IMDB.com<\/a>., I learned that it was the show\u2019s star actually doing the singing as well. Not totally unusual, but singing talent like that with acting talent to boot is rare indeed. Many try, most fail, but not Alexz.<\/p>\nI\u2019m a longtime musician and I\u2019ve opened for a few big names myself, so I know of what I speak when I say that Alexz is a rare and phenomenal talent. As I bought more and more of her stuff, it became clear quickly that not only does she have talent, Alexz is a true artist. Many people with a lot less talent are singing substandard songs to huge crowds who don\u2019t know any better. Alexz rises above and refuses to compromise and for that, all real musicians owe her a huge debt of gratitude.<\/p>\n
Real music has been under attack since the dawn of the music video, which made looks more important than talent. Please don\u2019t think I\u2019m slighting Alexz in any way, as she is a beautiful young lady and I stood beside her for pictures, so I\u2019ve seen more than the Hollywood version. The point though, is that in today\u2019s music world, what we find are mostly model perfect people and a healthy dose of Autotune (SP?), the bane of music\u2019s existence. Looks, check, voice, don\u2019t worry about that\u2026 And that\u2019s what passes for music to the masses.<\/p>\n
Alexz delivers real music that doesn\u2019t have to be blessed by a marketing department that is more worried about what sells than what is good. Her music lives and breathes and goes wherever her artistic heart takes it. That\u2019s rare today and more than welcome!<\/p>\n
So, to the show. Upon arriving at the Sinclair, the first thing I notice is that I\u2019m one of two guys waiting to get in. The second is that I\u2019m OLD! I have to admit that I had no idea who Max was, so that was sort of surprising, but no big deal. Ten to fourteen year old girls are easy to see over, even at my modest height!<\/p>\n
After most of the line went inside for the Max VIP experience, my daughter and I walked inside to find out about Alexz\u2019s VIP thing. Big swallow, shake of the head, um, sir, she\u2019s um, not here yet. Probably cancelled\u2026 Ouch! Yes, the disaster that is the traffic of New England caught Alexz out, as it catches pretty much anyone not willing to travel at 2 a.m. (Pun intended!) out in the cold.<\/p>\n
Well, the nice folks at the Sinclair threw us a bone and let us into the show area before the main crowd. We ended up right in front of Alexz\u2019s monitor and watched in mild amusement as she ran into the place, unpacked in a frazzle and did a quick, but brilliant sound check. I was close enough to hear her voice in its pure, unamplified state and it was magic!<\/p>\n
Upon completion of the sound check, Breezy called for all of the people with VIPs for Alexz. Doh! Perfect viewpoint lost, but the VIP experience was on. I never doubted for a second! Alexz was friendly and personable and nice to talk to. My daughter and I got pictures and scooted back inside, posting up right behind the sound guy, which was elevated and a great viewpoint and close to center of the sound.<\/p>\n
Alexz takes the stage, pretty much on-time too! Not bad considering Breezy was still parking during the sound check and Megan had to bang the cajon. At some point, I will see Alexz with the full band, but this was a great first exposure to Alexz live. Alexz and a gorgeous guitar doing what she was born to do. As she worked through the set, Megan and Breezy came and went, although Megan played almost the full set.<\/p>\n
The tunes were from the upcoming album, featuring all four songs from the Heart LP, which I signed up for almost immediately after hearing Alexz for the first time. The set was augmented by new tunes from both the album and the television show Blue on Wigs, which Alexz plays a part in. The song Mary from the Blue recordings was familiar already, because Alexz is very generous to her pledgers. Despite some delays in the album, she sends out songs on occasion that are much appreciated!<\/p>\n
Now, I come from a musical family. My 70 year old dad is also a huge fan of Alexz, but not much for concert going anymore. When I played \u2018Thank You For Breaking My Heart\u2019 for him, he couldn\u2019t believe that the song was recorded in 2013. He said it very much reminded him of early Diana Ross. And when I played him \u2018Walking\u2019, the first Alexz song he heard, his reaction was immediate. \u201cWow, who\u2019s that!\u201d This from a man who still gets onstage and belts out the Elvis tunes when people ask him to.<\/p>\n
I speak of these two songs, because they were immediate favorites of mine. I was actually walking for exercise right after downloading Skipping Stone and when \u2018Walking\u2019 came on, I actually stopped walking. It literally blew me away.<\/p>\n
Now, being an artist and something of a musical tuning fork, I feel music very deeply. In all of my books published to date, I thanked Dream Theater for reasons not needed here. In one of those acknowledgements, I speak of being moved to tears at their 20th anniversary show at Radio City several years back. Musical perfection just affects me, especially when it\u2019s powerful and emotional.<\/p>\n
\u2018Thank You For Breaking My Heart\u2019, even without Alexz\u2019s introduction that it\u2019s a true song for someone who did break her heart would have moved me to tears. Watching her bring out the pain and open herself up, while performing flawlessly absolutely did. I\u2019m not ashamed to say that. Artists live by conveying emotion and we\u2019re affected by others work, no doubt. \u2018Walking\u2019 once again moved me. A girl, her guitar and an outpouring of emotion is a powerful thing. If you don\u2019t believe me, go see it for yourself.<\/p>\n
I do have to mention the rest of the trio. Megan is amazing. She brings the right amount of keys into play and harmonizes very well with Alexz. I\u2019d like to see them stick together for the long haul, because they work so very well together. And Breezy, wow. She\u2019s the musical megatron. She\u2019s the road manager, VIP tour guide, drives the blues mobile AND gets up on stage to add percussion to some of the songs. And together, the three young ladies will blow you away. If they haven\u2019t come to your city yet, GET TICKETS!!!<\/p>\n
Now that Alexz is a part of my creative process, she will be thanked in my novels as well. Being based in New York, three point five hours by GPS, 6 hours by the traffic from where I live, I hope to one day go see one of her local NYC shows and bring her a signed copy. Until then, I\u2019ll continue to listen and support her in her musical endeavors, while she keeps it coming and keeps it real!<\/p>\n
Pete Adams\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a great article about Alexz’s show at the Sinclair. I think the author hits on a lot of why we love Alexz as well as her music and continue to support her any way we can. Source Alexz Johnson at the Sinclair in Cambridge MA Being a writer of fiction for teens and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[72,300,498,849],"class_list":["post-5857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tour-3","tag-article","tag-instant-star","tag-review","tag-the-sinclair"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Pf1c-1wt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5858,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions\/5858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}