Hello! This week I spontaneously decided to go to a show in Austin two hours before it started. The show was for Chelsea Cutler on Sunday the 16th at Emo’s in Austin; Alexander 23 and X lovers opened for her. I had just driven back down to San Marcos from this gig I had played up in Dallas over the weekend and my friend didn’t want to go to the show alone, so I looked on twitter for anyone who was selling tickets, and luckily enough I found someone who still had a ticket to sell.
I had heard a few songs from Chelsea Cutler and Alexander 23 beforehand, but other than that I had never really heard much from any of the artists and didn’t really know what to expect. All I knew was that they had a similar sound to artists like Jeremy Zucker and Julia Michaels. We waited outside the venue in a pretty short line for around an hour before going in; we got super close to the stage and waited for the first artist to come on.
The first artists that came on were a band called X lovers. They are a small band with just a lead singer(London Jackson) who plays the guitar, and a drummer(Jacob Ames); they have been playing together since they were 10 and 11 years old. They have a sort of a soft pop rock kinda sound, similar to Rex Orange County and a toned down version of Yungblud. They had such amazing energy on stage and were really great at holding the crowd’s attention. They also sounded absolutely stellar live, which not all artists have the ability to do.
Alexander 23 came on next, and he did not disappoint. His backdrop was super simple with just a light up heart sign with his name on it that would flash to the beat of whatever song he would play. It was just him, his drummer, and guitar/bass player on stage; which worked so well with his sound. He has a similar sound to artists like gnash, Jeremy Zucker, and JP Saxe. His voice is absolutely insane, and he had no trouble singing live; I don’t think I heard one mistake, it sounded flawless. My favorite song he played that night had to be High School. It’s my favorite from him. I actually got the chance to meet him after the show; he is so incredibly humble and nice. Especially considering how tired he was; and he waited to see every last person until there was no one left.
Last, but certainly not least, Chelsea Cutler finally makes her grand appearance. Before she came out there was this montage of videos following the path of her whole career so far and it showed how far she has come, and it was a great way to hype up the crowd. She came out with so much energy right off the bat; and she kept the same high energy all the way through the set. She was jumping around everywhere(even from the top of the drum set at one point)and running around. Every song she sang, you could tell she felt it and wasn’t just going through the motions; she was enjoying herself just as much as the rest of us were. She killed it, just absolutely left it all out on the stage.
Overall this was such a lovely experience, and I highly recommend you go see any of these artists. You will not be disappointed.
Songs Are Us 