Alex Lahey is a great songwriter with a talent for recounting the little details in life, things that may be specific to her experience yet also come across as universal.
Also, as it turns out, her lyric “Let’s go out and have fun tonight/Let’s go out and get drunk tonight” really could be a rallying cry for the partiers out on Sixth Street during SXSW, though some lyrics from another of her songs about drinking too much lately and gaining weight might hit a bit too close to home for said partiers at the same time. That song was introduced by Lahey as being about reaching out to her mom. “Her name’s Vicki, her favourite song is “Smooth” by Santana. This song’s about that,” she said, before clarifying that it was about her mom and not Santana’s 1999 hit single featuring Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas. Although that could be an interesting exercise in songwriting, kind of like an updated version of ‘Killing Me Softly.” Killing me smoothly? I digress.
Lahey definitely had a bit of buzz going for herself during SXSW and deservedly so. The songs off of her B Grade University EP are full of smart and catchy songwriting and the newer material off of her upcoming, still untitled full length show similar promise. She ended of her set though, by talking about a different kind of buzz. “We’ve got a show later tonight at Barracuda, but if you just wanna stay here and smash mimosas … you’re only human.”