop screaming and hooting. 
Isaac did come down into the crowd twice during the concert, which was awesome. He got pretty close to us, too. 

I took really crappy photo/video but it works to suit the memories. I loved David’s green fedora and Ben’s red pants. And, of course, Isaac’s half-past-sexy-scarf-scarf. Joe was very pretty. The fact that he ended with Ungodly Hour and Uncertainty was heartwrenching. 

Oh! And Isaac cracked a bald joke when introducing the band. He introduced Ben and laughed at Dave for clapping for him. He introduced Dave and looked like he was trying to get him to say something, but I heard nothing from Welsh all night. Then he got to Joe:

“We started this band 10 years ago…” *Cheers* “…Somehow, I have less hair, and you have MORE.” … “You son of a bitch.”

heheh.

I was blown away by the whole thing, really. I was so happy to have them right there. And James and I were COMPLETELY exhausted by the end, practically falling asleep on each other’s shoulders in the car. But he enjoyed his first concert, and I was so happy to have introduced him to the experience. I’ll be telling more stories as I post the audio and single video I took during the show. Love you guys.

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