Almond Amazingness — Atlanta Show
Here is a wonderful story about the Skipping Stone Tour from Alexz’s show in Atlanta submitted by Chris Griffith.
Almond Amazingness
So this story is reallyyyyy long and is mainly meant as a submission for My Week with Alexz, but if you want to read it then click below.
Oh God… where do I begin? This story could pretty much start anywhere, like when I first heard of Alexz or when I first told my best friend about her or when the Skipping Stone Tour was announced? So many decisions.
Well, I guess I’ll just start with when I told Katie, my best friend, about the tour. Katie had moved to Texas (I live in Alabama) a month before the tour dates were announced. I was hoping Alexz would be going to Texas so I could fly down and go with Katie. I never thought she’d fly here and drive with me to Atlanta. But she did and that’s why I love her.
We had been freaking out for the past month and a half about seeing Alexz. For me, she’s one of my biggest inspirations and it had been a dream for six years to see her live. So we made our plans, Katie got her plane ticket, and I got our concert tickets. Oh wait, I didn’t do that last one. Thanks to a procrastinating mother (Sorry mom!), we waited until the last minute to get our tickets and there was only one VIP ticket left. We eventually decided that I’d take the VIP ticket and Katie would take the General Admissions ticket. So finally, we bought our tickets! YAY!!!
In preparation for the show, I decided I needed to do something special, something that Alexz would really enjoy. So I made a collage-like poster featuring many different pictures of her over the years with a personal letter on the back. I also burned a CD with a bunch of songs that I’m hoping Alexz will enjoy! Katie helped by making a cover for the CD where she drew the same cover for Look At Those Eyes, which was VERY accurate by the way, and wrote a tracklist on the back. She also had two mixed CDs that I’d made her and she planned on getting one of them signed. I couldn’t find a single thing of mine for Alexz to sign…
And so we made our way to the show, taking a good two-and-a-half hour drive to Atlanta. We arrived at the venue and walked in, not seeing anyone taking up tickets. After looking around the room we saw Alexz to the left talking to a fan. Then a man walked towards us asking if we had VIP tickets. I said yes and showed him mine. He said I was late and that I was the last VIP to arrive and that they were getting ready to try and contact me. You should know, I felt like a REAL VIP after he said that. He asked Katie about her ticket. She said she just had a regular one. Without even really acknowledging what she said, he told us BOTH to go and meet Alexz. That… was just one of the super awesome highlights of that night.
We then walked over to where Alexz was. My heart was pumping, my hands were shaking, and I knew I would stutter when I talked to her. And I was right. But even through me cluttered words, I was still able to tell her how amazing she was and how I’d been a fan for such a long time. We also gave her the poster which she loved! Apparently we were the first ones that night to give her anything (yeah!). I handed her the CD, but she brought up one problem me and Katie had overlooked… we needed to name the CD! So the next 30 seconds were spent trying to think of a name. I then asked Alexz what was something she likes. Her reply: almonds. And so, the mixed CD was formally dubbed forevermore… Almond Amazingness. Yeah not my best, but pretty good considering I was trying to remind myself to breathe the whole time right?
So Alexz took our poster and CD, signed Katie’s CD, and ended up signing my two year old photobooth picture of me, Katie, and our friend Sasha. We got our picture with Alexz, said goodbye, and walked off to stand with the other show-goers. Basically, meeting Alexz Johnson was one of the most memorable experiences of my life! She was so polite and interested in everything we had to say. She really appreciated our gifts and even gushed about how me and Katie are “the cutest best friends ever!”
About 40 minutes after meeting her, the opening act, Sydney Elousie, came on. She was pretty great. Just her, her guitar, and her lyrics about fucked up relationships. Kinda like Taylor Swift… But yeah she was awesome and was actually really funny too. Sydney, you were definitely a great opening act. Best of luck to you!
Ten minutes or so after Sydney was finished, guess who came on???? Alexz’s band!!!! Haha but like a minute afterwards, Alexz came on and immediately busted in to Weight, which is one of my favorites. As for the rest of the show… FUCKING FANTASTIC!!!!!
I remember looking around the room before the show and seeing all these cool, calm, collected people who didn’t seem like crazy, ecstatic fans like me and Katie. I thought we’d be the only ones rocking out. But thankfully, I was WRONG! Everyone was so energetic and sang along to all her songs, especially those on the Skipping Stone EP. I was so surprised, and so was Alexz! You could just see the shock on her face at how pumped this crowd was! Even the writer for Alexz’s official fansite said the show beat out Boston’s for top spot and called it “lively, rocking, [and] fun.” I’d also like to point out that when we first walked in, there were only 30-40 people in the venue. By the time the show started, there were over 100! It was such a great turnout, and not only that, but it was unexpected! And that just made it even better. And another great thing about the audience was the way we interacted with Alexz. We’d shout things and joke with her and she’d joke back and it was a lot of fun. That reminds me, all of the audience is engaged to Alexz now. Yeah it happened.
So the show went on and every song felt like a party song, even Walking and Skipping Stone. We even did some moshing during Chicago! Me and Katie were so close to the stage that we got to touch Alexz’s hand when she reached out to the crowd. And this didn’t happen once, or twice, but three times!!! And of course, judging by how great the audience was, Alexz sang Running With The Devil as the encore song. Just absolutely amazing! Best concert I’ve ever been to!
After it ended, me and Katie decided to go to the merch table. However, there was a big line and we don’t like big lines! So we did the next best thing… we talked to the band members of course! Me, Katie, and a couple other fans spent about fifteen minutes talking to Misty, the keyboardist. Most of our conversation was spent on whether anything embarrassing had happened to Alexz on tour yet. Misty said no not yet, but that she expects something by the end of the tour. So we’ll see! Haha sorry Alexz we love you!
We spent most of our time though, talking to Adam and Kirk, the drummer and guitarist. Katie pretty much talked to Kirk and me to Adam. I was surprised to hear that Adam had been to my hometown before and he really likes it. He asked me if I knew who Sanders Bohlke was (a singer-songwriter extraordinaire) and I was like “yeah! The Weight Of Us is one of my favorite songs. Why?” Then Adam told me Sanders is from my hometown! How did I not know that!??? We talked about more music stuff and eventually we got on to a pretty personal topic… my parent’s divorce. It was only a week ago that my parents told me. Adam was pretty cool about it, and I was surprised to learn that his parents got divorced when he was 17 too! And so me, Katie, and Kirk talked about some more serious stuff but then they had to go help take things down. By the time they left though, there was no line at the table.
I ended up buying a Give Me Fire tshirt, a signed vinyl edition of Skipping Stone, and a signed poster. Katie bought the This Heart’s Not Your Skipping Stone shirt and a signed copy of the EP. We said our goodbyes to Alexz and the band, and left one of the greatest nights of our lives.
I still can’t believe everything that happened last night. Honestly, it just feels so surreal. Not only did I see an amazing show, I met one of my biggest inspirations (with my best friend who wasn’t even supposed to meet her!), I gave her some awesome gifts, stood right in front of her during the show, met most of the band, had a heart-to-heart with the drummer, and bought some cool shit!
In a way, it seems too good to be true doesn’t it? But it isn’t, because it happened. And now me and my best friend are two of the happiest people right now
