In a lot of ways, a Beach Slang record feels like a big hug from a friend you’ve never met but need to. Thankfully James Alex — frontman for the Pennsylvania rock band — gets to figuratively hug his fans (which he referred to as friends) every night on tour.
He did it last Thursday at Orpheum when the Slang played as a part of Big Pre-Fest in Little Ybor. Before the set, we teamed up with our friends at Cigar City Radio to guest-host a chat with Alex and Charlie Lowe, who first met and hit it off with Alex at Fest en route to becoming the band’s tour manager.
Here’s what Cigar City had to say about the chat:
Guest Host Ray Roa (Creative Loafing) chats with James Alex from Beach Slang and his tour manager, Charlie Lowe, ahead of their performance at Pre-Fest in Little Ybor. They discuss the infamous Chicago Liquor, Malört, meeting at The Fest, Pabst-covered glasses, “Dad Mode”, Quiet Slang, and more. Also, James talks about getting Paul Westerberg’s guitar from Tommy Stinson and he makes a plea to work with Kurt Vile.
We also talked about being a dad, learning not to give your phone number away onstage and why James Alex needs his fans as much as he does.
Listen to the chat below, and get more Cigar City Radio here. Read our review of Big Pre-Fest here.
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 2, 2017.
