Myles Smith Brings Intimate Energy to Montreal Stop

On Saturday, the English folk-country songwriter Myles Smith came back to Montreal for the second time in 6 months as part of his We Were Never Strangers Tour. Smith rose to stardom with the release of his single Stargazing, which gathered more than 300 million streams, and in the last 16 months has gone from playing 80 people shows in his hometown of Luton, England, to selling out the main venues all over Europe and America, quickly becoming one of the main faces of his genre. But even with his swift rise to superstardom, you can tell Myles is savoring every moment and is extremely grateful for every single person that connects with his music.

To start off the night, Tors opened up the stage. It was the English trio’s first time in Montreal and it was the perfect way to warm up for Myles Smith. Their harmonic folk sat great with the crowd, as they played some of their biggest hits like Miracle and I Don’t Wanna Know.

During their set, the brothers constantly joked around. Talking about how Myles Smith had this great production, beautiful lights and amazing musicians, “And here, we spend all of our budget on this giant printed QR code”, Matt Weedon laughed as he pointed to left side of the stage and asked the crowd to scan the code to hear all about their upcoming shows. 

Before ending their set, they thanked the 514 crowd and mentioned how much fun Montreal had been that day. With him eating 3 servings of poutine, and his brother Theo’s constant failed attempts to flirt in French right before the show.

At 9PM, the background music stopped and the lights went down. Instead of Myles Smith jumping on stage though, we got a member of his team getting on the mic. “I don’t know if any of you saw his instagram, but Myles has been battling a very nasty food poisoning since yesterday.”. You could feel the tension immediately flooding the room as our first thoughts were “Oh no… he’s gonna cancel the show.”. But the guy on the mic felt that energy and immediately said “Guys, don’t worry! Show’s not cancelled guys!”. Then he told the Montreal crowd how Myles was powering through it and he needed the crowd’s energy more than he ever did on this tour. And if I know anything about the people of Montreal at the end of April, weather warming up after an absolute brutal winter, is: yeah… we got energy.

Around 9:05 Myles Smith jumped onstage and following his tradition of wearing a local team’s jersey, was rocking a Montreal Canadiens jersey. 

That was the perfect way to immediately win the sold out crowd over. Considering the Habs had just secured a spot in the NHL playoffs literally the night before. 

The set started with Wait For You. The anthem-like melodies got the crowd immediately jumping and stomping the ground. Smith couldn’t stop smiling (even considering his illness) hearing the entire venue sing every single word of the song, a pattern that would continue throughout the night. 

After the first song, we got a very nice interaction with him and a fan. They brought a beautiful pencil drawing of Myles, framed in black to give to him. He got down the stage and grabbed it, thanking them and shouting to the crowd: “How incredible is this?!”

The set was followed by Behind and Whisper, with him switching between the mic and an acoustic guitar in between. 

Throughout the night, the show felt like a party between friends, with Smith sharing stories and intimate conversations that he had with his mother right before leaving on tour. “My mom said: – I remember when you were just this tiny little bundle just pissing and soiling yourself everywhere, and now you’re a 26 year old man about to go on a world tour. I couldn’t be more proud of you son.” Again, it seems like all the little things about growing up and how crazy his life is now, are absolutely not lost on him.

On paper, the 14 song set wasn’t a long one, but it didn’t really feel that way. You could definitely tell he left it all out there on the stage. Especially during his last song: Stargazing. The song that changed his career and life forever. Myles jumped off the stage and fully into the middle of the crowd, where he danced and sang with the Montreal crowd. 

The ending felt like a high school house party in the best way. Myles Smith fully pulled out the veil between artist and fan, as he became just one more person on the dance floor. A man, away from home, dancing with a bunch of his friends. The only difference between him and the other 2,300 souls at the venue: He just just happened to write the song everyone was vibing to.  

Check out our favourites photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!

MYLES SMITH

TORS

All Photo Credit: Andres Amaya