Relive the Fray’s ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ performance

The sappy soap-rockers (sorta) got their America on before last night’s championship game



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I guess this is probably old Internet news by now, but come on, did you see the Fray’s utterly macabre take on the National Anthem before last night’s NCAA Championship Game? I mean, it’s the Fray - all their godawful songs sound like slightly different versions of a recurring anxiety nightmare of mine - so I wasn’t expecting much. But I certainly didn’t anticipate...that. (What I did anticipate, like everyone else, was the crushing tedium of most of that game. Oof.)

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There are people (like the commenters on BodyBuilding.com’s message boards) who are royally pissed off about the Fray “screwing” with America’s national anthem. Then there are those, like me, who are more concerned that this concept of the National Anthem being sung - and more often than not, mercilessly butchered - before EVERY SPORTING EVENT, EVER (“Welcome to the 2012 Shady Grove Retirement Community Shuffleboard Regional Semifinals! Please stand and remove your caps...”) is an unfortunate tradition that really just needs to die. Save it for the Olympics, OK?