Alex G Offers Deliverance at The Orange Peel

Q&AMusic

Dec 12

☆ By Britt Astrid Alphson ☆

THERE’S A BLUE PARROT PERCHED ON A TREE — It’s looking over the crowd, looking over the man singing to them. The parrot isn’t an animal but the image of one, and the man is Alex G, singing to an assembly of listeners in Asheville, North Carolina.

Surveillance, performance, repetition, mimicry: these are all elements of live music, and they are especially palpable when an artist has achieved the kind of cult following that Philadelphia-born Alex G has. Once playing to haggles of college-aged friends in packed East Coast basements, Alex G now plays to college-aged followers in a slew of music venues across the US.

At The Orange Peel, there are local kids pressed up against the metal gates like they need this — because they do. While other artists see the straining of their audience's necks and relent or dole out part of themselves for their listeners to hold, Alex G is decisive in being as utterly normal as possible. With his back to the audience for a majority of the show, he’s disinterested in perpetuating any kind of mythology. He is kind and grateful, acknowledging the audience with grace. Aside from that, he is a conduit for his music. He’s the messenger here — not the message.

This is perhaps a nod to his 2022 album, God Save the Animals, a body of work that acts as an ode to the simplicity of belief. Whether that be in more traditional, encompassing structures such as a god, friendship, love, or even in the smaller, more delicate things we hold onto in our day-to-day: a rigid plan of action, a child sans bitterness, the respite of fish scale cocaine, the quiet marvel of living another day.

In a landscape ever-leaning toward selling an artist as part of their art, of branding and TikTok engagement, Alex G is singular in his cultivation of people’s devotion through his sound rather than his personhood. And devoted they are: teenagers in Dickies and gray-haired adults alike gathered under the fluorescent lights of The Orange Peel as Alex G showcased that he is a force. Elusive yet fully present, unable to be touched while standing right in front of you, an act of faith more than a performing artist.

Currently in the midst of the US leg of his tour, Alex G will be heading to the UK and Europe next.

CONNECT WITH ALEX G

INSTAGRAM

SPOTIFY

Listen

INSTAGRAM

We can’t wait for our upcoming NYC show with @arayaworld @fetchtiger & our new addition @gildedlily222 🎉 Get your tickets now - link in bio 🎫

Have you listened to our first episode of ‘Off The Record’ yet? We kick things off with @akidnamedrufus to talk everything from immigration to gender identity & boy is this a good chat 💛 Listen at the link in our bio 🎧