27 September 2013 (gig)
14 October 2013
Wearing a dog tag and gold chain Alec Benjamin strolled onto the stage without a care in the world belying his young age and the eighteen-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona lost no time in endearing himself to the packed out room.
Asking the audience to hold on a sec so he could take a photo, the cheeky chappy said: "It's gonna make for a f**king cool pic for my Facebook, so my friends back home will believe that I played and so many people came to see me!"
You'd have thought that this young scamp would be nervous but absolutely not, and it showed. Just him brandishing an acoustic guitar he was not afraid to play note by note. A real minimalist player, which stood out. No big strum-alongs here, he'd obviously had a musical spring clean and half the non-relevant notes had been swept away.
'Beatuiful Pain' was a good example of this and although it has more than a passing resemblance to Dido's 'Thank You' which went on to be used by Eminem in 'Stan' it was delivered perfectly.
His in between song banter seemed off the cuff and heartfelt "sorry to disappoint those of you who thought I was Justin Beiber." And you had to agree there was more than a similarity but with a hint of Sid Vicious thrown in for good measure.
The stripped back sound continued even when he took to the keyboards for 'America', and
after 'Animal' he said, "l saw this girl singing my song and that makes me really excited, thanks".
I wasn't alone in congratulating Alec after the show, a genuine talent that I heard here at the classically decorated Prinzebar.
