Freshman Tommy Frisina was so displeased with the announcement of The Fray as SPB’s Spring Concert, he decided to boycott.
Frisina pioneered the Facebook event “Badfish over The Fray,” in an attempt to make students aware of other available concert choices.
“A lot of people I know were displeased with the choice,” Frisina said. “I knew Toad’s was having a crazy week of concerts, so I rallied a bunch of friends to have our own spring concert of something we enjoy,” he said.
SPB made their Spring Concert announcement last week, and according to an online Chronicle poll, 41 percent were unhappy with The Fray, while 39 percent were pleased. Another 20 percent called to “Bring back T-Pain” after his infamous Spring Concert performance in 2008 alongside Jack’s Mannequin.
“[Negative feedback] comes with almost anything SPB puts on,” said SPB President Alison Tetla. “I don’t think there has been one concert without negative criticism to date. When it comes to music, some people have very strong and specific tastes. We all know at SPB it’s impossible to please everyone.”
One such impossibility was “Carl,” who asked on QUChronicle.com, “Was the majority of the voters 13-year-old deaf girls? The Fray is awful, how about we start doing a secondary survey when we narrow it down to one or two choices so that the concert doesn’t suck again.”
The Fray was the second most popular band in the online survey sent out by SPB earlier this year, just behind alternative rockers O.A.R, who are not currently touring.
“It’s been working, but it’s a difficult process to survey the student body,” Tetla said. “We don’t put any artists we can’t get. We pick the ones on the survey list for a reason.”
Roughly half, or 44 percent of the undergraduate population partook in the survey, and 40 percent of those checked off The Fray as a possible Spring Concert choice.
“As many people as there are complaining there are just as many people for it and excited for the show,” Tetla said.
The Fray, a four-piece piano-rock band from Denver, Colo., has produced such hits as “Over My Head (Cable Car) and “How to Save a Life,” both carrying a softer sound than previous concerts Third Eye Blind, Hellogoodbye, and Ludacris.
“The Fray is a pretty mainstream group, playing mainly mellower rock,” QU MUSIC Chair Tabor Chichakly said in an e-mail. “I would imagine that some students would be concerned with the performance…and whether it will really be as crazy and get the crowd going as much as some of the previous shows.”
The Fray played on Sept. 23 at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., though, and one Sacred Heart senior was pleasantly surprised.
“They performed [their songs] with a harder rock sound–as opposed to their softer-sounding recorded versions,” said Carli-Rae Panny, editor-in-chief of the student newspaper The Spectrum.
