Niah Kahan broke into mainstream awareness in 2022 with Stick Season, but he’d been working hard long before that, signing to Republic in 2017 and gaining a gold record. He’s got a good catalogue, many devoted fans and shouldn’t be considered a surprise choice for a late slot on Sunday’s Pyramid stage.
Noah takes to the stage dressed in a loud suit, which the people at the back will appreciate and after one song breaks into some top tier crowd patter: my goal is for you to leave here feeling a bit shitty, and we’re going to play some sad songs. Well Noah, we expect no less, sing that sun down and break our hearts.
It’s funny. We’re in a huge field and Noah’s on a big stage, but his band make these songs sound big enough for us while we’re also in no doubt it it was just him and his guitar in a small pub he’d be just as good.
What we hadn’t expected was for his inbetween banter to be so funny. He says he’s been to many festivals, both as a performer and as “a drunk guy,” he says hi to mum and dad who are streaming this illegally, he tells the crowd they all now have ringworm, he’s really light hearted and fun before he then drops into a song that’ll make your heart weep.
Rod Stewart’s not the only one with special guests. Noah brings on Laufey to help with Call Your Mom, which is the point we all lost our cool and started crying. But it appears the beauty of a Noah Kahan set is the vibe change, because after that song he complains about his hot suit and the crowd’s chant of take it off leads him to, well, take the jacket off, all done with casual ‘Han Solo’ aplomb before, you guessed it, the ad vibes.
Huge cheers later in the set when Noah brings on another guest, the legendary Brandi Carlile, who immediately takes the stage and belts out her vocals so easily and strongly they delete half the performers that went before this weekend. Oh boy, the expert’s have arrived.
It turns out that listening to a Noah Kahan set isn’t sad, it’s cathartic. Yes there’s emotive material, but he keeps the tone and the feeling light enough for us to enjoy it. Add in the falling sun and you have a truly touching experience, but one we’re heading away from our hearts filled and our chins up.