Watch The Fray's Terrible Version Of The National Anthem

1.

The National Anthem is a moving piece of music. It’s hard to listen to a good version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and not feel proud, or whatever you feel as a foreigner or someone who’s not a big fan of the United States. Even as an American, I can watch other national anthems and feel proud, like, “Wow, nice job with that anthem. Proud of you for that, and for your great exports, impressive infrastructure, and other accomplishments.” A song that carries such gravity is not something to be played around with.

Somehow, The Fray managed to suck the life out of our country’s theme song. Sure, it was emotional, but emotional in the worst way, like when a teenage girl is upset because her boyfriend of two weeks told her she was annoying. It sounds like the kind of emo alt-folk-rock that could play during the end credits of Teen Mom. This is all bad enough without even considering the out-of-sync guitar playing and the introduction of a tambourine. Nothing against the tambourine, but playing that jingly little goofball of an instrument during “The Star-Spangled Banner” is like trying to cover Pachelbel’s “Canon in D” with a kazoo.

After the performance, guitarist Joe King tweeted:

The frozen fingers might explain Joe’s poor guitar playing, but it’s unclear if he will be at the “loser bar” because his team lost or because he feels like a loser for butchering our country’s great N.A. It almost makes you feel bad for the guys, but then you watch the video below.

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