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Headline RSS FeedThis year's Snow Daze was best ever
December 12, 2008 —
The story goes like this: The Fray's lead singer, Issac Slade, went to a music awards show with his daughter. She quickly gravitated toward Sting, being as she was young and free of the appropriate shyness that one should have around rock stars.
Sting's daughter, also young and unaffected, quickly interjected in the conversation, saying ... "Oh, I know who you are, you're Issac Slade's daughter ... The Fray is my favorite band."
Until Saturday night in Vail, I imagine that interchange with Sting topped the cool meter of Rock Stardom for The Fray, a Colorado band which has avoided one-hit-wonder status, but at the same time has pretty much been known known world-wide mainly for its 2005 hit single "How To Save A Life."
I haven't actually followed up with the Fray to prove or disprove any of the above, but give me a bit of time to enjoy the freshness of the powder up here in Vail and, when the weekday begins again, I'll get a hold of the Fray (if I can) and find out if they were as psyched and, well, entranced, with Saturday night's amazing outdoor-in-a-massive-blizzard show as I was.
Maybe it's not a Sting-topper, but it's got to rank in the top 3 moments of the band's short, but celestial, history.
While Slade's piano was being drenched, and likely ruined, in melting snow, the audience was bouncing and swirling in a way uncannily similar to the snowflakes, which have left about a foot (and more) around Vail and Beaver Creek this weekend (check our snow report on the upper-left-hand side of the page for more on that one).
But only a Colorado band could have rocked the mountains like The Fray did Saturday night ... only a Colorado band home-grown on slopeside gigs with freezing fingers, wind gusts, and sub-freezing tempuratures could have walked out on that stage, seen the weather, and thought to themselves ... yeah, this will be a good show.
And it was.
Even being there was a feat in itself. Proper dress was critical. Fear of cold was unacceptable. Get cold, dance. Dance, get warm. Get warm, and suddenly just the fact that we were there, that we were all there and all listening to a band from Colorado play its heart out in the middle of a freaking snowstorm ... man it was absolutely beautiful.
Of course, that may be due, in large part, to the knowledge that everyone who was at that concert Saturday night would be skiing (or riding) deep, weightless white powder Sunday (and possibly the Jack Daniels may have had something to do with it) ... but the powder day ahead was something we all knew about without talking about it ... that we were somewhere completely unique, this wierd all-white movie-stage of a concert venue, doing something we'd all remember for a long, long time to come.
After all, it IS Snow Daze... what did people expect, right? SNOW... SNOW ... SNOW. Dress warm. Wear long underwear and gloves. Utilize provided Snow Daze coozies for beverage enjoyment without cold-hand syndrome affliction.
And I'll admit that I've complained openly about Snow Daze and Spring Back to Vail in the past, largely because I don't think Kid Rock and/or hard-core rap bands mix well with snow storms, but my complaints are nowhere to be found this year, obliterated by the contempt I had for those who dressed poorly and left early from Saturday night's show.
With an all-Colorado-band linup at Snow Daze 2008, my my only complaint has become that this increasingly bullet-proof event happens only once a year ... or twice if you count Spring Back to Vail.
Hmmmm ... any chance we can make it happen more often?
2 Comments on "This year's Snow Daze was best ever"
um, not so much — December 16, 2008
Isaac Slade doesn't have a daughter. Perhaps you meant Joe King?
Boyd — December 16, 2008
I think you're right, it was Joe King. Anyway as I said in the blog, the story was apocryphal and I hadn't checked with the Fray to see if the story was true. I'm still workin' on talking to them about it and I'll repost in this space if and when I do.
Thanks for your comments.
