Alex Simms: Live Performance
Pacha Nightclub, New York, United States ~ [31/March/2013]
– A photo taken backstage, moments before going onstage – PRE-SHOWThe sounds of the little under two-hundred people gathered in the venue echoed down the narrow hallway of this New York City nightclub as the sounds of the repetitive dance beats filled the entire building. But along the narrow hallways is a small room, with a couple of folding chairs, a table and a mirror and very little else with the exception of the graffiti that has been sprawled across the once white walls sits a twenty-one year old man, his fringe almost covering his eyes as he sits impatiently, constantly fidgeting with his iPhone. His head rises as he hears a knock at the door,
“It’s open!” he says, it’s a young blonde haired waitress, she looks at him and gives a friendly smile,
“Can I get you anything, Sir.”, Alex looks up at her and gives a light smile,
“Sir? That’s a new one on me.” he pauses for a moment,
“Yeah, could I get a Vodka, please? Krova?” the young waitress nods and informs Alex that she’ll be right back.
A couple of minutes pass and the young waitress knocks at the door again, this time opening the door before receiving a response from Alex who at this point is changing into a sleeveless shirt,
“Oh, I’m sorry” she says as she looks at the struggling Rockstar, he laughs slightly as the waitress hurriedly places the bottle of Vodka on the table, she looks at him and smiles,
“Here you go Sir, that’s $22” Alex looks at the waitress, then at the table before placing his hand into his jeans pocket, he scraps around in his wallet to find the right amount, it’s just about enough to cover the price and the waitress leaves as he hands over the money.
Alex slumps down onto a plastic folding chair and places his hand on the ice cold bottle of alcohol, unscrewing the lid slowly as he shakes his head at the situation that he’s currently in, he places the bottle to his lips and takes a large mouthful of the vodka, leaning back into the chair as he does so. His phone buzzes, the name Amelia pops up on the screen alongside a photo of what appears to be the girl in question and Alex smiling wildly and looking clearly drunk, his expression changes almost to a smile but given recent events and the musicians current financial situation it’s difficult for him to do so.
He answers the phone, swiping his finger across the screen to accept the incoming phone call,
“Melia, what’s happening?!” he says in his quiet voice with a slight southern drawl, he’s met by a very cheerful voice on the other end of the phone call,
“Duuuuuude! I just won a giant penguin and three rubber ducks! This night freaking rules.” Alex laughs slightly at this not too uncommon conversational path,
“Where are you?” the female voice can be heard laughing heavily on the other end of the phone, it’s clear that Amelia has had a few drinks already as she screams into the phone,
“CONEY ISLAND BAAAAAAAABY!” and before Alex can respond, the phone call comes to an end.
Another knock at the door can be heard and this time Alex walks over to the door and opens it, a man with various facial rings and tattoos emblazoned all over his body responds,
“Hi, Alex? You ready to get out there?”, Alex turns and looks at the tiny little room and his barely touched bottle of Vodka, he quickly grabs it and drinks as much of it as he can within a couple of seconds before turning back to the tattooed man and nods,
“Yeah, Let’s do this!”The tattooed man guides Alex down the narrow hallway, talking all about his love of dance music. Alex has absolute nothing to add to the conversation instead preferring to let the guy ramble on about the beats and fun of dance music, he nods on occasion to show that he is at least listening to the unfamiliar man but seems in a completely different state of mind than the guy. Not a surprise considering his current circumstances. As the two arrive at the main area of the building, the noise is at an almost ridiculous level, Alex is lead up to the side of the stage and the music is suddenly shut off which receives a highly negative response from the sweaty and already wasted crowd, not one member of the crowd are at the Pacha club in order to see Alex perform, a situation that is definitely not desirable but is not uncommon for the twenty-one year old, he also seems slightly uneasy with how his music will go down in what is evidently a dance-oriented crowd.
But at this stage in his life, he can’t exactly afford to pick and choose where he performs or when he performs. He’s handed a microphone as a huge green spotlight hits the stage, the DJ can be heard,
“Boys and girls, your entertainment for tonight … Alex Simms!” the crowd cheer loudly, mostly at the thought of more music blasting throughout the venue rather than anticipation over the act that they’re about to see. Alex then takes one final deep breath before running out towards the center of the stage.
SHOW
Arriving onstage, Alex wearing a black vest and skinny jeans, his jet-black hair draped over his eyes, is aided by a couple of in-house guitarists and a drummer, Alex stands directly in the center of the stage holding the microphone in his grasp, the green spotlight hitting him powerfully, he then places the microphone up towards his mouth slowly as the powerful drumming beat and crunching heavy rock guitars signal the start of the song, smoke quickly fills the dance floor area and the crowd are already unsure about the music as it sounds like the beginning to a heavy metal track, the energy of the audience is slightly less than before but a small selection of the audience still show some slight enthusiasm, most likely due to the fact that they’ve had enough alcohol to not really care what music is playing. The heavy rock backing from the in-house supporting band is powerful and aggressive which makes the opening vocal delivery from Alex a surprise to the crowd that are gathered in front of him.
Alex then begins singing the opening lines to one of his own songs, titled ‘Going Down Together’, he delivers the opening verses of the song in a high pitched rock vocal range, surprising many of the crowd as the contrast between the instrumental and the vocal delivery differ so obviously in style;
“She was my sweet sixteen
My screwed up little drama queen
Just constantly firing her shots in the dark
Hoping they’d go straight to my heart
We both got the bruises and we both got the scars
These souls aren’t destined for the stars
No, no, no, no, no!
They’re smeared in blood across the wall
It’s a long way down to nothing at all
But darlin’ if I’m gonna fall
I’m gonna need you to heed the call
Cause I ain’t going alone”The guitars continue to crunch and screech wildly alongside the pounding beats of the drums that dominate the entire venue with an incredibly powerful volume level, this is enhanced even further following the beginning of the song which was a relatively tame start to proceedings, Alex moves around as much as he can on the small stage, he’s within touching distance to the audience and reaches out a couple of times to the flailing arms in front of him, the guitars continue and Alex stops suddenly at the center of the stage, he brings the microphone up towards his mouth again and takes a deep breath before powerfully screaming into the microphone for the chorus of the song;
“Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
We’re going down together
Our cuts and bruises will blend into one
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
We’re going down together
And before you know it, we’ll be dead and gone
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
We’re going down together, for now and forever
Before you know it, we’ll be gone
Our cuts and bruises will blend into one”
“On a path to destruction
On a path to denial
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
If we’re going down together, we’re going down in style
She walks the streets in solitary magnitude
All eyes staring at her
F*ck it, she’s got attitude!
She’s my rebel without a cause
Made a deal with the devil with no escape clause
Now she’s living on the edge
And destruction is her middle name
She’s setting fire to my things
Now she’s got me joining in”The crowd are now fully on side with the unknown musician, the lyrics matched with the vocal delivery and stage presence of the twenty-one year-old appear enough to have made the crowd enthusiastic about his appearance tonight. As the guitar changes chords and pushes into an extended introduction to the next song, Alex holds up the microphone to his mouth, this time to address the audience for a couple of brief moments,
“Are you guys feeling good tonight?!” this almost rhetorical question is met with a strong applause,
“That’s good! … This song is from a band called Heartless, it’s called Dreamers!” he pauses for a moment, nobody appears to be too familiar with the song as Alex no doubt would have expected but he gets the crowd onside quickly as he says,
“This is a song for the youth, If you don’t wanna grow up yet then I wanna hear you sing the chorus with me … you’ll pick it up!” and with that the guitar drives into the main introduction of the song, backed by the bass and drums and rather quickly Alex delivers the opening lines;
“And now the sun goes down
One more time, we sing out loud
Our fortune falls tonight
I know it hurts but friends we've got to let it go
Making room for the next chapters, in our stories
Falling, on your knees
All the dreamers listen to me
'Cause we'll find a way to make this work
Although it's gonna hurt,
We know...
Everything has fallen apart
Faith is all we've got
And that's enough for us
'Cause we're all dreamers with our heart in the clouds...
There's not one thing to bring us to the ground
So give us all you've got
'Cause we're not moving yet”The song continues to drive forward in a similar manner and the audience are now clearly enjoying themselves, not just because there is music playing loud but because they genuinely are enjoying what they’re hearing. Alex sways his arms above his head from side to side and encourages the audience to do the same which they duly reply in emphatic fashion. The dance floor now looks like a wave of energy and joy which puts a smile on the face of the young musician and as he edges close to the stage he sings the next verse before leading into the chorus and encouraging the audience to sing along in unison with the rock singer as they so enthusiastically do alongside him;
“Everything has fallen apart
Faith is all we've got
And that's enough for us
'Cause we're all dreamers with our heart in the clouds...
There's not one thing to bring us to the ground
So give us all you've got
'Cause We're not moving yet
Sing out loud one last time
'Cause dreams can never die.
Sing out loud one last time
'Cause dreams can never die.
Sing out loud one last time
'Cause dreams can never die...
Sing out loud one last time
'Cause dreams can never die.
Sing out loud one last time
'Cause dreams can never die.
Dreamers never die,
Dreamers never die,
Dreamers never die,
Dreamers never die...”
The music ends briefly and stops in absolute silence, Alex then holds the microphone up to his mouth and screams,
“One more f*cking song!”, the audience cheer furiously as he turns to the backing band from behind him and signals a three count with his fingers and in an instant the band dive straight into another introduction, a powerful guitar riff opens the song, another one of Alex’s original songs, this one titled ‘Golden Hearts Shine Forever’ and as the audience begin jumping up and down once more, Alex decides to join into the party atmosphere, the introduction is extended as Alex drops his microphone onto the floor, he looks out at the crowd assembled in front of him and nods his head before taking a step back. He then runs to the edge of the stage before leaping straight into the crowd, his arms aloft as the audience pass the young man around in the air near the front of the stage, after a couple of moments he signals for them to move him towards the stage and he quickly makes his way back up to the stage, picking up his microphone and singing the opening lines to the aforementioned original song, again in a high pitched vocal range to begin with but changing to a rock scream mid-way throughout the song;
“I once knew a girl who had a heart too big for this world
A heart that money just can’t buy
They tried to take it from her
They tried to take it from her!
They tried to rip it from her inside
And she cried and cried in her room after every heartbreak
After every guy that said it would be different
That it wouldn’t be like the last time
It’s a heartless crime
And this is what I told her
F*ck em’ they don’t know you
And they don’t deserve to
F*ck em’ they don’t know
They don’t know the real you
I’m not the only one, cause if they could see your heart
They’d be f*cking smiling too”The crowd are again jumping up and down and following Alex’s every instruction from the stage, waving arms back and forth and jumping up and down on the spot. Alex stands center stage during an instrumental breakdown mid-way through the song, he places his hands on his hips and points to various attractive girls in the crowd at the front of the stage as the music gets back on course and he starts singing almost directly to the girls located closest to the stage, they scream and cheer as attention is clearly what they’re looking for and Alex plays up to this as he sings;
“Well don’t you know that her heart shines bright
Trading the darkness for infinite sunlight
Everybody should follow suit and do this together
Because golden hearts shine forever
Blinding you with beauty and love
It’s a heart that belongs with the angels above
But they all try to mess her around
They all try to drag her down
I’m in dismay and this is what I’ll say
F*ck em’ they don’t know you
And they don’t deserve to
F*ck em’ they don’t know
They don’t know the real you
I’m not the only one, cause if they could see your heart
They’d be f*cking smiling too
Don’t you know that her heart shines bright
Trading the darkness for infinite sunlight
Don’t you know that her heart shines bright
Trading the darkness for infinite sunlight
And she’ll make everybody hold hands together
Because golden hearts shine forever
Blinding you with beauty and love
It’s a heart that belongs to the angels above”And as the final chords are struck and the final lyrics of the song are song emphatically, Alex takes in the scene which puts a big smile on his face. He may be a struggling musician just trying to scrape together any small semblance of a fanbase but one thing is clear, there is a bright future ahead for the man, the question is will he take it?
SETLISTGoing Down Together
Dreamers (Heartless Cover)
Golden Hearts Shine Forever
