2011.03.20 | Live Show: Rock & Roll With Boyce Avenue & Friends

“You have been BOYCED” and “BAmazing” were the two phrases most commonly heard and used before, during, and after the show at The Rock & Roll Hotel in Washington DC on March 16th. What do these two phrases have in common?

Well, they have to do with an up and coming band called Boyce Avenue. This band comprises of three Puerto Rican-American brothers: Alejandro, Daniel, and Fabian Manzano, who are based in Florida. These three brothers started off as being YouTube sensations by posting and covering top 40 songs such as “Teenage Dreams” by Katy Perry, “Umbrella” by Rihanna, “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars where they are #18 for YouTube’s all time most subscribed in the musician category and #29 in YouTube’s all time most viewed in the same category to-date. They later proved more than just YouTube sensations by landing a record label deal with Universal Republic who helped them release their album “All We Have Left” which peaked at #7 in the Billboard Heatseekers charts in July of 2010.

** To go straight to the videos, scroll down to near the end of this article **

I can’t recall when I started following and listening to Boyce Avenue, but I definitely started to take notice about three months ago when they did covers with Kina Grannis. I started to explore their other video posts and quickly started to fall in love with their covers. They took songs by big label artists and rearranged the song and made it their own, and lot of times, making their covers even better than the originals. Months later, the band announces they plan to have a tour over in the east coast of the United States, and one of their stops is in Washington DC. I was hoping they would return to Jammin Java in Vienna, VA, but instead, Boyce Avenue choose a new venue this time, The Rock & Roll Hotel in North East DC. I was indecisive on going to their show, but they were convinced me to go by tweeting back saying I should go :-). So, I went—I get peer pressured so easily lol.

Fast forward months later, March 16th has arrived. I took off work from the 16th through the end of the week, so I didn’t have to worry about being out late :-). I decided to leave the house at about 4:30pm, which was about two and a half hours before doors open. Knowing that it is in DC, parking was going to be a pain, so i left early to also get dinner. I tweeted that heading out early and getting McDonald’s near the venue for dinner and what did I get back in return? A tweet from Boyce Avenue, which made the commute so much more uplifting haha!

Once I arrived in the vicinity, I started to look for a parking which was confusing, at first, because there’s supposed to be meter parking but didn't see any meters. Since I got there early, there were few spaces of street parking near the venue. I parked, went over and asked that people working at The Rock & Roll Hotel and said if my car was okay parked over there and pointed to my Mazda 3 haha! They said that should be fine, as long as it wasn't part of the loading zone and he pointed between these two signs haha! I felt a bit more comforting knowing my car won’t get towed for parking without paying at a meter with no meters. I was, though, still worried because North East isn't the most nice looking part of DC. It looked kind of ghetto, but does look like they were doing a lot of construction to rebuild the city. Anyhow, I walked about three or so blocks for McDonalds and brought it back to my car to keep an eye on the line before the door opened.

A short line started to form, so I finished up dinner, and also grabbed my ticket and camcorder bag and stood in line. Fortunately, the weather was nice that day, so it wasn’t too chilly. As I was in line waiting, I started to talk to Terri who I later found out was one of many Boyce Avenue’s street team. She was really nice and remembered me from the Facebook event for the show. I told her I was hoping there will be a meet and greet after the show, and she told me that if I wanted long enough, they would come out after they finished their VIP meet and greet. We exchanged information, so we can keep in touch after the show.

Doors opened before well before 7:00pm, but hey made us wait upstairs in the bar area where merchandise was also sold for all the performers because it was a fire hazard to stand in the lobby. This was one thing I didn’t like because it didn’t matter if you came in first waiting in line, you’d have for line up all over again at upstairs. While waiting for stage doors open, I decided to buy Boyce Avenue’s CDs so I can get them signed if they had a meet and greet.

Stage doors finally opened and everyone rushed down calmed making sure no one topples down the stairs. As I walked into the stage room, it had a very rock & roll-ish feel to the venue. It fits rock/acoustic bands very nicely. This was a standing show, so I had to be sure I picked a good angle to film. I decided to pick the right side of the stage. There were two other performers opening for Boyce Avenue, respectively, Juliet Weybret and Alex Goot.

This was the first time I’ve heard of Juliet Weybret, so I was very interested in seeing what kind of style performer she is.

As for Alex Goot, I have only heard him a few times through one of Boyce Avenue’s collaboration cover of “Only Girl” by Rihanna. So, I already knew he was a good performer. He’s also #36 for YouTube’s most viewed for this month of March 2011 in the musician category.

The show finally underway and the crowd cheers on as Juliet Weybret takes the stage. She performs a total of seven songs and below is her set list where you can click and view her prologues and performances.

As Juliet finishes her set-list, we have a short intermission and Alex Goot comes out to perform his set. He performs a total of six songs. The crowd cheers even louder for Alex.

As the second act comes to a close, we have our last intermission. Last up is the main event attraction: Boyce Avenue. As they walk out of their dress room, everyone obviously cheers loudest for them as they are the headlining the show. Boyce Avenue comes out to perform incredible thirteen songs. The whole crowd was going crazy and singing along to all their songs and covers.

After the last song, Boyce Avenue left the stage so quickly it seemed like they disappeared out of thin air. It seems like everyone expected them to have some encore performances because no one left, yet also no one yelled out encore haha! Alejandro came out first to do his their first encore by himself. He, then, later called out his brothers to finish the second and last encore together.

[ Prologue | Performance ] Broken
[ Prologue | Performance ] Hear Me Now

You can watch the whole show in its respective order by clicking on the embedded videos below.

As Boyce Avenue was leaving the stage they all reached out to shake hands with all their fans in the front row and eventually left the stage. The crowd cleared out pretty quickly. Some left, and some went up to the bar area on the second floor to get drinks, meet Alex and Juliet, and/or to buy merchandise. As everyone was heading up hoping to meet Boyce Avenue, they weren’t there. Many left, but I decided to stick around as long as possible because I was hoping for the meet and greet with Boyce Avenue to happen. While waiting for the band to come out, I decided to meet Alex and Juliet and get pictures with them. They were both really nice. I even bought Alex’s EP and had him sign it.

After about 45 minutes or so, Boyce Avenue finally came out, and I was able to meet the band. I was really glad because a fellow Digbyholic, Keshia, asked me to get something signed for her friend, so I got an extra CD and had them sign that as well my both of the CDs I bought. I also didn’t realized how difficult it is to get more than one person to sign multiple things haha! They were all really nice and patient with me as I try to get them to sign the CD itself and the album cover. I then asked them for a picture and end the night on a good note.

Background

Pre-Show

Showtime

Juliet Weybret [Part 1]

Alex Goot [Part 2]

Boyce Avenue [Part 3]

Post-Show