Noah Kahan has had somewhat of a meteoric rise in recent times.
On Wednesday night the US-based artist made his second appearance in the North East in less than 12 months.
The singer/songwriter performed at the O2 City Hall in November and this time around the chart-topping star returned to the region with a sold-out show at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena.
A capacity crowd was in attendance by the time support Maisie Peters took to the stage. And to have an artist of this calibre as the opening act, was quite a treat.
Noah Kahan (Image: ADAM KENNEDY)
Maisie, who is a protégé of Ed Sheeran, has already had a Number 1 record with her album The Good Witch, performed on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, headlined Wembley Arena in her own right, and will support Taylor Swift at her forthcoming Wembley Stadium concert on the 19th of August. Subsequently, it’s fair to say that many of Peters’ fans were in the crowd.
Backed by her three-piece band, Maisie was full of energy and enthusiasm as she took the audience through songs like Just A Boy, Body Better and Love Him I Don't. The artist is a self-confessed Noah Kahan fan, much like those in the crowd. The Brit pop sensation had the whole audience in the palm of her hand during a wonderful cover of Mr Brightside by The Killers. Fan favourites such as History of Man and Lost The Breakup were the cherry on top of an amazing opening set. Judging by this performance and Maisie’s current trajectory it won’t be long before she is headlining the Utilita Arena herself.
By the time the headliner took to the stage, the atmosphere inside the venue was electric. Many fans at the front of the stage had banners for the man himself. At one point in the show, Noah took the opportunity to read them out. One of these resulted in the artist sketching a future tattoo for a fan on the barrier, and another culminated in a game of rock, paper, scissors with the singer to perform a song request – that being Sink – which he lost.
Despite the size of the arena, Noah Kahan made this huge, cavernous venue feel intimate. Midway through the show Noah ventured out into the middle of the arena high-fiving his fans as he made his way through the audience. A pair of songs including Growing Sideways and Sink from a b-stage in front of the mixing desk resulted in an up close and personal encounter for those on the arena floor.
Of course, Noah struck up a friendship with the North East’s own Sam Fender, and a rendition of the song they released together by way of Homesick was always going to be warmly received in Newcastle.
Noah Kahan is presently on the final leg of his tour promoting his latest album Stick Season and subsequently, the lion's share of the album featured in the set. With 16 songs on the setlist taken from the album. This includes crowd-pleasing airings of Dial Drunk, All My Love, You're Gonna Go Far and Orange Juice.
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A change of stage backdrops saw a homely acoustic set performed with members of his band. The aesthetic on stage was inspired by his family living room back home, photographs and paintings hung from behind the band as they delivered beautiful airings of Pain Is Cold Water which was segued into Maine, and also a rare airing of Godlight.
There was also room for a new song by way of Spoiled. The main set concluded with a rather apt rendition of Northern Attitude. But despite the glorious weather we’ve encountered this past week, artificial snow drifted across the arena from above adding an atmospheric touch to the proceedings.
Based on the strength of this performance, Noah Kahan is loved almost as much as his North East pal Sam Fender. I guess you could say, for Noah Kahan the sky is the limit. Perhaps only time will tell.
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