Noah Kahan: We’ll All Be Here Forever
Alpine Valley Music Theatre – East Troy, WI – September 11th, 2024
Jaeden Carrasquillo | September 30th, 2024
Through much trial and tribulation, Noah Kahan and his opener, Jensen McRae, were finally able to perform their long-awaited concert in the lovely Dairy State. Kahan and McRae were originally set to perform on July 13th, 2024. However, due to inclement weather and the venue not used to being at absolute full capacity, the show was rescheduled for a later date.
The venue has a maximum capacity of around 37,000 occupants. Noah Kahan has gained extreme popularity in the last two years, being able to perform at Madison Square Garden and Fenway Park very recently. So, even after the concert was pushed back, he still brought back tens of thousands of eager fans to watch his performance.
Writing about this “We’ll All Be Here Forever” album performance wouldn’t be right if we didn’t at least briefly discuss the aforementioned “trials and tribulations”. But before we go any further, this is not blaming either performers or the venue; just many series of unfortunate events back-to-back. Tickets originally went on sale in September of 2023, with the original concert date. Once the time came to it, Alpine Valley had thousands of eager and bright-eyed fans who wanted to see Noah Kahan after many months of waiting. Once the gates opened for the venue, and the time rolled around to 8pm, was where things went downhill. The forecast was calling for on-and-off showers. However, nothing was set in stone at that time. Five minutes passed and an announcement came through the speakers, informing patrons that the concert was being postponed until further notice, and to shelter in place in either the food court next door or your own vehicles. As you can imagine, the general emotions towards this were not happy. The venue postponed due to the fact that quite a large and aggressive storm was heading our way. After waiting an hour or two in the parking lot, refreshing the Instagram page, and tuning into their radio station, Alpine Valley made the decision to officially cancel the concert and reschedule for another date.
However, we persevered! And we returned a few months later, now officially waiting a year since originally buying tickets. Boy oh boy was that year of waiting worth it. Starting the night off right, Jensen McRae delivered what could only be described as an ethereal performance. She is a smaller artist with a voice that was made for MSG. She shared laughs with the audience, she gave us the inspiration behind some of her favorite songs, and as far as openers go, she’s easily in my top ONE. The audience, who may not have known her before, tuned in after her first song, with everyone swaying along.
With the crowd now amped up for the following act of a lifetime, Noah Kahan graced the Alpine Valley Music Theatre’s stage and showed out for his Wisconsin audience. I’ve never experienced such joy and community within an audience. The ground reverberated with the echoes of everyone singing along to songs old and new. I had never been to an outdoor venue before, and the crowd and Kahan did not disappoint in using the natural acoustics to our advantage. Noah had such an amazing stage presence, laid-back and casual, swearing up a storm that would be sailors to shame. He led with his setlist from his most recent album and gave a good show performing older songs like “Maine”. He gave thanks numerous times throughout his set and acknowledged the unfortunate circumstances that deterred him from performing in July. I am sure it was a shared sentiment throughout the crowd that he appreciated our united struggle. After his set, with the encore featuring arguably his most known song “Stick Season”, the crowd left feeling more than satisfied with the Noah Kahan-sized hole in our hearts filled.
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