Live, In Review: Alex Bent + the Emptiness
Live, In Review: Alex Bent + the Emptiness
with mileshigh and Tefrondon
Louis’, Saskatoon SK, April 1, 2022
Words by: Gregory Torwalt
Photos by: Kristen Boyé
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The night before Saturday’s Snotty Nose Rez Kids show, Alex Bent + the Emptiness and mileshigh took to the same Louis’ stage and delivered vulnerable sets full of raw emotion, heart-pounding beats, and jaw-dropping scenes. Friday night began with a DJ set by Tefrondon, who was pulling a double header over the weekend as he also performed Saturday night with Samurai Champs at the Snotty Nose Rez Kids’ show. Tefrondon had a full weekend, running the beats first on Friday night for both sets by these two talented SK-based alternative hip-hop artists.
Friday at Louis’ was Alex Bent + the Emptiness’ first performance in Saskatoon in over two years. He expressed his nerves about the show on Twitter a few days before the gig: “been having fucked up dreams about this show, it’s been way too long since I’ve been on stage”. Bent’s transparency is a big part of his charm, and the honesty in both his music and on social media allows him to develop a deep connection with his fans. Not long before the show, Bent built up some further hype by stating: “playing only my favourites, I’ve missed this…playing everything from Vanilla Blue.”
Prior to Bent’s set, mileshigh– an art-pop punk/hip-hop act currently based out of Regina – brought an intense amount of energy to the stage. mileshigh also noted on Twitter that he had been looking forward to this show for a relatively long time: “so proud to be sharing the stage tomorrow night with [Alex Bent] – an artist I’ve looked up [to] and been inspired by for so long. 19 year old would be geeking rn”. The two artists share some similar sounds in their music, with altered vocals being a commonality between the two, but mileshigh’s live show on Friday brought more of an unpredictable punk edge. The current alternative hip-hop genre is where the “new rock-stars'' and “punks'' are unabashedly breaking boundaries and pushing back against the system - in a way that bands like Rage Against the Machine and Nirvana used to do with nu-metal and grunge in the 90s. mileshigh brought this anti-system sentiment to his live show, and even performed a fiery song mid-way through the set called “Fuck The System”. mileshigh– who is a visual artist as well– prepped the stage by hanging a doll version of himself from the rafters. As he walked on stage, he set the scene for an explosive show: “let’s fuckin rage!” The vulnerable lyrics and openness from mileshigh shows that he has taken notes from his idol Bent, and his expressions of anger and dissatisfaction are similar to impactful artists like lil-peep. mileshigh knows how to put on a performance and moves around the stage with confidence, even if he had noted that he was nervous.
As the set continued, he became more comfortable and began to engage more with the crowd. A turning point in the set was when he asked for someone to cut the lights. As the stage went black, he peeled off his red sweater to match his hanging shirtless doll. The doll matched mileshigh’s previous bright red Bowie-like hair but now his hair is bleached and growing back from a buzzcut– a reminder of the look he debuted in the music video of his most recent single “Smell of Bleach”. An unintentionally funny moment in the show was when he asked for the lights to come back on after performing a song with the lights out: “Okay you can put the lights back, let’s do yellow.” The lights turned blue, “Or blue is fine…” This direction from the stage shows that mileshigh has artistic intention and is thinking of the presentation of his music. Throughout his show, the artist toed the line between reality and performance– noting early on in the set that he wasn’t feeling like himself on stage. It wasn’t long after the stage lights were turned back on that the shirtless mileshigh grabbed his weighted mic-stand, and whipped it from one side of his body to the other as it went crashing against the side of the stage. The mic-stand must have clipped his face, as he was then bleeding from his forehead. As wild as this was, it seemed to loosen him and the crowd up, and the songs that followed were full of intensity and allowed for everyone to let off some pent-up steam. After this moment, he continued with a song called “Get Stupid” that featured a quick hi-hat beat with a vibe reminiscent of a faster “Drop it Like It’s Hot” and lyrics like: “In the club, in the pit…this our spot, we don’t like the snakes, and you can’t get in the club if you dress like Drake– you dig?” Following that song, he chimed in with: “Okay, that was fucking crazy!” referring to the performance of “Get Stupid”, and possibly also his mic-stand throw, “I produced that one too, and this next one. This next one’s called ‘Fuck the System’ cuz uh… I be tired of this shit so.. uh, RUN THAT SHIT TEFRONDON!” The short punk anthem opened with a chant: “Shit, I’m in the system and I’m losing my mind, I’m losing my mind,” and later hit with a repeated chorus: “Fuck the system, I’m about to go! off! Fuck the system, I’m about to go! raw!” and then dropped into the second verse with the shocking: “Yo, shoot a cop in the face, I don’t give a fuck”. Now I’m not saying I endorse the mic-stand throw or all of these lyrics, but this unpredictability and rage is missing from many of today’s safe live performances, and while some venues may be hesitant to book him based on this unpredictability, it doesn’t really matter because people are going to be lining up to see what mileshigh brings to his next live shows.
Following mileshigh’s wild set, Alex Bent + the Emptiness walked on stage in a dark blue coverall jumpsuit, and what seemed to be a pulled-up welding face shield. Bent, who is known for his attention to detail, demonstrated through this get-up that he is getting back to business. The thoughtful solo artist, who performs under the name Alex Bent + the Emptiness, has been working on his follow up album to 2019’s Baby. In the meantime, he has dropped a slew of strong singles and incredible music videos– he lights himself on fire in his most recent video for “Boy Next Door”, demonstrating the influence that Kanye continues to have on his work. The new music that Bent has been releasing since Baby shows that he can easily flow in the electronic r&b vibe that he’s come to perfect since first grabbing ears with the Vanilla Blue EP in 2018– as demonstrated on the catchy 2021 single “Just a Phase”. But he is also taking a deeper dive into other genres like punk and metal, like on the ferocious single “Rats”. His show Friday night didn’t feature as much of the uptempo songs that have rounded out his catalogue, like the super-catchy “Coolin”, or the raging “Rats”, but instead proved that he’s focusing on the music that connects the most with him at this current time– he is working from his artistic impulses. At times, Bent will perform with a live band which takes the energy of his shows to the next level, but for this show Bent performed solo, singing and rapping over beats provided by Tefrondon.
The blue and white backlit stage, lack of lighting on his face, and the darker clothing worn during this show possibly hints at what Bent had stated on social media regarding the nerves he felt about returning to a live headlining performance…but what this performance may have lacked in fireworks and antics like mileshigh’s set, he made up for it with his passion and emotion. That’s not to say that Bent didn’t bring the heat to this concert– he kept the crowd fired up and engaged all night long. A highlight of Bent’s sets that fans of his live-shows eagerly anticipate is a mid-show drum-solo. Bent is a powerful drummer, and drums for his other hip-hop project 6M which features rapper Enjay on the mic, so seeing Alex bang on the drums to some of his favourite songs is always a treat.
Throughout the show, the crowd was vibing hard with a lot of his older work, especially Vanilla Blue songs like “Gwen Stefani”. Bent also performed some of his new singles, and prefaced the performance of his most recent single “Boy Most Wanted” by first addressing the audience: “I really appreciate you guys being here… I’ve been a little afraid to do shows for the last couple of years for obvious reasons so this is kind of tripping me out… It’s really dope to see everyone here, and hopefully this is the first show of many cuz I’ve missed this a lot… I’ve been working on a new album, but in the meantime I’ve just been dropping some singles which I haven’t gotten an opportunity to play at all… this next one is one of those…” The performance of “Boy Most Wanted” was great, and Bent took on the massive higher-ranged vocals that Saskatoon r&b powerhouse Ariel handles on the studio recording– showing off a side of his voice that he doesn’t lean into as often. Bent closed the show with a performance of “Vanilla Blue” mentioning that “this is the song that made people seem to care about me and what I was doing”. The crowd ate this song up, proving that it is a favourite of many. Bent left the stage briefly, and returned after encore chants from the crowd to perform one last song– a 2019 single titled “Thank Ya”. This heartfelt song has a 90’s grunge feel with a steady guitar strumming throughout, and Bent brought out a pal to play acoustic guitar as he performed a special acoustic version of the single. Bent shared with the audience that “Thank Ya” is “the hardest song for me to sing, it hurts a lot to sing this song”– perhaps referencing the lyrical content of the song, or the full-voice high notes in the song, or both. Bent nailed this performance and sounded great singing with a lot of passion as he moved through lyrics in the verses like: “Mum and Dad have money, so I’m headed out the country, woo hoo / I got used to being lucky, then the needle came and stuck me, boo hoo,” and “I was used to knowing everything, wish I was better at listening”. The song closes with a huge hook, pushing the limits of his vocal range: “Whether or not I wait for you to see things crystal clear / Promise me that you’ll always still be here / I never gotta thank you”. This closing performance of an acoustic version of “Thank Ya” was unpredictable and it was a nice surprise to hear him sing with a clean vocal when the majority of his work is electronic based and known for effectively utilising distorted vocals.
Alex Bent + the Emptiness and mileshigh are building up strong underground followings and are hinting at releasing songs together, so keep a close eye on these two connected artists as they continue to create boundary pushing works and thoughtfully wild live shows.
- Gregory Torwalt