I grew up listening to the radio, my favorite being the L.A. adult contemporary station 104.3 MYFM. It shaped my music taste (and most likely my personality) in a big way, with one band in particular making me look extra wistfully out the car window while my parents drove me to school. And sitting, sinking comfortably in a big bean bag chair along with other hot AC heroes like Kelly Clarkson, P!NK, and OneRepublic was The Fray. They gave me feelings of grief and loss before I ever felt them, and as I’ve grown up, their songs have grown from fiction to reality.
I was lucky enough to see them on their most recent tour at The Wiltern, and it simply reminded me of why “Heartbeat” is one of the best songs of all time. The band was formed in 2002 by schoolmates Isaac Slade and Joe King in Denver, Colorado. They have a cinematic, larger-than-life sound while remaining intimate, with piano as the leading instrument rather than guitar. They’ve cited rock heroes U2 and Counting Crows as inspirations, and have garnered a loyal fanbase after releasing hits like “You Found Me,” “Never Say Never,” and the colossal smash “How To Save A Life.”
A fanbase so loyal, in fact, that after those songs came out in the early 2000s, they packed the Wiltern with a sold out show. As I hopped off of the train and walked over to the venue, I overheard dozens of fans excitedly talking about seeing the band, talking about all of the songs they were hoping they would play.
The band started off the night with “She Is,” and the crowd started screaming so loud that a few people next to me had to cover their ears. “This is gonna break me clean in two / This is gonna bring me close to you / She is everything I need that I never knew I wanted / She is everything I want that I never knew I needed.” The crowd sang along, and a couple of girls next to me cried while recording the whole thing.
Notably, guitarist Joe King was singing lead vocals, as The Fray’s former lead singer Isaac Slade voluntarily retired in 2022 due to health reasons. And, it’s worth mentioning, he did a fantastic job. He was charismatic and charming, interacting frequently with the audience, and similar enough to Slade to do him justice but natural enough to fit his voice to the songs authentically.
Next up they played “All At Once,” “Look After You,” and “Fall Away.” They brought out opener Landon Barker to sing with them, and they played the hits of course as well, “You Found Me,” and “How To Save A Life,” which a few people near me made frantic calls to their loved ones saying “they’re playing it now, come back!” And, as I mentioned earlier, they played their song “Heartbeat.” I was ecstatic of course, with me feeling as though it is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. The lyrics are wide and open, and work in perfectly with the urgent, percussive guitar: “We’re on an open-bed truck on the highway / Rain is coming down and we’re on the run / Think I can feel the breath in your body / We gotta keep on running ’til we see the sun / … and you don’t look back, not for anything / … Oh, I’m feeling your heartbeat / And oh, you’re coming around, coming around, coming around / If you can love somebody, you love ’em all the same / You gotta love somebody, love ’em all the same / Singing, ‘Oh, I’m feeling your heartbeat.’”
As the show came to a close, King, with his voice heavy with gratitude, spoke out to the crowd, “This is a really cool moment, I’ll never forget this tour. I’ll never forget this night.”
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