As headliner, Fray proves cut above

October 25, 2006|Sarah Rodman, Globe Staff

The members of the Fray do not wear eyeliner, write songs about MySpace, or fuse prog-rock with electronica.

While there is nothing wrong with any of the above, the Denver four-piece is, refreshingly, a plain old, shtick-free rock band, falling somewhere on the scale between the rootsy Counting Crows and the glossy Coldplay. The band has slowly but steadily made inroads into our fragmented music landscape the old-fashioned way. The Fray has toured extensively -- opening for everyone from Ben Folds to the Rolling Stones, in an upcoming one-off -- and written a radio-ready hit single, "Over My Head (Cable Car)," that has tenaciously gripped every format from Top 40 to soft rock since its release last year. After more than 40 weeks on the Billboard charts, its debut album, "How to Save a Life," has just gone platinum.

And so the quartet -- plus touring bassist -- has graduated to headliner status. Its work on the road paid off with the tight sound and sense of comfort displayed Monday at the Orpheum Theatre.

While all the band's songs don't reach the tuneful heights of "Over My Head" and the members won't win any showmanship prizes, the 75-minute set was a sturdy affair, neither thrilling nor inept. It was anchored by Ben Wysocki's bracing drumming and lead singer-pianist Isaac Slade's grainy, sincere vocals.

The sold-out house matched Slade and guitarist-singer Joe King word for word on tracks from the album, including the simple but effective midtempo charmer "All at Once" and the lilting title cut, which served as the night's closer. The crowd -- a quirky mix of young girls, college kids, and older couples -- also enthusiastically responded to a smattering of non-album tracks and new tunes.

With energy to burn and a satchel of classic pop influences, opener the Feeling, a plucky Brit quintet, managed to coax the crowd onto its feet and into clapping along to tunes it had never heard before, boding well for the June US release of the band's debut, "Twelve Steps and Home."

Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com.