“It’s good to be home,” New England native and fast-rising star Noah Kahan said to the crowd of 38,000 people that packed into Fenway Park July 19. Fans flocked to the iconic stadium for the closing show of Kahan’s two-night stint in Boston as part of the “We’ll All Be Here Forever” tour.
“You all look way too happy,” Kahan said to his audience at the start of the show. “I’m going to wipe those smiles right off your faces.” This may be an unusual statement to utter to a cheering, sold-out crowd, but Kahan’s words brought excitement to fans who were in attendance for his devastatingly relatable lyrics and a night of feeling it all.
Kahan’s debut album, “Busyhead,” was released in 2019, but his fan base grew seemingly overnight when his single “Stick Season” went viral on TikTok back in 2022. Kahan’s latest album, “Stick Season (Forever),” is an emotional rollercoaster of 30 songs, with eight being alternate versions that feature other artists. The album is a deluxe version of Kahan’s 2022 album “Stick Season,” which solidified him as a national sensation.
Joining Kahan for his two Fenway shows were English singer-songwriter James Bay and indie rock band Mt. Joy. Bay, the first opener, took the stage at 6 p.m., bringing enough energy and enthusiasm to last the night. Bay’s strong vocals and guitar skills soared as he performed original hits such as “Let it Go” and “Hold Back the River.” He also debuted his new single “Up All Night,” a collaboration with Kahan and folk band The Lumineers, which had been released earlier that day.
Mt. Joy took the stage about one hour later, kicking things off with “Sheep” — a crowd favorite. The show was a special one for the band, which was formed at Northeastern in 2013. Matt Quinn, the band’s lead singer and a Northeastern alum, expressed immense gratitude to Kahan and the audience for the opportunity to rock with the crowd at the venue of his dreams.
The band performed hits, including their most recent single “Highway Queen,” and older favorites “Astrovan” and “Strangers.” Mt. Joy also performed shortened renditions of Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” and Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.” The band brought the listeners to their feet and closed with “Silver Lining,” engaging the audience with its shout-along chorus, “But if it’s the drugs, the women, the wine, the weed / The love that took everything I own / Just take it oh, oh, oh.”
As the anticipation built for Kahan’s arrival, crowds migrated to the innards of the stadium to purchase specialty Noah Kahan x Fenway Park merchandise. The selection featured everything from baseball caps branded with “Forever” across the front — a reference to both “Stick Season (Forever)” and the song of the same name — to T-shirts featuring a cartoon Kahan swinging a guitar like a baseball bat.
As the sun set on Fenway at 8:15 p.m., the crowd switched its attention to a commotion at the rear of the turf seating, where Kahan appeared to be entering from. Surely enough, Kahan made his way through the floor seating to arrive at the stage and commenced his set with the upbeat “Dial Drunk.” Immediately, the crowd was electric. Kahan brought nearly every attendee to their feet, and they remained there for the entirety of the show.
Kahan was decked out in his signature French braids and an all-white outfit — a plain tee underneath overalls with “FOREVER” written on the chest in traditional Red Sox typeface. In classic Kahan fashion, the artist cracked jokes throughout the set, starting with “I’m a little nervous, and I’m wearing all white, so if I piss my pants please don’t put it on TikTok.”
Kahan kept the vibes up after “Dial Drunk” with “New Perspective,” followed by “Everywhere, Everything,” a powerful love song that has grown to be one of Kahan’s most popular. At their seats, each attendee was given an LED bracelet, producing colored lights that illuminated Fenway to the beat of the song’s lyrics: “Everywhere, everything, I wanna love you / ‘Til we’re food for the worms to eat / ‘Til our fingers decompose, keep my hand in yours.”
“I’m grateful every day for the love you guys give me,” Kahan said. “And tonight is going to be one of the best nights of my fucking life.”
Kahan continued with one of his older hits, “False Confidence,” and the crowd echoed the lyrics, proving their dedication to the self-proclaimed “Jewish Ed Sheeran.” The first notes of “Forever,” a song added as a part of the extended album after a verse went viral on TikTok, gave the crowd a passion that appeared to bring Kahan to tears.
Kahan chatted with front-row audience members as the stage setup behind him transitioned to a dimly lit secondary setup, with the singer sitting in front of what he explained were replicas of the pictures that hang in his mother’s living room.
“We wanted to make it look just like her house, we have the paintings from her house — we couldn’t fit the generational trauma on stage, sorry Mama,” Kahan said. The secondary stage brought intimate performances of “Come Over” and “Godlight.” Returning to the original setup after these songs, energy was restored and local pride roared with “Homesick,” and Kahan left it entirely to the crowd to scream the lyric “I’m mean because I grew up in New England.”
The excitement of the night was matched with the anticipation of a special guest joining Kahan on stage. The night before, he welcomed both Gracie Abrams and The Lumineers to the stage. When Kahan disappeared for a few minutes, the crowd was expecting the arrival of a guest star. After he returned alone on an elevated ledge above the Green Monster, he later explained that “we were supposed to have a special guest tonight, but it didn’t work out. I hope I’m enough for you.”
And more than enough he was. Elevated above a belting Fenway, Kahan performed “Growing Sideways” and “Maine” with solely his acoustic guitar and vocals straight from the heart as an awestruck crowd sang along.
Songs from “Stick Season (Forever)” ruled the next few tracks, with the screaming crowd assisting Kahan in performing “She Calls Me Back,” “Call Your Mom” and “Orange Juice” before welcoming Mt. Joy back to the stage for a collaborative performance of “Northern Attitude,” complete with white confetti made to look like snow.
Kahan left the stage following “Northern Attitude” but returned moments later for an encore consisting of “Young Blood” and “Mess,” both from “Busyhead.” Of course, Kahan couldn’t leave Fenway Park without performing his biggest hit, “Stick Season.”
For “Stick Season,” Kahan welcomed his mother, father and other family members to the stage for a wholesome performance of the song that transformed him from a Vermont local to the face of New England anthems. Leaf-shaped confetti fell upon the crowd as Kahan and his family paraded around the stage singing each lyric with pride.
As Kahan and his band bowed and waved goodbye to the crowd, fireworks shot above Fenway, and the recognizable opening of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” began to play over the speakers, closing out the show in true Boston fashion.
Fans cried, hugged and laughed from start to finish — if there’s one thing Kahan knows how to do, it’s perfectly encapsulate the complexity of the human experience through both his songwriting and the ambiance of his performances to give the crowd the show of a lifetime.
