There was one major hitch: his friends couldn’t come. Great Scott is a 21-plus venue, it was a school night, and Devil Music went on after 9 pm — normally the nine-year-old’s bedtime. So when the three-piece finally finished their new six-song release Go! (Mass Distribution), they invited their youngest collaborator back. This Saturday, January 28, he’ll help headline an all-ages CD-release show, an early-evening MassArt bill of under-18 bands. Bands like Undecided Youth, a Marblehead junior-high gang whose Web site lists members’ “rock idols” alongside their “best friends” and “favorite colors.”
Back at practice, Alex keeps pace with his collaborators two decades his senior, his eyes darting from musician to musician, as they run through the three songs they’ll do at MassArt. But when someone asks Alex the titles of the arrangements he’s dreamed up, he can’t remember. “I have the names written down at home,” he says unsurely. “They’re just on a piece of paper. In my desk.”
But they rock. So much that when Alex snaps a string on his Gibson, Rapino teases, “You’re rocking too hard.”
Alex smirks bashfully. He seems pleased with that suggestion.
Alex Brown-Whalen plays with Devil Music Ensemble this Saturday, January 28, at Massachusetts College of Art, North Hall, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston | Also appearing are Undecided Youth + the Conversions + the Abraham Lincoln Brigade | All ages | 5 to 9 pm | 617.427.3267.
