(Photo Credit – Randall Michelson / Live Nation-Hewitt Silva)
Hoping to leave an audience “a little worse off” may seem like a strange desire when performing your first of two sold out nights at the Hollywood Bowl but for anyone that knows Noah Kahan from his online presence it wasn’t an alarming desire. Kahan, who has been releasing music since 2017, went viral on TikTok in 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic with his song “Stick Season” from the album with the same name which was released two years later in 2022. The virality with a song from an album not yet released allow traction to grow of an audience desperate for more music. “Stick Season” debuted at 14 on the Billboard 200.
Jump ahead two years and Kahan is on his second tour for the album having now released two separate deluxe versions and an additional set of tracks from the album reimagined with collaborations from other artists such as Post Malone, Gracie Abrams, Kacey Musgraves and Hozier.
The Hollywood Bowl is a dream for many, though if we had to guess, Kahan, a New England native, may say that his biggest accomplishment on this tour will be the sold out closing nights at Fenway Park in Boston, MA which he offering as a live stream to fans everywhere. Originally set to just play one night in Los Angeles, as second was added due to demand. Kahan started the night with an upbeat crowd favorite of “Dial Drunk”, immediately filling the Hollywood hillside with electricity before taking a chance to play some acoustic songs in a makeshift version of his mother’s living room without “all the generational trauma”.
Halfway through the show, Kahan took the opportunity to move to a B-stage about halfway up the Bowl, mentioning he isn’t as healthy as the LA Erewhon crowd and the many sets of stairs were a lot for him. Making an effort to get closer to the “nosebleed” was just one way he acted on his words of how grateful he was to be playing to such a crowd in a town where he didn’t always feel he fit in, noting that he felt entirely out of place at the Grammys where he was nominated for Best New Artist in 2024.
There’s a charisma needed to play to the Bowl, a venue that not only sells individual tickets but also has season ticket holders who don’t always know what they’re expecting when arriving at the show and Kahan killed it. He was able to perform all the hits from his latest album in addition to some songs from his previous albums and EPs including “Maine” and “Godlight”.
(Photo Credit – Randall Michelson / Live Nation-Hewitt Silva)
Having toured now twice for this album, Kahan has mastered the ability to play everyone’s favorite songs but still have time to talk to the crowd, talking about not only his music but the town he was playing in and his experiences there throughout the years. He asked if anyone had attended the show alone and then noted that Los Angeles was where he really learned to do things alone and he’d realized the only time he didn’t feel lonely was actually being alone and then of course playing on stage. It’s easy to imagine being put in a big stage with just your band and guitar could actually feel lonely but this sentiment he shared was evident just by how much fun Kahan seemed to be having on stage.
Sadly, it’s hard to imagine that Kahan got what he wanted at the end of the night. There did not seem to be a single person in the crowd to left any worse off than they’d arrived, in fact it seemed everyone was leaving better off.
If you’re not able to catch Kahan on one of his remaining tour dates, make sure to check out his livestream of his show in Fenway Park.
(Photo Credit – Randall Michelson / Live Nation-Hewitt Silva)
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