Concert Look back

Last week was busy, and somehow I found a way to pack all 3 concerts I would see at Red Rocks into a 5 day period. Monday had Jill and I taking in Snow Patrol under perfect weather conditions. Wednesday had Sarah & I experiencing Modest Mouse, and Saturday night had all three of us checking out local band gone big The Fray.

I'll start with the best, which was definitely Snow Patrol. I've been a casual Snow Patrol fan for the last 4 or 5 years, but I've gotta admit that I wasn't that fired up to see them live. Jill kept asking about the show, and finally I caved and bought some tickets. The weather was perfect, and from the first note is was clear that this would be a great show. The set list was really good and well thought out, flowing well from song to song. They sounded great, and we left quite impressed.

I've been a huge fan of the latest Modest Mouse album, often declaring it the best album I've heard in 2007, so despite Jill's disdain for them I bought tickets to the show. Jill had no interest in the show, so Sarah volunteered to go along regardless of not really knowing their music. The show was hit and miss. Some songs the band sounded great, some songs they had technical problems or just missed altogether. I later found out it was opening night of the tour, which made everything make a lot of sense. The set list was very disjointed, they had lots of microphone feedback and the delays between bands were unusually long which all added up to a show that was just OK, but left me a bit disappointed.

The safe bet for the week would be The Fray, a local band that has gotten big on the national scene in the last couple years. The weather was pretty dismal for a concert, with a steady hard rain coming down. We delayed our arrival to try and avoid the rain, but we ultimately had to just head to Red Rocks with our ponchos. We got to the show, drove up to the close parking lot and headed for our seats right as the last opening band was finishing up.

The Fray started 40ish minutes later under unusually windy, rainy conditions. They opened strong with two energetic songs that had expectations set high, but then the show pretty much fell apart. After the two radio hits they opened with, the set list went to slow (read whiny) songs that were either deep cuts off their album or new material that were lost on us, and apparently the rest of the crowd. The crowd was as lifeless and uninterested as I've ever seen, with lots of people leaving really early. I really expected this sold out show to be really the highlight of the week, but we all left sorely disappointed that the local guys seemed to have phoned it in last night.

So it was easy to rank the shows this week with Snow Patrol dominating (probably the best show I've seen at Red Rocks), Modest Mouse being good but not great and The Fray really being a big disappointment. I'll scan the concert list and see if there is anything else coming up to take the bad taste away before the season closes up.