The Tempe Music Festival, held in the heart of Tempe, brought a plethora of already popular, as well as up and coming, musical performances to the valley. The exciting thing is, two of the headlining bands were of Christian origin – Lifehouse & The Fray.
Lifehouse’s performance attracted hundreds of fans, as they rocked out a mixture of songs from their 3 already released albums. The unfamiliar “Crash and Burn” was one of the first songs they played. Though it can’t be found on any of their previous albums, the song is rumoured to be on their soon to release album Who We Are, scheduled to hit stores June 2007. With a modernly melodic rock sound and lyrics like “If I fall and crash and burn/At least I know You’re by my side” and a somewhat inspiring ending statement of “I wish that I could take back what was done/You can only change the person you’ve become”, “Crash and Burn” gives great hope for the new album!
Other notable songs included “Only One”, “Quasimodo”, and “Trying”, all from the bands’ 2000 release, No Name Face. The latter of which lead singer, Jason Wade, prefaced with a story of how he wrote the ballad when he was just 16, and he “never gets tired of singing it”. Based on the crowds’ response, they never get tired of hearing it either! I’d have to say its simplistically raw sound was definitely a highlight of their set. Their final song, an exuberantly passionate performance of “Everything”, was quite notable as well.
After leaving the stage, of course, the crowd cheered for an encore and Lifehouse returned for a few more songs. Their encore included their classic and popular “You & Me”, “Hanging by a Moment”, and “Spin”, all of which sounded exceptionally more fantastic live.
The following evening, The Fray headlined the festival with an inexplicably fantastic set. After a brief instrumental-esque bit, they kicked off with my personal favorite, “Little House”. With Isaac Slade, lead singer, playing the piano live, the song sounded truly amazing. They followed with “She Is”, “All At Once”, “Look After You”, “Heaven Forbid”, and “Vienna”, all from their massively popular 2005 release, How to Save a Life. I’d have to say “Heaven Forbid” had a somewhat different feeling live. Watching the bands’ expressions while hearing the lyrics “Heaven forbid you end up alone, you don’t know why/Hold on tight, wait for tomorrow, you’ll be alright”, the song seemed to have a much more genuine feeling live.
Succeeding a bit of banter and spontaneous song singing by other band members, they ended their set with the ever-so-popular “Over My Head (Cable Car)”. This seemed to be the crowd favorite, quite plausibly because it gains the most exposure on radio stations, and enthusiasm was explicitly abound. The band left the stage, leaving a somewhat unpleasantly loud chord sustained. Lead singer Isaac Slade returned shortly thereafter to not only provide sweet relief from the ear-piercing noise, but also for a much appreciated encore. His piano-only rendition of “Hundred” was another highlight of the night, for sure! Following his solo performance, the rest of the band returned to play one last song, none other than the crowd pleasing “How to Save a Life”. As fantastic as The Fray’s songs sound on their albums, they were even more exhilarating live!
Their performance was something I’m not sure I can truly articulate, it’s one of those things you just have to see for yourself. If/when you see them live, though, be sure to glance at the drummer’s series of intriguing facial expressions!
On another note, as previously mentioned, the festival featured a variety of different bands, the majority of which were secular. For many of them, their songs and verbalizations were profanity laden or somewhat “sketchy” in nature. Both Lifehouse and The Fray, however, were exempt from this accusation. It was spectacular to be able to see such a vivid difference in them and the other bands simply from their attitudes and speech!
Article by Ariel Body
