Alex Clare & Taylor Berrett
December 1, 2014
Belasco Theatre- Los Angeles, CA
As the line wrapped alongside the Belasco Theatre just before the doors opened to the anxious fans at 7pm sharp, Alex Clare himself met and greeted his fans one by one as he walked along the barricade and posed for selfies and engaged in conversation. The humble singer needed no security guards or manager to walk with him, as many artists do, when meeting his fans, nor did he charge his fans for a meet and greet. His charming and witty sense of humor excited the crowd and made standing in line worth while.
As Drop It Like It’s Hot faded out from the PA, the young Taylor Berrett came out on stage with his band to perform a short 8 song set, beginning with Hypnotize. After the song, Berrett joked about the DJ’s song selection stating “I think it was very appropriate that we came out to Drop It Like It’s Hot. It’s funny because we are actually covering that later tonight!” He joked, and then apologized for giving the crowd false hope. Later in the set, Berrett went solo, performing two songs without his band which highlighted his soothing vocals; one of which he wrote “right here in sunny California”, which was Next Best. As the set went on, the crowd seemed to be enjoying him more and more, for his voice, charm and humor. As Berrett welcomed his band back on stage, he put down his guitar and went behind a keyboard where he performed Broken. After the applause subsided someone in the audience shouted “Who are you?” Berrett smiled and responded with “I am Taylor Berrett,” then proceeded to spell out his name as the crowd laughed. “Let me tell you something. I’m not famous at all so if you message me on Facebook or Twitter or anywhere, I definitely have time to see it. So message me and we’ll have a conversation, just like the one we just kind of had just now.” Berrett then continued his set, still on the keyboard for Whole Heart. The last song of Berrett’s set was The Heat and in the midst of the song, Berrett introduced each of the band members who each had a short chance to put on a mini solo. It was definitely one of the more fun and upbeat songs of the night and a perfect way to end the set in preparation of Alex Clare. Because Taylor Berrett is a fairly new artist, he had a lot of work to do to win this crowd over and in the end, he definitely did so. His humor in between songs and crowd interaction was only icing on top of the cake which was made up of great vocals and musicianship from both Berrett and his band.
As the Belasco theatre filled up with more and more anxious fans, who consisted of all walks of earth: old, young, black, white, Jewish, Christian, etc., Alex Clare’s band entered from stage left at 9:00pm who performed an instrumental intro as Clare stood on side stage giving them a thumbs up and dancing. As the intro died down, Clare made his way on stage going into Never Let You Go, the first track from his newly released second album, Three Hearts and continued with Hummingbird, finishing the song with a GDC Remix. From the start of his all the way to the end of it, Clare was constantly smiling into the crowd, showing how much he loved what he does. 
After a couple of songs, Clare picked up the guitar for Just A Man, another one off of the new record. As the song ended, he conversed with the crowd as he tuned the guitar for Three Hearts which brought forth a clap along to the bluesy cowboy esuqe sounding tune. Clare mentioned that some people have been asking him to perform Damn Your Eyes and he obliged to much of the crowd’s satisfaction. The tempo was shortly brought back up with Take You Back and Heavy Hands which once again had the crowd clapping along. Following the clap along came a wave along for Where Is The Heart? which proved to be one of the crowd favorites of the night.
After performing his single off of the new album, War Rages On, Clare performs another old favorite, Up All Night in which Clare left the stage toward the end of the song, leaving his band to perform a bass and synthesized filled remix outro of the song. What started off as Alt-Rock, R&B song quickly turned into an EDM remix, which was something no one had a problem with. As fans cheered, the band also left the stage. The cheering did not subside and continued for several minutes until the band and Clare returned to the stage for their two encores, Relax My Beloved and Too Close. Both songs had the crowd moving more than ever, dancing, jumping and singing along.
Alex Clare and his band performed a flawless set and mixed things up with different synthesized remixes, keeping the crowd entertained and unsuspecting. Following his performance, Clare came to the barricade only moments after ending the set and started to sell CD’s and T-Shirts promising that he would draw on and sign them. Both Alex Clare and Taylor Berrett are a breath of fresh air and appeal to people who like all types of music and who are both old and young. They have something for everyone and I highly suggest that you check them out on this current tour.
Review by: Nicole Lemberg
Alex Clare
Taylor Berrett
