The Frrrrrray

So yesterday, Erin and I had tickets to see the good 'ol Fray. This was exciting for me, because try as I might, I'd never seen them live before, which is actually shocking, but true.  So I was pretty stoked for this since we've had it planned since Erin told me about it while I was in Cairns.  And the day had finally arrived. Went to class and sat through four hours of torture (the fact that the concert was later that night, plus the fact all we did the entire four hours was draw, I repeat, torture) and then came back and made myself a healthy lunch, turkey pita, yum yum. Had a chat with a fellow back home, then thought about taking a nap, which didn't happen because I realize Erin was almost out of class. So I got myself ready, consisting of putting my hair in a messy pony on the top of my head, since you could slap a kazoo up in your hair and it would be normal here.  They seriously don't care about what their hair looks like here, and I love it! 

From my place I meandered over to meet Erin in front of her Harry Potter castle, no big deal. We walked back to her place, and made some PB sandwiches then hopped on a bus to Central.  Now I thought I'd done all my necessary commuter research, ie. went onto the venue's website, which clearly states "Take the 336 bus right from central to the Entertainment Quarter." We arrive at Central ready to hop on, until we realize, there is no 336 bus. Now normally I would have looked into two possible options for getting there, but I figured if the website told me flat out, I was golden. Apparently not. So we spoke with a lady in the bus information booth, who didn't seem too thrilled with her job mind you, who educated us on the three different buses we could take, none of which was a 336. Instead, the bus to Coogee was the one we needed to get on, who woulda thought, though which stop we needed to get off at, no clue. I decided that I'm pretty smart in the whole directional game that I could figure it out. Once I saw a sign for Moore Part Golf Course I came to the conclusion we needed to be in Moore Park, so we hopped off and meandered around in the 85 degree heat for awhile until I saw a sign for Fox Studios, which I recalled the venue was right near, so we walked thataway. Soon enough, we saw signs for The Hordern Pavilion, where The Fray would soon be singing. Of course we go to the wrong entrance and see people across the way standing in line so yes, we RUN around the building to get in line. Now let me explain that our tickets were general admission, so the goal was to get front row by arriving quite early (we got there around 4:30, gates opened at 7).  The lines were not long at all, but quite a complicated mess that we didn't quite understand, so we just got in one on a whim. They all led to the same gate so we figured it didn't matter much. 

There was a lottttt of sitting until the gates opened. There were some 15 year old girls, or what we assumed to be 15, sitting a few people ahead of us in the cue.  Around 6:30, three other girls hopped in line with them, who had not been sitting there previous. Though I should let it be known, people are really nice about saving seats here. People hopped out of line the whole time to go buy food then came back and got right back in line where they were. I feel like this would not happen in America, when I saw Goo Goo Dolls, the people in line behind us (we were pretty much in the front of the line) would have never in a million years let us back in our stop had we gotten out of line for any reason at all!  Anyways, these stylishly dresses 15 year olds hop in line with their friends, and the security guard comes over and tells them to leave, at which point they explain to them they were there earlier, and their friends had their tickets, as they slyly as a 15 year old can, wink at their friend without the guard seeing.  He then looks to us for some guidance in which I quickly shake my head.  Hey, it's The Fray, gotta fight to the death for the close spots (or so we think, I'll explain later) Of course the little teeny boppers are not happy with me, and give me the evil eye the rest of the time in line, in which I give right back, obviously.  Regardless of the outcome, it gave us a little entertainment while we waited.

Finally the gates open up and we are instructed to walk, and if we run, we'll be escorted out. We felt like we were back in elementary school, and we were going to be put on "the wall" for running. Once we got to the front, we were about four rows back, dead center, which we were pretty happy with. Then it started filling in around us. Soon, we were just two little sardines in a can full of 15 year old screaming sardines. I did not sign up for this. The Fray wasn't scheduled to go on until 9:30, it was only 7:00. Nothing could have persuaded me to stay in my spot, I didn't care how close we were, it was hell. We attempted to ween our way out, but literally couldn't even move. Once I found a path, I walked about six steps before my entire body was trapped between other bodies and literally could not move an inch, so that was fun. I somehow got Erin and myself out of the mess of children who should not be standing in the front row, but somehow were, and we decided at that point we needed a drink and some food. Grabbed a beer and some wedges and headed up to sit down for the first two acts, some chick I didn't know, and Secondhand Serenade.  Five seconds after sitting I spilled my entire beer, real good start to the night Lauren! Later Erin went and got two more for us, and was asked by someone in a not so asking, and more commenting way, "Jesus Christ girl, are you wearing any pants!?" This was baffling because her shorts were clearly visible to everyone. Gave me a good laugh though. 

Finally after sitting around for two hours, Secondhand Serenade finished their set, which was our cue to head back down to the floor. We decided standing further back was actually a better view seeing as the main singer sits on a piano the whole time. We sat down for awhile while they changed sets, and people watched. What stood out most was that everyone and their mother (though I saw far too little mothers at this concert for the number of screaming girls under the age of whatever age it is you can stop being accompanied by a parent) wears Keds. Laces, slip on,  boys, girls, it doesn't matter, EVERYONE wears them. I like to call this phenomena The Keds Movement.  So anyways, we're just sitting on the ground and all of a sudden this guy is literally RUNNING at us and decides that faster than going around us, would be to jump directly over Erin, his foot coming within an inch of her face. I probably sat there laughing for a good 3 minutes. Why? Why would you decide jumping over a perfect stranger would be a good idea. I do not know. Then the lights dimmed and the show began.

The show itself, absolutely fabulous.  Only about 30% of me was mad I wasn't in my original spot, considering the man never would have had the chance to jump over Erin. But seriously, we would have had to deal with those little children pushing us for three hours, and I was most content being a bit further back in exchange for arm movement. They sang almost all of their new album, with a bunch of oldies but definitely goodies dabbled in between. Issac was so sick on the piano all night, and of course his lead vocals were more than extraordinary.  In the middle of Look After You, Issac explained that they were having  a contest to see who could sing loudest and Melbourne was currently winning, and then began singing Wonderwall for us to belt along with. We quickly became the winners of this contest, and then he continued on with Look After You. Once they walked off stage, I was pretty upset because they hadn't played my favorite song off the new album, which is Happiness.  I doubted they'd play it for the encore cause it isn't really a fast song. They came back on, and popped a bunch of those little poppers that look like champagne bottles, but shoot baby streamers out of them.  The song they chose to sing, Heartless by Kanye. Loved it, but it was no Happiness. And then, a different guitar was handed to Issac and the first chords of Happiness began and all was well in the world.  It was absolutely amazing, then normally 5:23 song was turned into 8:33. Needless to say, I could go home happy. And I have to thank my camera battery for being awesome the whole show and not dying, and at one point going from two bars, back to three bars. And I have to thank Dad for my 8gb memory card, which made it possible to take 100 something pictures, and record 10 videos, one of these being the 8:33 of Happiness, so that I will now have it forever to watch over and over and over. I'll try and get that up here.

Getting home sucked, obviously. We walked awhile to the bus stop, which was gobbed with people trying to get to Central as well. When a bus finally came, it wasn't going to Central but we got on anyways and got off up near Hyde Park, and proceeded to walk a few blocks to George St. and hop on another bus there.  All we wanted was to be in our beds! But we were soon enough, and it was a wonderful night. I get home from Australia June 27th, and the Fray is playing in Chicago the 28th, I'll be there. So amazing!