Alexz Live at the Rivoli

Meeting Alexz Johnson at the Rivoli. Where do I even begin? It was all so incredible! I guess the best place to start is at the very beginning. I first found out about Alexz being live at the Rivoli when Stephen Stohn first posted it on his Twitter. But being the idiot I was, for some reason I thought the show was in BC. It wasn’t until Stephen did the contest did I find out that it was actually in Toronto. For those of you who don’t know, I live right outside of Toronto in a city called Brampton. Lets just say that was a tad more ideal. So Stephen held the contest, and as it turned out, I knew the answer, and I believe I typed furiously in caps, but I was the third person to answer. I can’t even describe how disappointed I was. But suddenly I got a DM from Stephen himself. It said “I’m going to get you tickets even if you didn’t win!”. If you’re a huge Alexz fan like me, then you understand what I mean when I say that my reaction was priceless. There was a lot of screaming and shaking involved.

A couple major obstacles held me back from going, but I quickly tackled those and found a way around everything.

Wednesday March the tenth rolled around extremely slowly. Once it was here, I was beyond incredibly nervous. Stephen had told me he was going to try to make sure I met Alexz, and I can’t even tell you how much of a nervous mixture of excitement I was. I think it took me something like two hours and a floor covered in clothes to figure out what I was going to wear. All of my friends on Twitter were telling me how lucky I was, and to have fun, and by the time my brother who was coming with me came home to pick me up, I was literally freaking out. But nothing was going to stop me from meeting my idol.

The Rivoli is located in downtown Toronto, and we were able to find it pretty easily. Once we walked in, there was the front room, which was a restaurant style bar, then we got in line to head to the back, where a stage and viewing area was set up. We waited in line for about twenty minutes I’d say. At one point, a couple of people who were employees at the bar were saying that the place was going to be so busy, and they weren’t sure if they should make sure the people on the list would all be able to get in if they weren’t there soon. At that point I knew that even though it didn’t seem like it, Alexz has a true fan following pretty much everywhere!

Once we got to the front of the line, I told the lady that I was on the list, and another person who was overseeing that there were no problems with any entering, turned to me and said “congratulations!”. I think at that point it TRULY hit me that I was going to be meeting Alexz.

After heading in and grabbing a drink, me and my brother grabbed a seat at the side of the room and began to wait. We still had about half an hour. After fifteen minutes of waiting, I saw a blonde with her back turned to me, and I turned to my brother and said “oh my god, is that her?” and she turned slightly, and it took a lot to stop myself from screaming. It. was. Alexz. Johnson.

Standing a total of two feet away from me. I’d been waiting until Stephen was free to go over and introduce myself, but I figured now was the time, haha. I made my way over and tapped on his shoulder and introduced myself. With a big smile Stephen said hi to me and then turned and said to Alexz, “I’d like to introduce you to Katie, she’s been a huge fan for a long time now.” And with a big smile Alexz shook my hand and said “Hi Katie, it’s so great to meet you!”

Now If you guys are like me, you’ve taken Alexz and basically thought about what her personality was and basically built her up in your mind as this amazing, genuinely nice person. Well let me tell you, she didn’t disappoint!

After introducing ourselves, I asked if I could get a picture with Alexz. Stephen was awesome and offered to take one of Alexz, my brother, and I. He made sure that he took three so he knew that there would be at least one good one. I then asked Alexz if she would mind doing a picture with just me, and she gave me a big smile and said “yeah, sure!”. I think that’s my favourite picture. Ever.

Alexz ended up staying and talking to fans right until people were actually telling her she had to go sing. She didn’t have to take any time to prepare, she just kind of ran up on stage and got started!

The set was short, but sweet. It lasted six songs. Dressed in a black tank top, a black bedazzled tuxedo jacket and black jeans with boots, anyone could see that Alexz had an absolute blast up on stage. The entire time she was up singing she was smiling, and dancing, and always moving around. The crowd was also pretty good, and she said she couldn’t see everyone because of the stage lights, but she could feel the energy in the room, and said it was amazing. I think a good word to describe the performance would be “breathtaking”.  Anyone in the room who wasn’t a fan when they came, was definitely a fan when they left!

To kick off the set, she started with A Little Bit, and got the crowd dancing and clapping to the beat. She then performed Voodoo, and really killed it. She then announced that LA Made Me was going to be next, and with a smile on her face she said “because LA made me”. Next up was Superstition that she really put her heart and soul into. She showed off her vocal talent and passion shined through every word. When she finished the song she said Superstition was about “Dealing with yourself”. Hurricane Girl was next. Alexz finished off the set with Trip Around the World and everyone was clapping and dancing. Not a single person in the room wanted the set to be over so fast.

After performing, Alexz came out and signed autographs. She had to sign in a hall, because she basically got bombarded. Once again, I got to meet Alexz and get autographs. Brendan also came out and stood behind Alexz and I got to talk to him for a few minutes. He gave me some advice on songwriting and guitar. I had to leave, but I made sure to get a hug from both Alexz and Brendan before I left.

Upon exiting, I got stopped by CityTV on the street interviewers, and did an interview on Alexz and Canadian Music Week. Unfortunately, none of the footage about Alexz made the cut.

Honestly, it was the perfect night. I couldn’t have asked for more. Alexz was gracious and amazing, and everything just went perfectly.

Before I end this, I want to take a second to say thanks to our unspoken hero: Stephen Stohn. Stephen works so hard for Alexz and the fans, and goes above and beyond daily. I know sometimes we give him a hard time about things, but without him, we’d have nothing at all. So much of the stuff we see – like alexzjohnson.com for example – is a result of Stephens tireless and persistent work. We really have him to thank for so much! And thanks again for the tickets Stephen! Stay Awesome! We really do appreciate you.

And I guess that pretty much sums up everything! Overall it was honestly one of the best nights of my life. The feeling of finally meet your longtime hero and role model is absolutely indescribable.

If there’s anything that I might have left out, or you have a question, feel free to send me a message at my Twitter

DFTBA,

Katie 

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 12:52 am and is filed under Alexz Johnson, Guest Writers, KatieMT, Music, Musings, 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.

 

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