REVIEW: Alexander Stewart @ Paradise Rock Club 3/21
Photo Credit: Molly Baigent
Review by Michelle Leung
On a pleasantly chilly night, a buzzing blend of middle-aged adults and college students filled up Paradise Rock Club, enjoying drinks and eyeing around for the best place to stand. Even 20 minutes before the opener the venue was packed; anticipation sparked infectiously in the air.
NERIAH took the stage at 8 p.m. with a dazzling smile and upbeat performance, starting with “Spring Cleaning” where she encouraged a call-and-response during the bridge. She had the extremely responsive audience repeat after her, singing the lyrics “it’s cutting season,” and “I’m spring cleaning.” The Californian singer-songwriter continued her set with songs including “Out of Your League,” “SH!TSHOW,” “Illiterate,” “Perfect Goodbye,” and “Good Enough.” Her stage presence and vocal control were simultaneously commanding and impeccable, confidently setting the tone for the rest of the show.
When Alexander Stewart took the stage, he did so accompanied by guitarist and keyboardist Flynn Tanner and drummer Brittany Nicole Bowman. He launched straight into his first track “Here Again,” from his newest album, “What If?” The sophomore album was released in late 2025, detailing his journey of self-discovery without shying away from the emotional vulnerability that defines his career. Stewart followed with “Not Ready Yet,” a powerful pop ballad that had the crowd shouting “When you’re with someone, I hope you’re thinking of me”.
Stewart is in the midst of his “What If?” tour, with the European leg beginning last November in the UK before moving over to North America in late February. After the Boston show, he has eight more performances and will finish the run in Los Angeles, California.
Next came “Let Me In” off the new album. During the bridge, he sang “would it kill you just to…” while the audience finished the line: “…let me in sometimes?” As the song came to a close, Stewart introduced himself, asking the audience to raise their hands if they had attended his previous tour for the album “bleeding heart.” With a chuckle, he noted that much of the crowd was new, joking “okay, so hopefully you like [the tour]. If you don’t… bye!” Raucous laughter rippled through the venue.
The vocal powerhouse continued onto his next song, “easier said than done,” a track from the aforementioned 2024 album “bleeding heart.” It was followed with “he never will,” a song featuring the striking lines, “if he don’t know what he’s got now, he never will; if he don’t treat you right by now, he never will.”
While introducing the next track, “Good Things Go,” Stewart laughed when he fumbled the song title, saying he was great at “letting everything in my life go,” instead of “letting everything good in my life go.” The rendition was fully acoustic, with Stewart grabbing a guitar and playing together with guitarist Tanner, who accompanied with vocal harmonies. He continued through to the love song “Blame On You,” encouraging the audience to hold their friends and loved ones close if they were in attendance.
Stewart wound down for a moment, choking up as he talked about his next song, “if you only knew,” saying he wrote the song as a letter to his mom in an attempt to explain his mental battles. The heartfelt, intimate pop ballad, sung while at the keyboard, focused on his internal struggles and difficult thoughts. Stewart moved on from the poignant moment with some difficulty, taking a break to play some covers.
Sitting down by the front of the stage with Tanner at the guitar, Stewart delivered a rousing acoustic rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” Then he went right into “Scared of Myself” from the new album. “What If?” was announced on his birthday last year, when he dropped the song “Scared of Myself.” He reminisced on Instagram about how much of the last two years he spent second guessing his life and self-worth before realizing “what if everything is working out exactly as it’s supposed to?” After finishing the song, he monologued for a little, explaining that whenever something bad happened in his life, he would attempt to spin the event into something positive — why did that have to happen, and what lessons did he learn? However, with the help of a friend, he recognized that this toxic positivity was actually hurting him, and accepting that truth brought him a newfound sense of clarity and perspective.
The next emotional heartbreak-pop track, “Friends Don’t,” was released with fellow Canadian singer-songwriter Lauren Spencer Smith, with a simple harmonic arrangement that allows their vocals to shine. Stewart continued with “Pathetic,” “Echo,” “Older,” “blame’s on me,” “broken by you,” and “The Way a Heart Breaks,” before briefly leaving the stage to prepare for the encore.
During the finale, he played “i wish you cheated” and “The Boy I Almost Was.” “i wish you cheated” exploded with 45 million views on TikTok and helped stabilize Stewart’s position as a rising pop star, after gaining in popularity with the 2022 track “blame’s on me.”
Stewart is, undeniably, a vocal talent to look out for. His strong, driving vocals and easy way of evoking intensely profound emotions from a crowd embody relatability and radiate authenticity, differentiating him from other performers. Hopefully, Stewart will keep utilizing his earnest storytelling and down-to-earth personability as he continues to rise and establish his name on bigger and bigger stages.