Noah Kahan is ‘GONNA GO FAR’ - We’ll All Be Here Forever in Montreal.

Apr 19

Shot and written by Eva Lynch

April 13th, 2024

Montreal, QC @ Bell Center

First to the stage for the evening was the folk and blues singer-songwriter Jensen McRae, for a striking and heartfelt performance. Accompanied by guitarist Kevin Burke and her brother Holden McRae on the piano, she serenaded the crowd with several
songs from her 2022 album Are You Happy Now? which was commended by publications such as Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NPR and many more. Her tone, which has been compared to the likes of Tracy Chapman, was perfectly matched for Noah Kahan, as the themes and tones in their music felt like two sides to the same coin, and there was a beautiful symmetry in their performances. The stripped back performance allowed for McRae’s vocals and lyricism to take center stage, as she traveled between deep altos and delicate, fluttery falsettos, and moved from soft confession-style lullabies to belting brazen choruses as the urgency in her songs built. She left the crowd buzzing
and more-than ready for what was to follow.

American singer-songwriter Noah Kahan has recently swept the continent by storm, winning hearts with his heartfelt indie-folk pop hits such as ‘Stick Season’ and ‘Call Your Mom,’ which has caught attention of the likes of artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Hozier, Shawn Mendes and Mumford and Sons, who he’s recently collaborated with and had the chance to perform with on their respective world tours. He broke onto the scene in 2017 with his song ‘Hurt Somebody’ which showcased his vulnerable lyricism and demonstrates his commitment to challenging mental health taboos through his music which is complemented by the creation of his own mental health initiative, the Busyhead Project.

His latest album Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever) digs deep into growing up in New England, filled with specific imagery and references to this landscape, while its sound is awash with acoustic guitars, banjo, and even a mandolin to compliment Kahan’s tenor voice. It feels like you’re being serenaded at a campfire at night with an energetic folk song that has everyone joining in, singing and clapping
along.

Kahan begins the night bursting onto stage with a high-energy rendition of his song ‘Dial Drunk.’ He energetically welcomes the crowd to the show and mentions how he loves his job but can get homesick, waking up looking at a parking lot every morning, and is jealous of those who can go home to Vermont later that night, feeling nostalgic for New England with the Montreal landscape and proximity to the ‘802’ as he calls it. He later dedicates the song ‘Homesick’ to New England as the wooden mountains behind him fill up with images and scenery from his home which continue to make appearances over the course of the whole night.

The idea of home flows throughout Kahan’s music, in the lyricism, in the set decorations and in the company he keeps and his band dynamics on stage as Kahan runs between different members of his band as they riff off each other, playing back and forth or with their backs together as they are all having a blast on stage. Throughout his music and performance, the theme of home is paralleled with the recurring ideas of family dysfunction and found family, mental health and growing up, but everything is connected to home. At a midpoint of the evening, the band all gather their chairs in the middle of the stage and sit down to play a few slower songs together such as ‘Godlight’ which bring attention to the banjo and fiddle accompanying Kahan, as they sit in the middle of his set meant to recreate his mom’s living room, with large scale replicas of childhood photos floating above their heads. The talent and musicality of everyone on stage is on full display, as Kahan introduces his band with funny little intros and inside jokes as they each do a little solo before seamlessly transitioning into the next song. He speaks a lot about his mother and New England on stage as two guiding lights in his music, which clearly resonate with the audience; prefacing songs such as ‘Call Your Mom’ with his endless appreciation for his mom as he later jokes that if your parents got divorced, “it's never your fault... it’s always your dad’s,” which got a huge reaction from the crowd before breaking into ‘All My Love’ which had the whole stadium chanting along.

Kahan sold out Bell Center and every person in every seat was singing along to each word, and felt as if they were their own type of community. His music is vulnerable and honest and by the end of the night it feels like you’ve gotten to know Noah Kahan on a personal level as someone who has welcomed you into his world, sharing jokes and stories that carry a level of genuineness that makes it feels like he’s sharing things with the audience the way he would tell a friend. Despite warning the audience at the beginning of the night that he is recovering from a cold so he may have a few moments where he’ll sound like a ‘prepubescent boy’ and his voice might crack, his voice is raw and powerful as Kahan leaves it all on the stage.

Towards the end of the show, he journeys into the sea of flannel to a small B stage in the center of the crowd he has set up, where he plays a stripped back ‘Growing Sideways,’ and debuts a new song he wrote a month earlier, illuminated by small flashlights swaying back and forth at every level of the stands. The new song had everyone excited for what else Kahan has in store, as he somberly serenades the crowd with his new chorus which repeats “I hope you’re scared of ordinary shit like cancer on your skin and not your soul and what he might do with it.” Especially when played acoustically from the basin of the large stadium, it demonstrates Kahan’s immense talent for balancing somber stories with upbeat harmonies and rhythms, and his capacity for taking his audience on an thorough emotional journey throughout the course of their evening.

Noah Kahan is a powerhouse from start to finish, belting his heartfelt stories at the top of his lungs for over two hours straight. He finishes his set with ‘Northern Attitude,’ which he dedicated to anyone who has to spend 25 minutes heating their car before they can ride it in the winter, joking that we also suffer from northern attitude and understand the struggle, before beginning the song which only continues to builds as the crowd gets a clap started as they sing along. He releases cannons of glitter confetti which falls like snow all over the crowd before a quick run backstage before he is back for an encore, adorned in a fresh Habs jersey, as he closes the night with ‘Stick Season,’ and a final bout of confetti is released into the air.

Jensen McRae