Platinum-selling rock band The Fray will grace the TD Bank Sports Center on Sunday, April 18 for the Student Programming Board’s (SPB) annual Spring Concert.

• Meet The Fray

The Fray, best known for hits “Over My Head (Cable Car)” and “How to Save a Life” was the second-most popular rock band in SPB’s concert survey earlier this year. Rock band O.A.R, who is not currently touring, was the top choice.

“It was clear from the survey that students wanted a rock show,” SPB’s Mainstage Chair Megan Doyle said. “And, for the most part, they wanted The Fray.”

Forty percent of the 2,529 students surveyed chose The Fray as a top choice for a rock band. Akon and Drake were the popular rap choices, but the largest chunk of students (44 percent) called for a rock show.  Only 28 percent wanted rap.

“It’s what the students asked for,” SPB adviser John Stinchon, assistant director of the student center and student leadership development, said. “It may not be the first choice, but we got a talent that the students wanted.”

The Fray, a four-person piano-rock band, released their second, self-titled album in February 2009, highlighted by the single “You Found Me.”

“Every student’s heard at least one of their songs,” Doyle, who coordinated the contract, said. “It’s really significant that we signed them to play here. They’re a very right-now band, and they have a huge upside.”

Tickets will go on sale March 22 in the Student Center. Floor seating for undergraduates will be $25, and arena seating will be $20. Tickets will also sold on April 2 at the North Haven campus.

The Fray come after a sold-out Third Eye Blind concert on Oct. 10, 2009, the first sold-out concert in recent memory, Doyle said. She was “confident” that this Spring Concert will also sell out.

“If we sell out 2,700 seats, I will be the happiest person ever,” she said. “We broke a barrier selling out Third Eye Blind, and I think we can do it again.”

The Fray played on Sept. 23 at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. According to Carli-Rae Panny, editor-in-chief of the student newspaper The Spectrum, the rock band was better than expected.

“I was already a fan of their music but I honestly didn’t expect the show to be as great as it was,” Panny said. “I actually liked some of their songs better live because they performed them with a harder rock sound–as opposed to their softer-sounding recorded versions.”

SPB originally planned to have the concert on a Friday or Saturday night, but scheduling issues forced the concert to Sunday.

Because of the Sunday date, SPB plans to open the doors at 6 p.m. and begin the concert at 7 p.m.

One of the openers will be indie rock band We Shot the Moon, according to Stinchon. The other, which will be touring with The Fray, has not been named.