Concerts Reviews
He’s Here to Make You Miserable: Noah Kahan Sells Out Two Nights at Denver’s Coors Field
Don’t be fooled by the upbeat sound of most Noah Kahan songs. Take a closer look at the lyrics and you’ll find that they are quite the opposite— and he makes sure that you know it. “My name is Noah Kahan, and I’m here to make you miserable” was the first thing he said to Denver’s sold out crowd Saturday night. At the start of June, Kahan embarked on a sold out tour of baseball and football stadiums across the United States, and Saturday was the first of two shows at the Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field. With a setlist heavily featuring tracks from his new album, The Great Divide, and hits from the album that rocketed him into the spotlight, Stick Season, Kahan managed to both shatter and heal over 55,000 fans in the span of two and a half hours.
Indie folk artist Annabelle Dinda kicked off the night with music built on her background in poetry and creative writing. She played her breakout single “The Hand” and treated the crowd to an unreleased song titled “Learn Something Baby”. She handed the evening off to singer-songwriter Gigi Perez, whose emotional lyrics warmed up the crowd for what emotional turmoil lay ahead.
The voice of Perez’s late older sister, Celene, opened her set. A voicemail left by Celene wishing Perez luck on her performance echoed through the stadium before she and her band dove into “Please Be Rude”, off of her debut album At the Beach, in Every Life. “Fable”, an emotionally charged song about her sister followed, along with a cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness”. Perez closed out her time on stage with her viral hit “Sailor Song”, adding the host city into the lyrics “I can be the cat, baby, Denver you can be the mouse”.
A countdown appeared on the large screen at the back of the stage, along with sketches of ants and ladybugs, a motif present throughout Kahan’s new album and accompanying tour. Members of the stage crew began constructing a life sized cabin on stage, and as the countdown hit zero, a roof descended from the rafters completing the set.
“American Cars,” a tribute to Kahan’s older sister, kicked off his set, and the band was met with roaring cheers as Kahan entered the stage through the front door of the cabin. The first act of Kahan’s set highlighted new releases from The Great Divide, with Stick Season’s “All My Love” woven in. After assuring the crowd that he was going to wipe the smiles off of their faces with his set, Kahan joked that this was his first show without falling or injuring himself. A still-healing cut above his eye from hitting himself with his guitar at his stop in St. Louis was visible, which drew a large laugh from the ballpark.
Act Two of the show brought him to the B Stage, where he played new hits including “Haircut” and “Downfall.” Before heading back to the main stage for Act Three, Kahan hopped off of the stage down to a ringing phone booth. “Vail Resorts? Go fuck yourselves,” was the short and sweet answer to the mock phone call. Coloradans immediately understood the reference and a loud roar ripped through Coors Field. The song “Paul Revere,” off of his album Stick Season, includes the line “Vail bought the mountains, and nothing was the same” in reference to Vail Resorts’ acquisition of several Vermont ski resorts. The song was notably not on the setlist for night one, but Kahan made sure to play it the next night, saying he loves playing the song in Colorado because of his hatred for Vail.
He then brought Perez out to sing “She Calls Me Back” with him on the main stage to begin Act Three. The LED bracelets that were handed out as concert goers entered the venue began to flash red and blue, and sirens echoed in the stadium. Kahan was shoved against a Vermont State Police car by a police officer, arrested, and loaded into the vehicle, and sang “Dial Drunk” from the car.
To start Act Four, Kahan took to the roof of the cabin to perform “Willing and Able,” a song widely interpreted by fans to be about a strained relationship between siblings and a wish to reconcile. The atmosphere quickly shifted to the somber one he promised at the beginning, and it remained through Act 5. The C Stage is where he introduced the song “Orbiter,” telling the crowd about his 2025 Grammy loss, which the song references. Kahan recounted his time at the award show, which included his mom making friends with singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile, while he sat at the table alone and ripped the label off of his beer can.
Throughout the tour, Kahan has been posting on X the day of each show the title of a surprise song for the night followed by “queen?”, referencing a popular meme template that has been making its rounds on the internet since 2021. His first night in Denver broke the pattern and he posted the day before in no uncertain terms— “Young blood tomorrow. Queen.” The song that followed “Orbiter” was just that.
“Young Blood” was the first song that Kahan released off of his debut album Busyhead, and it was the first time he played the song on this tour. The name of Kahan’s mental health non-profit, The Busyhead Project, stems from this album. He has always been outspoken about his own mental health journey, and The Busyhead Project aims to end the stigma around mental health and improve access to resources. Since launching in 2023, they have raised over $6.6M to support 170 community based organizations across the world.
The band was then introduced during “Paid Time Off,” with each member taking a solo at the microphone. The next songs on the C stage were arguably some of his saddest, including unreleased favorite, “Pain is Cold Water,” and “Maine” from Kahan’s EP Cape Elizabeth. He asked the crowd if anyone was there with their best friend, and ended Act Five with “Dan,” the closing track on The Great Divide about his own best friend.
In the final act of the show, Kahan made his way back to the main stage while playing “The View Between Villages”. He gave a shout out to Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin who was in attendance, and wrapped the night up with his biggest hits, including “Northern Attitude,” “Orange Juice,” and “New Perspective,” disappearing through the same cabin door that he entered through at the start of the night. Cheers boomed throughout the ballpark, and eventually lights slowly began to reveal Kahan sitting at a piano for an encore. Subtle sounds of crickets chirping began to fill the air, signaling the beginning of “End of August,” the opening track on The Great Divide.
While it’s not quite the end of August yet, the song perfectly encapsulated the evening, the last stretch of a fleeting summer before darker and colder months arrive. But before the crowd dispersed out into the August night, Kahan left Coors Field with fan favorite “Homesick” and closed out the evening with “Stick Season,” ready to make another sold out crowd on Sunday just as miserable.
Check out our favorite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
Noah Kahan has several stops left on his sold out tour.
Upcoming The Great Divide Tour Dates:
8/15 Pasadena, CA Rose Bowl Stadium
8/17 San Diego, CA Petco Park
8/19 Phoenix, AZ Chase Field
8/21 San Francisco, CA Oracle Park
8/25 Sandy, UT America First Field
8/28 Vancouver, BC BC Place
8/30 Seattle, WA T-Mobile Park
8/31 Seattle, WA T-Mobile Park
9/25 Melbourne, AUS Rod Laver Arena
9/26 Melbourne, AUS Rod Laver Arena
9/28 Melbourne, AUS Rod Laver Arena
9/29 Melbourne, AUS Rod Laver Arena
10/2 Sydney, AUS Afterpay Arena
10/3 Sydney, AUS Afterpay Arena
10/5 Sydney, AUS Afterpay Arena
10/6 Sydney, AUS Afterpay Arena
10/9 Auckland, NZ Spark Arena
10/10 Auckland, NZ Spark Arena
11/5 Glasgow, Scotland OVO Hydro
11/6 Glasgow, Scotland OVO Hydro
11/9 Manchester, UK AO Arena
11/10 Manchester, UK AO Arena
11/13 London, UK The O2 Arena
11/14 London, UK The O2 Arena
11/17 London, UK The O2 Arena
11/19 Dublin, IE 3Arena
11/21 Dublin, IE 3Arena
11/22 Dublin, IE 3Arena
11/25 Zürich, Switzerland Hallenstadion
11/26 Cologne, DE Laxness Arena
11/28 Copenhagen, DK Royal Arena
11/29 Stockholm, SE Avicii Arena
12/1 Amsterdam, NL Ziggo Dome
12/2 Amsterdam, NL Ziggo Dome
12/4 Munich, DE Olympiahalle
12/7 Paris, FR Accor Arena
More information here.
NOAH KAHAN
GIGI PEREZ
ANNABELLE DINDA
All Photo Credit: Kelsie Kerr
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Party On, Vancouver: Dogstar Sells Out the Vogue Theatre
The Vogue Theatre was packed wall to wall on September 16 as Dogstar rolled into Vancouver, and the excitement was impossible to miss. New York rock band The Backfires kicked things off with a lively opening set, warming up the room before Bret Domrose, Robert Mailhouse and Keanu Reeves stepped onto the stage. Naturally, hundreds of phones immediately went up when Reeves appeared, because Vancouver was not about to let this extremely Keanu moment go undocumented.
Reeves held down the bass, Domrose took on guitar and vocals, and Mailhouse powered the night from behind the drums. While one member may come with a little more star power, Dogstar quickly felt like a proper three-piece instead of a celebrity side project. The chemistry between them was relaxed and natural, with plenty of smiles, glances and little interactions that made it clear they were genuinely happy to be playing together. Reeves frequently wandered across the stage to jam alongside his bandmates, occasionally making his way toward the front and sending another wave of phones into the air.
Dogstar’s story stretches back to Los Angeles in 1991, when Reeves and Mailhouse first started making music together. Domrose later joined the band, and the trio released two albums before going their separate ways in 2002. More than two decades later, they reunited, returned to the stage and released Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees in 2023. Now, with their latest album All In Now and another tour underway, Dogstar are giving this chapter of the band far more than a quick nostalgia lap.
The set began with “Siren,” immediately setting an easygoing alt-rock tone for the night. Their cover of The Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait” brought an extra burst of familiarity, while “Punch the Sky” landed with the kind of energy made for a full theatre. Rather than pausing for long speeches, the band kept things moving, letting the music and their chemistry do most of the talking. Domrose’s vocals stayed at the centre of the songs, Mailhouse gave them plenty of drive, and Reeves appeared completely locked into the groove on bass.
Yes, people cheered whenever Reeves moved closer to the edge of the stage. Yes, there was an undeniable thrill in seeing the internet’s favourite human casually rocking out a few feet away. But the attention did not stay on him alone. Domrose and Mailhouse were just as essential to the show, and together the trio delivered a performance that felt tight without becoming overly polished. There was still room for the songs to breathe, for the band to play off one another and for the night to feel a little spontaneous.
A fun surprise arrived during the encore with a roaring cover of The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter.” The band shared that they had only performed it live once before, making it a particularly unexpected way to close the night. The Vogue responded accordingly, singing, cheering and soaking up every last second before the trio left the stage.
More than 30 years after forming, and over two decades after calling it quits, Dogstar are back on the road and clearly having a great time together. That sense of fun was infectious, turning the sold-out show into something warmer and more memorable than a simple celebrity sighting. Vancouver may have arrived ready to see Keanu Reeves play bass, but by the end of the night, Dogstar had given the crowd plenty of reasons to stay invested in the whole band.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
DOGSTAR
THE BACKFIRES
All Photo Credit: Heather Horncastle
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Brandi Carlile Brings the Human Touch to Rogers Arena in Vancouver
Brandi Carlile may be playing the biggest rooms of her career, but she has no interest in letting the size of the room dictate the size of the show.
At Rogers Arena in Vancouver on September 17, Carlile turned the last stop of The Human Tour’s Canadian run into something that felt surprisingly personal. The arena was full, the production was appropriately large, and her voice could probably have rattled the rafters without a microphone. Still, the moments that stuck were often the quiet ones.
That has always been one of Carlile’s best tricks. She can sing like someone has opened a trapdoor beneath her, then spend five minutes telling a story about her wife, her kids or something ridiculous that happened backstage. The shift never feels forced and it is part of what makes her concerts work.
The night opened with CMAT, whose sharp mix of country, pop and deadpan humour made for a welcome change of pace before Carlile took the stage. Then came “Returning to Myself,” the title track from her 2025 album, with Carlile immediately putting that famously elastic voice front and centre. “Human” followed, and the combination of the two songs established the emotional centre of the night early: this was a show about vulnerability, but Carlile was never interested in making it precious.
The set moved freely between her newer material and songs that have become career staples. “Mainstream Kid” brought the rock-show energy, “You Without Me” and “The Mother” pulled things back into something tender and deeply personal, and “Right on Time” delivered the kind of vocal performance that makes you wonder how she is going to top it before remembering she still has two hours left.
Her longtime collaborators Phil and Tim Hanseroth were beside her throughout, and their history with Carlile is a huge part of the show’s warmth. The trio has been playing together for more than two decades, and that familiarity shows. They can make an arena performance feel like three musicians in a room working out a song together.
Carlile leaned into that idea with an audience-request segment, inviting fans to call out songs for her and the Hanseroth twins to attempt on the spot. There is something wonderfully reckless about watching musicians of this calibre debate chords and lyrics in front of thousands of people. It should feel like a gimmick, but instead, it works. “My Song” and “This Time Tomorrow” were the chosen requests and both were a big hit.
Carlile has spoken throughout The Human Tour about the challenge of playing rooms this large. Vancouver was no different. She seemed genuinely determined to shrink Rogers Arena down to something more manageable, and the audience happily played along. The arena crowd became less like an anonymous mass and more like a room full of people who happened to know all the words.
Carlile would then remind everyone just how enormous her voice is. “The Story” remains the obvious example. The 2007 song has spent nearly two decades proving that its emotional punch does not depend on nostalgia, and live, Carlile still takes it from a restrained opening into a full-throated release. “The Joke” landed with similar force, its gospel-inflected arrangement turning Rogers Arena into something closer to a revival than a hockey rink.
The newer “Church & State” provided another major gear shift, bringing a harder edge to the performance and giving Carlile a chance to lean into the rock side of her catalogue. “Sinners, Saints and Fools” followed that same path, building from a reflective song into a full-band crescendo.
That variety is what makes a Carlile set work. She can move from intimate folk storytelling to arena rock without making either side feel like a costume. There is room for the big voice, the jokes (her obsession with Celine Dion landed very well on this Canadian date), the family stories, the politics, the covers and the moments where everything drops away except Carlile and a guitar.
Vancouver also got one of the evening’s most meaningful cover songs when Carlile delivered a stunning rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You.” Given Mitchell’s deep Canadian roots and enduring status as one of the country’s most beloved songwriters, the choice felt especially fitting for the final Canadian stop of the tour. Carlile has long spoken about Mitchell’s influence on her own songwriting, and rather than treating the song as a reverent tribute piece, she approached it with warmth and conviction, allowing its emotional complexity to shine through. The audience responded accordingly, greeting the opening lines with immediate recognition.
The encore kept that balance intact. She brought CMAT on stage for an incredible rendition of the Bee Gee’s “Islands In The Stream.” Alanis Morissette’s “Uninvited” gave Carlile a darker, more theatrical showcase, while the final stretch brought the room back together with “Hold Out Your Hand.”
For all the talk about arena tours being a sign of an artist getting bigger, Carlile seems more interested in making the audience feel closer. That is a harder trick than filling a room. Rogers Arena is built to make people feel small. Brandi Carlile spent the night doing the opposite.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
BRANDI CARLILE
CMAT
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer