Live Review: The Fray, Jordan Millar

People started flocking in right as the doors opened for this intimate, one-off show and by the time Jordan Millar arrived onstage, there was a healthy crowd awaiting his performance. Playing an array of charming songs that perfectly showcased his voice, Millar managed to captivate the crowd of impatient Fray fans before him. One punter said that she mistook Millar for John Mayer at first, which was a fitting comparison.

It was obvious however whom the audience was there to see, and after Millar departed the anticipation grew until The Fray took to the stage amongst a flurry of cheers and applause. Lead singer Isaac Slade started off the show solo with the poignant piano ballad Be Still and successfully managed to silence everyone in the room. Slade was then joined by the rest of the band who for the next hour-and-a-half moved back and forth between their three albums, picking a varied selection of tracks that perfectly highlighted their musicianship.

In such an amazingly intimate venue like The Basement, the quieter tracks like Be Still or Slade's solo rendition of Unsaid resonated far stronger than some of The Fray's flashier songs. Similarly, whilst there were heads bobbing and singalongs to newer songs like Munich or Turn Me On, the reactions to songs from their latest album Scars And Stories were nothing compared to the crowd's reaction to older favourites like Look After You or You Found Me.

The highlights of the night for many were the last few tracks of the evening. Starting with the catchy and popular piano-based ballad How To Save A Life, in which Slade was almost overrun by the collective voice of the audience, the band then moved into their newest hit Heartbeat, which included a great, lively extended outro showcasing once again the excellent musicianship of the band. The Fray then concluded on a high with their very first (and arguably most successful) single Over My Head (Cable Car), which once again propelled most of the audience to sing along gleefully with Slade and the rest of the band, who looked like they were having a blast themselves.