
(Orlando FL) Just over a year ago, Alex Kinsey and Sierra Deaton were students attending the University of Central Florida (UCF). During the Spring of 2013 they would venture away from the Orlando FL campus and head to New Orleans to audition for the popular talent-seeking TV show 'X-Factor'. Having impressed celebrity judges Simon Cowell, Demi Lovato, Paulina Rubio, and Kelly Rowland 'Alex & Sierra' would go on to win series' 3rd and final season. As part of UCF's 'Pegasus Palooza Concert Knight' (2014) the cute couple found their way back to the campus as tonight's front act for Karmin, performing at the annual event they attended as students just a couple of years ago.
Tonight, fittingly, they opened with 'Here We Go'. The up-tempo song has a driving beat similar to U2's 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', and is featured on Alex & Sierra's upcoming album 'It's About Me', set to release on October 7. The couple then slowed things down with their performance of 'Just Kids', which showcased Alex's upper vocal range as the two took turns with Alex singing the verses and Sierra driving the chorus.
In their third song, they slowed things down to 'Little Did You Know' which beautifully showcased their very natural ability to harmonize well with one another. Sierra's soothing voice came out as she led off with the vocals to 'Give Me Something' which featured Alex on guitar as he harmonized with Sierra during the chorus.
Throughout their competition on X-Factor, fans were drawn toward the couple's playfulness and sweetness toward each other. At this point of the night, the couple shared their affection by taking a brief pause to introduce the band members standing behind them.
Alex puts his guitar down so that they can focus on their delivery for the next one. Sierra acknowledges to the crowd that she and Alex were best known for their 'sad and depressing songs' as they treated the attendees to 'Bumper Cars', which wasn't to be officially released for another 5 days on Tuesday. The painful ballad evoked much emotion in that the fans weren't accustomed to hearing the pair sing lyrics toward one another such as 'the more I try to get to you, the more we crash apart.' This may very well have been one of the first actual 'sad' songs that some of the UCF students may have heard live, with students becoming so moved that cell phones were quickly hoisted into the air being waved from side to side (a throwback gesture to what concert-goers from back in the day used to do with cigarette lighters when an emotionally-moving song was sung). Caught off guard, Alex motioned to Sierra to take a photo of the glowing cellular scene displayed throughout CFE Arena, stating at the conclusion of the song that that had been the duo's first time to actually see something like that at one of their concerts and how cool it was that they first experienced it at 'their school'.
Tonight, fittingly, they opened with 'Here We Go'. The up-tempo song has a driving beat similar to U2's 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', and is featured on Alex & Sierra's upcoming album 'It's About Me', set to release on October 7. The couple then slowed things down with their performance of 'Just Kids', which showcased Alex's upper vocal range as the two took turns with Alex singing the verses and Sierra driving the chorus.
In their third song, they slowed things down to 'Little Did You Know' which beautifully showcased their very natural ability to harmonize well with one another. Sierra's soothing voice came out as she led off with the vocals to 'Give Me Something' which featured Alex on guitar as he harmonized with Sierra during the chorus.
Throughout their competition on X-Factor, fans were drawn toward the couple's playfulness and sweetness toward each other. At this point of the night, the couple shared their affection by taking a brief pause to introduce the band members standing behind them.
Alex puts his guitar down so that they can focus on their delivery for the next one. Sierra acknowledges to the crowd that she and Alex were best known for their 'sad and depressing songs' as they treated the attendees to 'Bumper Cars', which wasn't to be officially released for another 5 days on Tuesday. The painful ballad evoked much emotion in that the fans weren't accustomed to hearing the pair sing lyrics toward one another such as 'the more I try to get to you, the more we crash apart.' This may very well have been one of the first actual 'sad' songs that some of the UCF students may have heard live, with students becoming so moved that cell phones were quickly hoisted into the air being waved from side to side (a throwback gesture to what concert-goers from back in the day used to do with cigarette lighters when an emotionally-moving song was sung). Caught off guard, Alex motioned to Sierra to take a photo of the glowing cellular scene displayed throughout CFE Arena, stating at the conclusion of the song that that had been the duo's first time to actually see something like that at one of their concerts and how cool it was that they first experienced it at 'their school'.
They then launch into their upward note-bending acoustic cover of Britney Spears' 'Toxic', with which they auditioned nationally for X-Factor. Midway though the cover, they inject a little bit of McClemore's 'Thrift Shop' before coming back to finish off Toxic. It was a nice change of pace to break away from the ballads here as the pair broke out into their light-hearted, country-twanging' 'Cheating'.
Sierra announces that the next song 'Broken Frame' is her mother's favorite song. Two of the audience members in the front row are able to get their UCF baseball cap up to the stage, and Alex wears it for the next song 'All For You'. Feeding into Pegasus Palooza, Alex says 'Go Knights' as the couple ultimately ends up autographing the cap before handing it back to its front-row owners. The final song of the night is 'Scarecrow'.
Sierra announces that the next song 'Broken Frame' is her mother's favorite song. Two of the audience members in the front row are able to get their UCF baseball cap up to the stage, and Alex wears it for the next song 'All For You'. Feeding into Pegasus Palooza, Alex says 'Go Knights' as the couple ultimately ends up autographing the cap before handing it back to its front-row owners. The final song of the night is 'Scarecrow'.
Following their performance, Alex & Sierra would join fellow duo Karmin on the sidewalk bordering the Arena where the 2 pairs were gracious enough to meet and take photos with ALL fans who were in line, before exiting the campus.
Alex and Sierra performed well tonight. Each has a terrific voice, but when brought together the quality of their harmonization is pretty amazing. Although I liked the performance a lot, I would have LOVED to have seen this concert outdoors on the campus, with speakers spanning the lawn and students camped out on picnic blankets beneath the UCF open sky. I'm not sure if that's ever been done before on this campus, but if this could be done to coincide with the school's Homecoming week, it would probably be a very memorable event for the 50,000+ student body population... just a suggestion though. Alex and Sierra have a very honest chemistry when they perform together -- that type of 'puppy love' / honeymoon romanticism often found at the beginning of relationships. For these two, I believe that we are still in the honeymoon of their careers and pray that their chemistry continues for years to come because they fill a genre of ballad music oftentimes found lacking in today's pop music world. Great job to these two UCF Knights whose stardom far exceeds the boundaries of these Orlando skies.