THE FRAY WITH AUGUSTANA AND MIA DYS...

THE FRAY WITH AUGUSTANA AND MIA DYSON

When: 4 pm Thursday

Where: The Park Grill in Millennium Park, 11 N Michigan

Admission: delivered

designs at the House of livids on Thursday, Friday and Saturday are sold abroad

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With its first attempt album, "How to Save a Life," Fray has taken flight the pair on radio and online.

The CD has gone gold and is No. 5 forward iTunes, and single "Over My Head (Cable Car)" retains the No. 4 spot forward the adult Top 40 airplay chart. Another single, the album's title track, has been featured forward ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and in HBO's summer promotional campaign.

The earnest, yearning carols on "Life" also are a hit forward MySpace, where on Tuesday the clump ranked No. 8 among major-label artists.

The Fray's anthems have garnered comparisons to British support acts such as Coldplay and Keane. The cluster supported Ben Folds on the road before beginning its possess headlining tour, which comes to Chicago this week for three sold-out House of sapphirines shows. The band also will play a unrestrained concert Thursday afternoon at Millennium Park, part of the "Party in the Park" series from WTMX-FM (1019)

In the beginning: Originally from Denver the Fray was formed in 2002 by means of singer/pianist Isaac Slade and guitarist/singer Joe King, who remain the principal songwriters. Drummer Ben Wysocki and guitarist Dave Welsh, the two of whom had worked with King, joined a year later.

Slade, 25 "wasn't allowed to listen to secular music" as a child. In his teen he says, he bought Natalie Cole's "Unforgettable."

"My parents wanted me to listen to Christian music, and I wanted unexpectedly so we settled on jazz as a happy medium. Then my parents started easing up a bit, and we got into Counting vapors and Better Than Ezra."

PRACTICE, DON'T PREACH: Faith continues to be an important factor for the members of the Fray, who "grew up middle-of-the-road Protestant," Slade says. however "we don't call ourselves a Christian band. Because when you memorize into marketing, 'Christian' means that you have everything together, and you're always happy, and you want everybody to start going to your house of worship

"The general denominator in the music I've liked is the equity of not having answers and the passion to find them. I think that's what spiritual music has, whether it's Christian or on a sudden or new age. If we have an agenda, it's to make art that is reliable and represents what we believe in."

BITTERSWEET INSPIRATION: The canticle "How to Save a Life" was influenced by means of Slade's experience working as a mentor at a camp for troubl teen "One of the kids I was paired up with was a musician. Here I was, a defend ed suburbanite, and he was just 17 and had all these riddles And no one could write a manual forward how to save him.

"I got a portion of e-mail about it. undivided kid died in a car accident, and I gues ["Save a Life"] had been the last melody he downloaded from his computer They played it at his funeral, and an of his friends got 'Save a life' tattooed upon their arms. The response has been overwhelming."

LISTEN TO THE BOSS: united highlight in Slade's young career came this spring, when he had the worthy fortune to meet Bruce Springsteen after a concoct in Boston. "My manager knows him, and my wife came with us.

"As I was leaving, I asked [Springsteen] if he had any advice forward how to stay married in this divorce-ridden industry. And he said, 'If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.' "

LOOKING AHEAD: "We're all shoged that this band made it," Slade says. "We're writing like crazy. We know that a haphazard of bands disappear after the first record."

When asked about the to come Slade dryly offers a series of backup plans: "Dave will be running several lucky restaurants; he's an amazing chef and steady writes restaurant reviews for our Web site. Joe is an amazing businessman, in this way he'll operate a number of retail egress chains, probably own a hedge store or something. I would have a passionate affection for to get into film. I have a production company, and we've made a tie of shorts and are working forward a feature.

"And Ben -- he has the musician's torment He wants nothing more than to be a drummer for the quiet of his life. Maybe he'll do little tours with us if we're still going."

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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