Noah Kahan’s June 5 gig at Azura welcomed the crowd into a playground of generational trauma

The indie folk artist—who hails from Vermont—took fans on a joy ride through alcohol abuse, being a child of divorce, and the love/hate relationship we all have with our hometown.

June 7, 2024

Zoe Strohm,

Noah Kahan at Azura. // Photo by Zoe Strohm

On Wednesday night, Noah Kahan’s “We’ll All Be Here Forever” tour stop sold out Azura Amphitheater, just one year after headlining The Truman. The indie folk artist—who hails from Vermont—takes fans on a joy ride through alcohol abuse, being a child of divorce, and the love/hate relationship we all have with our hometown.

Singer-songwriter Ryan Beatty opened for Kahan, providing a chill, acoustic set. Beatty hit a bullseye starting with a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?” While his set was short with only seven songs, Beatty did not disappoint. As the sun began to set and leave a golden hue over the stage, he set the atmosphere for the night.

This was my fourth time catching Kahan live, and each round just improves by leaps and bounds.

Kahan quickly gained popularity on TikTok in 2022 with the release of the single “Stick Season” and the following album release of the same name. Within the last year, he has gone from playing small venues with 1,200 people to selling out Fenway Park. So many breakout stars enter the spotlight and the sudden fame overtakes them, but Kahan takes it all with grace, treating every show, every crowd, with so much love and appreciation, no matter the size.

Kahan has been touring for over two years, almost continuously, with short breaks in between, all while still writing and releasing new music, organizing collaborations, guesting at other artists’ shows, and starting a charity to raise money for mental health resources. This is not easy work, and yet he makes it seem like performing is not something he does for money but instead out of pure enjoyment.

The set started at 9:20, but the crowd was ready much before that. With the first sign of movement on stage the lawn went from peaceful sitting and chatting to everyone dragging their blankets down the hill and getting as close to the fence as they could.

Kahan took the stage and dove directly into “Dial Drunk,” getting the crowd hyped up before shifting to “New Perspective” and encouraging us to drag all of our friends down when things started going a little too well for them.

After the first five songs, photos of Kahan’s family were brought out to decorate the stage. “This is my mom’s living room, where I first started playing music,” says Kahan. “You know, without all the generational trauma.” Here he performed a short acoustic set joined by Nina de Vitry on violin, Noah Levine on guitar, and Dylan Jones on banjo. Much of Kahan’s discography reflects on his childhood and growing up in New England. The inclusion of family pictures and photos of his hometown gave us a small reminder that all these songs we’ve fallen in love with, that we relate so heavily to, are telling someone’s real story.

Between songs, Kahan interacts with the audience, reading signs, signing posters, and even drawing a tree for someone to get tattooed. At one point, he asks the crowd if he should refer to us as Kansas City or Bonner Springs, which is met with resounding screams of “Kansas City!” He performed the unreleased track “The Great Divide,” which he has been teasing on social media in the last few months. Despite many hearing the whole song for the first time Wednesday night, those who keep up with him online knew the chorus from the clips he had posted and sang along.

Towards the end of the show, Kahan made his way to the smaller, B stage in the middle of the seated section. With the layout of Azura Amphitheater, most of the audience is on the lawn with a more limited view of what’s going on on the stage. Kahan made a point to stand facing the lawn, stating: “When I started this tour I wanted to make sure every person was included. I wanted you to know that I see you too, even the last seat in the house.”

From this stage, he performed three more acoustic songs, this time alone. For the second song, an unreleased track titled “Pain is Cold Water,” there was silence from the audience because they didn’t know the words yet. Slowly, flashlights began turning on, held high above everyone’s heads. While this is normal for concerts, usually you don’t get a chance to see what the artist sees. With everyone in the lower bowl turned around to watch from behind and the crescent shape the lawn makes around the amphitheater, from any angle, you could almost feel how much love the fans have for Kahan.

While Noah Kahan is the title act, the band blows it out of the water every time. Guitar player Noah Levine makes the guitar look easy while he moves around the stage, dancing and jumping, yet never making a mistake. Dylan Jones is a jack of all trades, switching from the banjo, mandolin, keys at the drop of a hat. Alex Bachari on the bass brings in the low notes and high energy. Marcos Valles on drums may be in the back but he’s impossible to miss. While the rest of the band has the ability to move around, often playing back to back, jumping together and dancing, the speed and ease that Valles moves is mesmerizing on its own. The newest addition to the band, Nina de Vitry, brings the show to another level with the addition of the violin and soft, sweet background harmony.

When he returned to the main stage, they performed four more songs, the last being “Northern Attitude.” Fake snow fell from above the stage, covering the band and those in front of the pit. The band left the stage, and the crowd immediately began chanting, “One more song!”

When they returned to the stage, Kahan and the band were now wearing Sporting Kansas City jerseys. They performed “The View Between Villages” and “Stick Season,” finishing with maple leaf-shaped confetti falling over the crowd.

There is something amazing and almost bittersweet about watching an artist you love explode with popularity, but Noah Kahan deserves every bit of it. People often ask me why I keep buying tickets if I’ve already seen him multiple times, and the answer is always easy. I always know without a doubt I will get to watch an artist do what they love, for people that love him for it.

Photos by Allison Scavo: