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Noah Kahan was never without a guitar on the Westcott Theater’s stage Tuesday night, except during “Fear of Water,” a soft ballad off his latest album “I Was / I Am.” He performed the song sitting with only a microphone and White Claw in hand, at the edge of the stage where he earlier fell into the crowd.

It was the folk-pop singer’s first time in Syracuse, and his first time ever tripping backwards off stage, he told the audience. He made a swift recovery after fans helped him to his feet, and he continued performing.

Kahan joked that he’d never been closer with his audience before, but the singer’s vulnerability and sense of humor make it easy for him to connect with the crowd. After two years without live music, he said he can tell fans aren’t taking these shows for granted.

“Getting back out here, being in front of these crowds has definitely reignited my love for playing live music,” Kahan said in an interview with The Daily Orange prior to Tuesday’s show. “It reminded me why I do this in the first place: hearing people sing the words back, seeing the community that’s formed around my music so far.”

Syracuse is the 12th stop on Kahan’s tour, which kicked off Oct. 14. He released his sophomore album “I Was / I Am” on Sept. 17. The album centers around the 24-year-old singer’s reflection on who he was before he signed a record deal and started releasing music in 2017.

Kahan’s favorite song off the album, the single “Godlight,” reminisces about a time when Kahan made music for himself without industry pressure.

He said he liked the single so much he actually considered naming the album “Godlight,” but he worried that it would be misconstrued for a religious album. The song doesn’t have any religious connotation for Kahan — the title refers to the light that singles out a performer on stage — but he also doesn’t like to impart the meanings of his songs onto his audience.

“I really try to let people interpret my music the way that they want to,” Kahan said. “I don’t like to tell people what that song’s about, because it could destroy the meaning they’ve created for it, and that would be a really awful thing to do.”

One of the defining qualities of Kahan’s music — evident in songs like “Godlight” — is his upbeat, anthemic sound production, which at times contradicts more contemplative lyrics.

Kahan doesn’t label his music as happy or sad. As someone who lives with anxiety and depression, he said he often experiences bouts of manic hope and happiness alongside periods of sadness. He tries to capture this spectrum of emotions in his music, to showcase how he lives through it all.

“I don’t want people to feel like being depressed means you have to be sad forever,” he said. “You can approach being depressed and being sad with a sense of hope, and I try to do that with my music sometimes.”

Writing songs with such personal anecdotes isn’t always easy, but Kahan grew up in a household where he was always encouraged to be open about how he felt. Treating his music like a journal, an outlet to process experiences, became natural, he said.

“The ultimate end goal is to inspire other people to do the same thing,” he said “That mission for me supersedes any fear and awkwardness I feel about being vulnerable in my music.”

Syracuse is the 12th stop on Noah Kahan’s tour, which kicked off Oct. 14.
Sarah Alessandrini | Senior Staff Writer

Halfway through his show in Boston on Friday night, Kahan lost his voice, prompting him to cancel the next two nights of shows in Philadelphia and Northampton, Massachusetts. He resumed the tour Monday with his show in New Haven, Connecticut.

Tuesday night, Kahan cautioned the audience early in the show that he was performing through a cold and that he would need their help singing the lyrics. The audience didn’t fail him, but his powerful vocals didn’t falter, either.

The band vacated the stage for Kahan to perform “Glue Myself Shut” and “Maine” off his “Cape Elizabeth” EP, which he released last year after writing it alone with only a guitar at his dad’s house in Vermont. He wanted to perform the songs the same way, he said during the show.

Kahan also sang two unreleased songs, “New Perspective” and “Stick Season,” which is about fall in Vermont. By the second chorus, the audience had already picked up the lyrics and belted them back to Kahan, who stepped back from the mic to listen.

The singer finished off the night with a performance of “Young Blood,” which he wrote as a mantra to himself after he signed a record deal and stayed in Vermont to work on music while most of his friends had left for college.

“I didn’t go to college, so I could support any college I want,” he told the audience late in the show. “Maybe I’ll choose Syracuse.”

The band left the stage, but not without cries for an encore. Kahan, true to his word, reappeared on stage wearing a Syracuse University scarf and performed three more songs.

In “Godlight,” Kahan imagines talking to his younger self. When asked if he thought that younger version of himself would be proud of him and the work he’s done today, Kahan said yes.

“I was always kind of an obnoxious little kid. I’m sure I’d be irritated by him,” Kahan joked. “I think that he’d be happy that I’m trying to do this the right way, trying to make music the way that I was back then, truthful and honest, and not being afraid.”

“I hope he’d be proud,” he said.

Published on November 11, 2021 at 12:12 am

Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan