Concert Review
The Fray
Kelly Clarkson
Carolina Liar
CMAC PAC
Canandaigua, NY
Wednesday August 29, 2012
Review/Photos:Joseph Suto
The Fray and Kelly Clarkson in the midst of a CO-headlining tour made a stop to the Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands PAC Wednesday evening to a rather light crowd. The show featured vocalists Clarkson and Isaac Slade, lead singer from The Fray who helped end the season at CMAC on a positive note. The Fray are currently touring in support of their latest offering Scars and Stories, while Kelly Clarkson is touring for her latest, Stronger.
The Fray were deemed the headliners on this night as the bands are taking turns each night closing out the show. The Fray, a piano driven six piece rock band from Colorado, have three studio albums to their credit. The band featured songs from each but focused mostly on their latest the previously mentioned Scars and Stories.
It seemed that the longer the Fray played, the more fans they won over as they tore through older songs “You Found Me”, “Syndicate” and the classic “Never Say Never”. The band did a good job mixing in the new as songs such as “The Fighter”, “Here We Are”, alongside older hits “Over My Head (Cable Car)” and How To Save A Life”. The band took the time to acknowledge the incident that occurred in Aurora, Colarado as they dedicated “Happiness” to the victims . Ending with the lead single from Scars & Stories, “Heartbeat”, the band finished their set with a raucous cover of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” to close the show.
The biggest surprise of the evening came in finding out Kelly Clarkson would be on stage before The Fray. Clarkson, dressed in a Van Halen T-shirt and a pair of dark jeans took to the stage with “My Life Would Suck Without You”, a track from her 2009 release All I Ever Wanted. Clarkson was in top voice as she whisked through her latest single ”Dark Side”.
During the middle of her set she went out into the center of the pavilion where a couple of ramps were set up as mini stages. Here she performed “We Are Young”, a cover by the band Fun. As she went back to the main-stage a video of Jason Aldean appeared as she performed “Don’t You Wanna Stay”, the power ballad she recorded with Aldean. Although Aldean’s voice was pumped in, the crowd still ate it up.
Clarkson finished with “Breakaway” before concluding the main set with unquestionably her most famous song “Since You Been Gone”. Coming back to the stage for four more tunes, Clarkson seemed to get stronger as her set wore on. While the crowd was rather light in attendance compared to others this season at CMAC, perhaps it was the unlikely pairing of the two artists that kept some away. While both bands have several great musicians, it was two of the best voices in the industry today that stole the spotlight on this particular evening.
Kelly Clarkson
My Life Would Suck Without You
Behind These Hazel Eyes
I Forgive You
Dark Side
You Love Me
We Are Young (fun. Cover)
Already Gone
Don’t You Want To Stay
Always Be My Baby (Mariah Carey cover)
Breakaway
Since U Been Gone
Encore
Because Of You
Mr. Know It All
Miss Independent
Stronger
The Fray
All At Once
Turn Me On
You Found Me
Syndicate
Never Say Never
Here We Are
Ungodly Hour
Happiness
Be Still
The Fighter
Look After You
No Woman, No Cry (Bob Marley cover)
How To Save A Life
Over My Head (Cable Car)
Heartbeat
Surrender (Cheap Trick cover)
