Concert review
Deep into his emotional set at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday night, 25-year-old Alex Warren looked out over the crowd and admitted that there were many times he wanted to run away from grief. Instead of running, he embraced his journey with it on his 2025 debut album, “You’ll Be Alright, Kid.”
“This is a room where you can cry,” he told the crowd to thunderous cheers.
It’s not the sort of message pop stars usually share with their audiences, but Warren isn’t exactly the typical pop star. He lost his father at age 9, and in 2021, at age 21 — two years after he helped found the Hype House, a collective of TikTok creators — he lost his mother to a battle with alcoholism.
Warren has an authentic, moving story and a legion of young fans (many of the concert attendees were children with their parents in tow). Yet his music also had a distractingly corporate, brand-optimized sheen to it that became more obvious as he got deeper into his set.
His opening number, “Troubled Waters,” provided some unexpected firework blasts and immediate emotional highs. It felt like it could have been the closing moments of the show. Mining the same sonic vein as pop-folk acts like The Lumineers and contemporary worship music, a lot of Warren’s songs relied on an instantly familiar stomp-clap grounding and soaring vocals to achieve a safe, family-friendly version of catharsis.
When there’s that much cathartic outlet that early in a set, there’s a need to exceed that energy, and at first, Warren did just that. “Bloodline,” a song that features Tennessee rapper and singer Jelly Roll, was engaging in its own right, and it was clear that Warren was far more than just a social media star during his performance of “The Outside.” His voice, a unique blend of Josh Groban-like low notes and crystal-clear highs, cut through the mix with impressive authority, especially considering he said he was just getting over strep throat.
“First Time on Earth” was another early thriller. Warren has a special ability to sell the earnestness of his lyrics, and it looked like he and his band were having a lot of fun. However, by the next song, “Before You Leave Me,” it was becoming clear that his songs were starting to sound eerily similar to one another.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Plenty of artists have “a sound” or a familiar song structure. But it’s a problem when songs seem more optimized for a 20-second TikTok clip than to flow well in an album or show and are at risk of being indistinguishable from each other.
Fortunately, after finishing his first stint on the main stage with his hit “Eternity,” Warren retreated to a satellite stage toward the back of the arena, starting with the aptly titled “Catch My Breath.” Before launching into “Same Stars,” one of Warren’s many songs ruminating on grief, he said that he hoped people who have lost loved ones still talk about them, and that was what he was doing through his songs. The track’s stripped-down presentation left more of an impact than another uplifting clap-along could have.
Another song, “Fine Place to Die,” earned its big pop-folk moment of release thanks to a nice solo stretch, with Warren alone behind a piano before the band transitioned back to the main stage. By “Carry You Home,” it was becoming apparent that Warren’s battle with strep throat wasn’t quite over, as just a touch of hoarseness was starting to creep into his voice. Fortunately, the audience was more than happy to help out and sing along.
Warren then closed out his set with a massive explosion of confetti during “Fever Dream,” another emotional peak for the audience to scale. For the encore, he unsurprisingly chose his defining song “Ordinary.” The No. 1 hit — which spent 10 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and 16 weeks topping Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart — had the sold-out crowd in delirious rapture.
Warren’s music has a powerful message, and he’s got some real talent and a compelling story. He’s an undeniably potent artist; time will tell if he becomes an elite pop craftsman as well. Despite a few uneven moments Saturday, it seems he’s well on his way.
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