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ALEX WARREN
@ Riverstage, Brisbane,
23rd August, 2025
(Live Review)

Review by Audrey Songvilay

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Alex Warren

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ALEX WARREN’s debut at Riverstage was anything but ordinary

Brisbane’s Riverstage is one of those places that can feel like a backyard hangout or the city’s wildest night out, depending on who’s playing. Last night, Alex Warren took the stage with thousands of fans sprawled across the hillside, crammed shoulder-to-shoulder at the barrier, waiting for a set that blurred the line between performance and group therapy.

Alex Warren, an American singer-songwriter and former TikTok creator, has built his music career on raw honesty and personal storytelling. His songs draw from real-life experiences, from losing his father at a young age to navigating the challenges of adolescence, giving listeners a space to process their own emotions. From the first note of “Burning Down,” it was obvious the crowd had already made up their mind: this was going to be their show as much as Alex Warren’s. He admitted he was sick, mumbling through some verses, but the audience didn’t care. They filled in every word he couldn’t, almost daring him to lean harder into them. It wasn’t polished, it didn’t need to be.

Warren kept things conversational, often stopping to talk like he was catching up with friends. “Before You Leave Me” cracked hearts open, while “Catch My Breath” and “Yard Sale” played like entries torn from his journal. Fans swayed, screamed, cried, sometimes all in the same three minutes. By the time “Bloodline” hit, the entire hillside came together with that mix of sadness and solidarity you only get when an artist is bleeding honesty all over the stage.

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And Warren did just that. Between songs, he spoke with reckless candour about losing his dad at nine, his mum to alcoholism, and writing through grief. Just as quickly, he’d flip to self-deprecating humour, comparing himself to Shrek, and laughing at his own rambling. The crowd loved him for it. Someone handed him a pack of Tim Tams. Another fan gifted him a painting of him and his wife – the same wife who painted his guitar. These little exchanges shrank Riverstage down to something far more intimate than a 7,000-capacity venue.

The crowd mirrored his energy all night. They screamed through “You Can’t Stop This”, then quieted to a soft sway. At one point, the hillside became a sea of phone lights, their glow bouncing off the trees and water, turning the Riverstage into a cathedral of shared grief and joy. It was one of those goosebump moments you can’t stage-manage, only stumble into.

Then came the encore. Warren promised he’d be back, and he was, easing in with “Eternity,” a calm before the storm. But the real detonation was “Ordinary.” Wearing a shirt scrawled with “All my life I’ll do ya,” he barely strummed before the place erupted. Phones went up. The crowd took over the verses, Warren grinned through the choruses, and suddenly thousands of people screamed the same words back at him. It was chaotic, imperfect, joyful, and exactly what an encore should be. Alex Warren isn’t a flawless performer. He mumbles, leans on the crowd, and sometimes gets lost in his own stories. But it’s in those cracks, the chaos, the unpredictability, the raw edges, that make the night come alive.

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ALEX WARREN 
​CHEAPER THAN THERAPY
Global Tour

WITH SPECIAL GUEST MEDIUM BUILD

Presented by Frontier Touring ​ 

Thursday 21 August – Hordern Pavilion | Sydney, NSW SOLD OUT 
Friday 22 August – Hordern Pavilion | Sydney, NSW SOLD OUT 
Saturday 23 August – Riverstage | Brisbane, QLD SOLD OUT 
Monday 25 August – Margaret Court Arena | Melbourne, VIC SOLD OUT 
Tuesday 26 August – AEC Arena | Adelaide, SA SOLD OUT 
Thursday 28 August – Perth HPC | Perth, WA SOLD OUT 

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Alex Warren

YOU’LL BE ALRIGHT, KID
Track List:

DISC ONE

Eternity
The Outside
First Time on Earth
Bloodline (with Jelly Roll)
Never Be Far
Ordinary
Everything
Getaway Car
Who I Am
You Can’t Stop This
On My Mind (with ROSÉ)

DISC TWO

Burning Down
Catch My Breath
Carry You Home
Troubled Waters
Heaven Without You
Before You Leave Me
Save You a Seat
Chasing Shadows
Yard Sale
You’ll Be Alright, Kid

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Follow ALEX WARREN
Website – Instagram – Facebook
Tik Tok – X – You Tube

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Alex Warren / Photo – Jack Dytrych

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About ALEX WARREN

Burgeoning pop artist Alex Warren is one of 2025’s breakout stars worldwide. Now boasting an impressive over 2.4B total career streams and over 53M monthly listeners on Spotify, his hit single “Ordinary,” released in February, is taking over the world. With over 1 billion streams and counting, the song reigns at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, and spent five weeks at #1 on the Billboard Global 200 songs chart and the Global 200 Ex US. It is also #1 at Top 40 Radio, and Hot AC Radio, currently holding the largest radio audience. The track has also just reached its 13th week at #1 on the UK songs chart. Alex has delivered soul bearing performances of the track making his award show debut at the 2025 American Music Awards, his late night television debut on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,’ performing an acoustic rendition with Ed Sheeran in an underplay at Coachella and joining Jelly Roll during Stagecoach.

Adding to his accolades, Alex was named Billboard’s January Chartbreaker with his track “Burning Down” with Joe Jonas joining for a reimagined version. The single marked Alex’s first time breaking onto the Billboard Hot 100, has now amassed over 185 million streams, and reached #1 on the global charts in 8 countries. He follows his record-breaking success with live shows as he recently wrapped his sold out, headlining Cheaper Than Therapy Global Tour, hitting 47 cities across Europe and North America. He extended the tour to add 15 more shows later this summer.

In 2024, Warren released his acclaimed full-length debut album, You’ll Be Alright, Kid (Chapter 1), which instantly skyrocketed onto charts around the world. The album is further highlighted by Warren’s global success with another standout track, “Carry You Home,” which has garnered nearly half a billion streams worldwide. Known for his vulnerable pop melodies, passionate vocals, and lyrical candor, Warren has won over fans with these deeply personal singles. He was named to People Magazine’s list of “Talented Emerging Artists Making Their Mark”, Sirius XM’s Artist Accelerator Program, and was named one of 2025’s artists to watch by both Tidal and Amazon Music. Most recently he was named an iHeart Radio “On The Verge” artist.

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Press Release 30th July 2025 (below) HERE

ALEX WARREN
confirms
MEDIUM BUILD
as special guest for sold-out
Australian tour next month

+ MEDIUM BUILD
to play two intimate
headline shows in
Sydney and Melbourne

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Medium Build

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AMNPLIFY – DB