Photo Credit: Molly Baigent<\/p>\n
Review by Michelle Leung<\/p>\n
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.<\/span><\/p>\n NERIAH took the stage at 8 p.m. with a dazzling smile and upbeat performance, starting with \u201cSpring Cleaning\u201d where she encouraged a call-and-response during the bridge. She had the extremely responsive audience repeat after her, singing the lyrics \u201cit\u2019s cutting season,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m spring cleaning.\u201d The Californian singer-songwriter continued her set with songs including \u201cOut of Your League,\u201d \u201cSH!TSHOW,\u201d \u201cIlliterate,\u201d \u201cPerfect Goodbye,\u201d and \u201cGood Enough.\u201d Her stage presence and vocal control were simultaneously commanding and impeccable, confidently setting the tone for the rest of the show.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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 \u201cHere Again,\u201d from his newest album, \u201cWhat If?\u201d 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 \u201cNot Ready Yet,\u201d a powerful pop ballad that had the crowd shouting \u201cWhen you\u2019re with someone, I hope you\u2019re thinking of me\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Stewart is in the midst of his \u201cWhat If?\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Next came \u201cLet Me In\u201d off the new album. During the bridge, he sang \u201cwould it kill you just to\u2026\u201d while the audience finished the line: \u201c…let me in sometimes?\u201d 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 \u201cbleeding heart.\u201d With a chuckle, he noted that much of the crowd was new, joking \u201cokay, so hopefully you like [the tour]. If you don\u2019t\u2026 bye!\u201d Raucous laughter rippled through the venue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The vocal powerhouse continued onto his next song, \u201ceasier said than done,\u201d a track from the aforementioned 2024 album \u201cbleeding heart.\u201d It was followed with \u201che never will,\u201d a song featuring the striking lines, \u201cif he don\u2019t know what he\u2019s got now, he never will; if he don\u2019t treat you right by now, he never will.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While introducing the next track, \u201cGood Things Go,\u201d Stewart laughed when he fumbled the song title, saying he was great at \u201cletting everything in my life go,\u201d instead of \u201cletting everything good in my life go.\u201d 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 \u201cBlame On You,\u201d encouraging the audience to hold their friends and loved ones close if they were in attendance.<\/span><\/p>\n Stewart wound down for a moment, choking up as he talked about his next song, \u201cif you only knew,\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sitting down by the front of the stage with Tanner at the guitar, Stewart delivered a rousing acoustic rendition of Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cBad Romance.\u201d Then he went right into \u201cScared of Myself\u201d from the new album. \u201cWhat If?\u201d was announced on his birthday last year, when he dropped the song \u201cScared of Myself.\u201d He reminisced on Instagram about how much of the last two years he spent second guessing his life and self-worth before realizing \u201cwhat if everything is working out exactly as it\u2019s supposed to?\u201d 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 \u2014 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The next emotional heartbreak-pop track, \u201cFriends Don\u2019t,\u201d was released with fellow Canadian singer-songwriter Lauren Spencer Smith, with a simple harmonic arrangement that allows their vocals to shine. Stewart continued with \u201cPathetic,\u201d \u201cEcho,\u201d \u201cOlder,\u201d \u201cblame\u2019s on me,\u201d \u201cbroken by you,\u201d and \u201cThe Way a Heart Breaks,\u201d before briefly leaving the stage to prepare for the encore.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n During the finale, he played \u201ci wish you cheated\u201d and \u201cThe Boy I Almost Was.\u201d \u201ci wish you cheated\u201d exploded with 45 million views on TikTok and helped stabilize Stewart\u2019s position as a rising pop star, after gaining in popularity with the 2022 track \u201cblame\u2019s on me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n 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<\/span> as he continues to rise and establish his name on bigger and bigger stages. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25741,"featured_media":53596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[2678,117],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25741"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53597,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53595\/revisions\/53597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}