Alexz Johnson Island

Where to start. The actual beginning of the story will be very dull and boring to most of my visitors I think, so it’s probably best to start it out at The Drake Hotel. I booked a room there since she was playing there. It made sense to me. The night before, and day of my arrival to the hotel, I ventured down to the Underground to get a look at the venue. This is the theater kid in me that likes to scope out places before anything actually happens there. I met the man who mixes the shows at the hotel down there and we got to talking for awhile. He was a real nice guy and if Alexz plays at the Drake again he might recognize me, who knows? I think this is of minor importance since he said something to me after the show too.

Let’s move ahead to when the doors opened at 8pm the night of the show.

While I waited Alexz walked by me a few times. The first time my heart when from 0 to 100 in about a second. I’m glad I brought my camera with me or I’d have nothing to fiddle with when I got nervous. I was wearing my “techie blacks” that night. It’s what I wear for opening nights of plays I work which is black jeans and a black button up shirt. I wanted to look nice and don’t have a typical suit. This is interesting because I completely forget that by wearing that I’d look like I work there. This meant I was ignored a lot in the hour before the show started except by those who already knew who I was. Another man, also dressed in blacks, was standing opposite me at the bottom of the staircase leading down from the bar to the concert area. I wonder if people thought we were security or going to check their tickets or something.

The Drake is also a dimly lit venue and I was never satisfied on whether the flash should be on or off, which gave me about 10 test pictures I had to delete later. I met Alanna Memme at the merchandise booth. She’s a total sweetheart. She asked me if I was nervous to meet Alexz. “Yes.”

We’re going to fast forward to the start of the show. Degrassi fans looking for my account of the tour of the sets will be disappointed since Alexz’s concert was the entire point of my trip. Look into her Degrassi fans, she’s incredible.

The Bed opened the show. They have this raw rock sound I really like. No electronics, no tricks, just guitars, drums, and voices. We need more bands like them around.

Finally, Alexz took to the stage. People immediately went up close to the stage the moment they knew she was about to start. I think everyone has this moment where you can’t really believe you’re there or that you’re that close. I had that the whole concert. Alexz is someone you’ve got to see live. Once she starts singing you’re just blown away by what she can do. I suspect she may have been a bit nervous, and if she was, she played it off well. She has tremendous stage presence and a ton of charisma.

I think we all seem to go into things with some sort of expectations, which can really get in the way of the experience. Here I mean for songs we all know and have heard so many times and different versions of. When she played “A Little Bit”, which she introduced as an “oldie”, the whole place was rocking. The song is such a sing-a-long party song and is amazing live. For “Thief” and “Mary” Alexz took out the guitar. Video, music files, nothing is the same as hearing it live. “Gonna Get It” is a song I love off of Voodoo and I couldn’t help singing along when she performed that one. It’s one of those songs you wish was longer. Alexz performed “Back of the Room” next which she was really getting into, and while it’s a newer song, I knew some people already knew all the words. One of my new favorites. The debut of “Skipping Stone” was next. This is a heartfelt ballad that really tugs at you. Such a powerful chorus. I can see this being a fan favorite in short order. The next song I really remember was “Saving The Train”. I’m so happy Alexz is performing this song now. I don’t know what it is about this song, but you really feel it inside. I have way too many all-time favorite Alexz songs, but this is one of them.

My cheat sheet says “River of Pain” came next. Absolutely incredible live. It gets stuck in your head, it’s a fantastic song, and you can see Alexz feel every word of it as she sings. She is passionate and loves what she does and it shows in every note she sings and in the way she moves when she’s on stage. Alexz finished the show with “Look At Those Eyes”. Another amazing song to hear live. Couldn’t help singing along to it. The lyrics “It’s been a long, been a long, been a long way home…” are my favorite of the song and it was awesome. All of it. She bowed out and left the stage to many calls of “ENCORE!”

As many of you already know she came back a few minutes later. Someone in the audience was wanting her to play “Chicago” to which Lev Lewis told him he’d be “sorely disappointed” which got some laughs from the crowd. Alexz said it was someone’s birthday today that had come a long way to see the show(me). After she found where I was she wished me a happy birthday which made the whole experience even more amazing that it already was. I don’t even know how to act when that happens. I don’t think anyone does. She then performed “L.A. Made Me”, another great sing-a-long that fans love everywhere. I know it was a long concert, but it felt like it ended too soon. As people were clearing out and I was fiddling with my camera the Sound Mixer started to pack up. He said “Hey! You got a shoutout!” to me 🙂 We had some small talk.

I was approached by Tom T Shane, now a Guest Writer of the site, and Dayna Craig, aka @DaynaDoughnut. It was awesome to meet fans and talk in more than 140 characters. We talked for quite awhile as the venue cleared out. I had a room there so, technically, had nowhere to go. Before moving on to the point of meeting her I discovered quick how fast people knew who was in attendance. This is who I knew was there:

Alexz’s parents
Brendan Johnson and Katherine Johnson
Dan Kanter
Alanna Memme
Stephen Stohn
Michael Maxxis
Jessica Earnshaw
Jimmy Robbins
Matthew Brown
The Bed
Garrison Johnson

Now the moment of truth. If you read this Alexz, despite all that happened that night, my memory of this moment is very fuzzy and disjointed. I really did not know what to say to her or what to expect or anything. What I actually said escapes me. She was all smiles, absolutely glowing, and full of energy. I got a hug from her. She is fantastic at giving hugs. I know people always want to know how she is. In that first moment your mind sort of blanks. If I had not been fortunate enough to talk to her once before it would have gone completely blank. I was expecting something like this to happen but you can never really prepare for it. So how is she? She’s kind, nice, has a heart of gold, is extremely attentive, and as many of you have heard me say on Twitter before, easily some of the most beautiful and powerful eyes I’ve ever seen. I will definitely be seeing her in concert as many times as I can make happen. I drove over 800 miles one way to see her at the Drake Hotel and I would do it again. To everyone that made my birthday the most amazing day ever, thank you. 🙂

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 at 9:05 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.