Hello, welcome to another episode of Broken Record. I'm Ellie, your host, and today we are going to be talking about the Alec Benjamin concert. So this past month, I guess now, I went to a concert with my best friend, Riley, and we went to Alec Benjamin. As I just said, it was on September 18th of the showbox soda, which is a venue in Seattle, and it was super duper fun.
I loved it so much. When we got there, we got there like, what? Half an hour, 45 minutes before the show started. When we got there, there was a line around the corner of the building.
Like, it was a really long line, and it was kind of funny to see. Because it was like, I just wasn't used to it. Being out of concerts, and like, going to events, you kind of forget about like, all the preparation and thought process that goes into going to this set event. And so showing up and seeing all the people waiting in line, it was very funny to me.
And our tickets were good. We have Riley's parents got us an early access ticket, so we got to skip the line, which was very good, because as I said, the line was pretty long. So we skipped the line, which was very nice, and we went, we got in, and we got to like, the fifth row or something. And it was a GA pit, which means like, there's no rows and no seats.
And so we got to the fifth row, which is pretty good, because as the night went on, it just got more and more full. And so I was very thankful that we got him when we did. Okay, moving on to the opener. And since he brought Opened, he is a small artist, he's super, super adorable.
He played all of his songs on the piano, and he had one other person on stage with him, and his name was Dan. He was the guitarist. And fun fact about Dan. Dan was the guitarist for One Direction, which if you know me, that is a humongous deal, so me.
And it was so cool. And he had a little bit of a fangirl moment for Dan. But it's okay. Moving on.
So, and since he brought, has a song called Wonderland, which I think is, won't just how I know him. And I'm pretty sure if you heard the song, which I'll play in a second, you will know it too. Here's a clip of that. Welcome to Wonderland.
So that was Wonderland. And hopefully, I think it was popular on TikTok for a bit. So if you're on that app, you might have heard it. But anyway, he sang about five songs as the opener, and then two of them were unreleased, which was really cool.
I love it when artists play unreleased songs at concerts, because like, no one in the crowd knows the words. And so you just get to hear the artist voice and the instruments, and it sounds really cool. And then, another thing he did, which was super cute, was that he told us that he had a joke for each city. And so he was like, trying to come up with jokes.
And so, I forget what the one, his one was for Seattle, but it was something to do with Starbucks, and it was really corny, and it was funny, it was horrible. Um, no. So, so, so he also played a song called Domino's. He opened with that one.
It was super cute. It was like, I mean, it's not cute. He literally said it wasn't cute, but it was like a domino effect of falling in love. And then one of his unreleased songs that he played was called Keep Your Head Up Princess.
And so here's a clip of Domino's, and then after that I'll play a clip of Keep Your Head Up Princess. This is actually coming out soon, so it's called Keep Your Head Up Princess. She has her own new princess, that are actually more of a cassel she had. That was Domino's and Keep Your Head Up Princess.
And as you can tell, his music is kind of more like slow and piano based, and getting in your feels. I don't know. But anyways, after he was done, there was about like, half hour break, and then Alec came on, which was super fun. He opened up with his song that released, I think, a day before our concert, which was called Older, and so here's a clip of that.
So, after Older, he played a song called If We Have Each Other. And after that he played a song called Oh My God, which is from his new album, or more recent album. And that one is kind of fun. And so here's a clip of it.
Oh my God, I can't remember that you're gonna die. Alec Benjamin also has, has had a couple of songs that have gone viral or have gotten pretty popular. So a song that was popular on TikTok for why it was called Arville to Friend. And he sang that other concert after.
Oh my God, so here is a clip of I Built a Friend. This next song also got super popular. It was on the radio a bunch at Reach TikTok, and Instagram Reels. It's from his most recent album, which came out in 2020, called These Two Windows.
And the song is called Jesus in LA. And it's kind of about how Alec moved to LA, and he realized it wasn't everything he was hoping for or looking for. And so this is kind of, this is him kind of being like, you're not gonna get everything. Like you kind of have to, this is kind of him accepting it and realizing that like, not everything you hope to find in LA will be there.
And so here's a clip of that. You won't find it down in sunset or at a party in the hills or in your middle to hills. When it started to change, you're just 16th of the guy, you're just a christian. You keep all this way, you're just a christian.
You keep all this way, you're just a christian. You keep all this way, you're just a christian. You keep all this way, you're just a christian. Another song that he played from his new album, These Two Windows, is called The Book of You and I, which is about someone in a relationship, breaking up with another person or wanting it to end.
And the person that's being broken up with is kind of like, wait, but we never got to do so many things. Like, they're not ready for it to end. They still have so much more, they want to do it with that person. And they don't want to be like, kind of erased and out of their life.
They want to still be a part of their life. And so this song is kind of like explaining that whole thought process, I guess. So here's a clip of that. Alec also had a lot of crowd interactions and one of my favorites was when he was transitioning from guitar to piano and he was telling us a story about playing at a bar for the first time.
And so here is that story. When I decided to make music and then I was writing songs and I would always play like bars and stuff and they would be known there. And I remember when I was like, the first time, I put up sometimes you know, you go and you play and then if you don't sell enough tickets, like you owe the venue money. So I was like, walked up to the homeowner and I was like, how much do I owe?
She's like, this is before the show. She goes, um, she goes, oh, honey, you made $50. I was like, what do you mean? She's like, I'm so 15 tickets.
I was like, oh my god, it was like the best time I ever had. I was like, I've over 1,000 people here. This is very easy. Especially you guys are all here.
And the nichos went up, you know, almost two years ago and then the fact that you guys still came. He is so adorable and I love Alec. And I think that just listening to that brought a smile on my face and I'm pretty sure you can hear it. And he's just so cute and dorky and I love him.
And he's just awesome. And that makes me very happy. And so another thing he did was a crowd call back. We're like, he would sing something and then we would sing it back and then what was really cool was that he had us continue singing it while he like wrapped on top of it.
So here's a video of that. After that song, Alec went off stage and then he came back on a couple of minutes later or the encore. And then he started off the encore with one of my favorite songs and one of the songs that like introduced me to him and got me into listening to him, which is called Annabelle's Homework. And it's about doing a homework for a girl to get her to like you.
But then she like, doesn't notice you. And only thinks of you as like the kid who does her homework. So here's a clip of that song. The second song of the encore that he played is The Most Famous.
If not one of the most famous songs that he was released, it was TikTok famous, it was on the radio, it was all over. And it's called Let Me Down Slowly. Hopefully you've heard of it because it was pretty popular. Yeah, here's a clip.
Could you find a way to Let Me Down Slowly? A little sympathy, oh, you can't show me. If you want to go to Let Me Down Slowly, if you little baby, let me down slowly, let me down, now let me down, now let me down, now let me down, now let me down, now let me down. If you want to go to Let Me Down Slowly.
The last song of the night in the encore that Alec is saying was called Change By Clothes. And it's a single, which isn't on either of his albums, which I found very cool because I feel like a lot of artists released a single and put it on the album. But this song isn't on an album. It's just a single, which is kind of fun.
And it's kind of about like wanting to change something big, but not being able to because you're like procrastinating or can't take the small steps you need to get there. And one of my favorite lyrics is, want to change the world, but can't change my clothes. Because it's kind of like saying how you need to be able to take small steps in order to reach the big steps you want to take. So here's a clip of that.
After that song, the concert ended. And before we left, Riley and I got to merch, I got a blue t-shirt that has a sunflower on it. And it's super cute and super comfy, and I wear it all the time. And it was such a good concert.
I really recommend going to see him if he ever comes back in town or comes into whatever town you're in. Alec, she's just a sweetheart. He is such a smiley person. And he puts a smile on my face, which is always fun because smiling is so fun.
Yeah, thank you for listening to this episode. As of right now, I don't have any of my episodes up on any podcast platforms. I'm still working on it, but hopefully it'll be done soon. And I'll let you know what I do.
But anyways, as of right now, you can only listen to me on Tuesdays at 6pm on KMAH88N The Bridge. So yeah, thank you for listening on KMAH88N The Bridge.