On Friday night, Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville boasted a sold-out show for American folk-pop singer Noah Kahan, the singer’s second time in Indy in under a year. With a beautiful 75 degree temperature and mostly-sunny skies at the beginning of the show, it was the perfect night to be at Ruoff.
The opener was pop and R&B singer Ryan Beatty and his band, a group of seven who sat for the entirety of their lowkey set. While the songs were good and the sound quality great, the energy from the band and the returned energy from the crowd were both low. When they finished their set, Ryan Beatty blew air kisses to the crowd, and energy shifted upwards in anticipation of being closer to the main act.
With a crowd that was mostly made up of young women in sundresses taking pictures on digital point-and-shoot cameras, excitement was high as the time came for Noah Kahan to come out on stage. Being the performer he is, Kahan came out for the show in a literal go-kart and dressed in a racing jumpsuit. To my surprise, he wore the jumpsuit for the entirety of the main show.
Kahan opened up with one of his most popular songs, “Dial Drunk,” and much of the crowd sang along to every word. Afterwards he sang “New Perspective” and “Everywhere, Everything,” switching back and forth throughout the show between his sadder, slower songs, and the more upbeat and fast-paced ones.
He was a great showman, making jokes about himself, his band members, and the crowd in between each song. He kept the audience engaged by sharing personal anecdotes and explaining what some of the songs were about.
At one point early in the show, Kahan changed the stage to look like his mother’s living room as he played an acoustic set. He played “Come Over” and “Godlight” in beautiful acoustic renditions.
During the latter half of the show, he moved to a B-stage in the back of the pavilion and in better view of the lawn to play “Growing Sideways” and “Maine.” The crowd lost their minds as he cut through them to get to and from the mini stage.
One of the coolest parts of the show as a whole was the backdrop of the stage, a moving background that changed graphics for specific songs and showed close-ups of band members along with cool effects, like showing an aura around Noah Kahan as he sang and played his guitar. The entire stage setup was neat, framed by giant hanging ropes meant to look like the deciduous trees on the cover of Kahan’s “Stick Season” album.
During the final song of the main set, a popular song about his home of New England called “Northern Attitude,” foam was shot out over the crowd to look like a curtain of falling snow. Afterwards, the band exited the stage and the crowd immediately began to chant the familiar, “One more song!”
They came out for an encore, of course, this time Kahan dressed in an Indianapolis Fever jersey – and he immediately turned around to reveal it was the jersey of the Fever’s new point guard Caitlin Clark.
He launched into an extended version of “The View Between Villages,” a slower song, and then came the big finale: a high energy version of his number one single, “Stick Season,” to which the crowd sang along loudly enough that it almost made it difficult to even hear the singer. The show concluded with a beautiful storm of confetti in the shapes and colors of autumn leaves, yet another homage to Kahan’s home in New England.
Overall, Noah Kahan put on an amazing show for Indianapolis for the second time in just a year. With the reception he received, I am excited to see him return in the future. For such a great performer, it is crazy to think of just how early this man is in his music career as a whole.
THE GOOD:
- Kahan was funny and engaging, making the audience laugh, cry, sing along, and dance to each and every song.
- He played an unreleased song, “The Great Divide,” and it was so cool to get to hear something that’s not available on streaming platforms.
- Kahan’s band was incredibly talented, and when he introduced them he gave each member a lovely (and humorous, of course) personal introduction that really showed the singer’s respect and gratitude for his fellow musicians.
THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
- The opener Ryan Beatty and his band were perfectly fine musically, but their low energy and lowkey vibes did not at all seem to fit that of the rest of the show.
- Going off of a setlist posted from a show several nights earlier, I was anticipating Kahan’s second B-stage song to be “Strawberry Wine,” one of his more popular songs and one of my personal favorites. When he played “Maine” instead, I was disappointed, but at the same time, it gave me a new appreciation for that song as well.