Still.
It was the only way to describe the show. Out of everything it felt like, still was the word I kept returning to.
In the center of the room, all eyes gravitated toward Searows (Alec), and not once did they pull away. From doors open to doors close, the air felt full of an unspoken acknowledgment of what everyone was feeling inside. There it was, out in the open for everyone to feel, with no room left to hide.
The show started with the band making their way onto the stage. The crowd cheered and roared even louder when Searows took his place. But unlike other shows I've been to, this one fell still. You could feel the anticipation of waiting to hear the first string plucked on his guitar and the first crack of his voice.
“Belly of a Whale,” the title track of his latest album, released in January of this year, was the first song on the setlist. The girls standing in front of me put their phones down and rested their arms on the barricade, just inches away from Searows, and listened. I took a quick glance around the room, and a phone was a rare sight to see.
“I am left in the stomach. At the bottom, where I lay.”
He sang the final lyric before letting his bandmate take over the room with the banjo, helping the feeling of sorrow seep into everyone's soul, accompanied by the subtle hums that escaped Searows' mouth. You couldn't help but flash through every memory that's made you who you are, good or bad.
Even with the venue being as small as it was, and despite the heat radiating through the air, it felt like Searows was singing only to you. That those words had been written just for you. It was intimate. It was sweet.
“This one is kinda rock-ish...,” Searows explained before switching his guitar from acoustic to electric.
Everyone in the crowd instantly knew that “Dearly Missed” would be next. As one of the first singles released from his latest album, there are moments when it feels as though the song doesn't belong with the rest of the body of work. It begins with a soft strum and the familiar tone of voice that soothes the mind, carrying you all the way to the chorus.
“If I sell you out...”
Searows belts the lyric, and almost instantaneously the crowd begins to scream along with him. Everyone sways and sings into the air:
“I really need you to help yourself....”
Even with the change of pace in the middle of the set, no one seemed to miss a beat when the show reverted back to the infectious melancholy and beautiful sorrow that only Searows knows how to convey.
After pretending to have played their last song, Searows and his band returned for the encore, and I could feel everyone's breath hitch. Searows began to play his most popular song, “House Song,” which has amassed over 90 million streams on Spotify.
When it comes to songs that perform well on TikTok, artists often begin to dread the idea of singing them over and over again. Yet when Alec strummed his guitar and brought his lips to the microphone, it felt as though he was singing it for the very first time. All you could feel was the emotion pouring out of him. You could see him being brought back to the place he was when he first created the song.
He sang the final verse, and the crowd followed in a whisper, their voices cracking as the words left their lips:
“Something is rotten inside of me. I have to find it and cut it out.”
Long after the show was over and the crowd made its way through the small exit doors, all I saw around me were people who had been touched by the music played in that room. Some, myself included, left with watery eyes and the feeling of being understood.
And when trying to find the words to describe the show, when so many came to mind, I always returned to one:
Still.
Still was the room as we watched and listened; still remained the mind long after he left that stage. And with a couple shows left, you can still catch Searows and his band at the remaining shows for "Death in Business of Whaling" tour. The last show being played at Portland, Oregon on June 27th, 2026.
Searows
