By Molly McCoy
On Saturday November 12th, Noah Kahan brought his highly anticipated and sold out “Stick Season” tour to The Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah. While this leg of tour is ending in a couple of days, he has a few more shows scheduled for 2023. If you can snag tickets to any of those shows I would recommend doing so now.
I got to the venue early knowing the place would be packed. The energy was crazy outside the venue. After picking up my photo pass and going inside, I was immediately greeted by the merch table workers. I’ve got to hand it to Noah and his team, they had some of the best merch I have seen in a while and they had lots of options to satisfy anyone. So…I had to buy something! Noah’s currently touring a sold out tour. It was fun to watch as droves of people flowed in, all of them excited to see Noah Kahan.
The opener for this show was Adam Melchor. If you have never listened to his music I would recommend looking him up and listening to him immediately. He has a beautiful melodic voice that awed the crowd instantly. He has a fantastic stage presence and is very personable with the crowd. He told numerous stories about his songs, including one about writing a sad song with Charlie Puth. His song “Joy Ride”, one of my favorites, is about letting things go when it’s for the best and the perspective we choose to take when experiencing some sort of loss or ending. Adam mentioned how much he loves Salt Lake, and he already has a return show booked in January.
After Adam’s set the crowd was buzzing, and the excitement in the air was electric. I talked to a few of the people at the barricade after making my way up to the pit. Most of them have been loyal fans of Noah since the beginning, seeing him every time he came to Salt Lake. The lights dimmed and the crowd roared as each band member came on stage. Finally, the moment everyone came for, Noah stepped on stage and played the intro chords of his widely popular song “False Confidence”. The lighting designer for this show did a great job as the lights helped to accentuate the performance without overdoing it.
The first thing I noticed when Noah was on stage was how happy he was. You could tell from his expression and the way he played that he loved what he was doing. He and the crowd fed off each other’s energy which made the show even more fun as people sang along with every word. The second thing that stood out to me was just how good Noah Kahan is in a live music setting. Not only does he have a great stage presence, but his voice is so deep, full and enriched with emotion that I was absolutely blown away. I have been listening to his music for a few years. Finally having the chance to see him live I was in awe with how good he was live. My expectations for this show were high from the beginning and it’s safe to say that Noah did more than exceed them.
Every concert I go to, there is usually one song that sticks out to me more than the rest. This concert had two; the first being one of his older tracks titled “Carlo’s Song”. He mentioned that he wrote this song for his friend Carlos, who passed away. He said that he likes to sing it at his shows as a tribute to him, since he gets to travel and see all these places that Carlos never will but would have loved. The tender but strong emotion that Noah had while he sang this song is what made it stand out to me but it was obvious that he touched the entire crowd with this personal song. The second song that stood out to me was the first song he played in his 3 song encore, it’s from his Stick Season album, titled “View Between Villages”. The build in this song is incredible live and Noah’s vocals were so powerful, it was an obvious stand out.
Noah mentioned a few times how much he loved coming to Salt Lake City. I think I can speak for all of Noah’s Utah fans when I say we are counting down the days until he comes back. If you haven’t already, he has 3 albums and 2 EPs I would recommend checking out in preparation for his next tour.
