Review: For World Mental Health Day, Tampa got all of Noah Kahan’s love [PHOTOS]

On World Mental Health Day (Oct.10), folk extraordinaire Noah Kahan brought his “Northern Attitude” to a sold-out Midflorida Credit Union Amphitheater in Tampa, Florida.

The 26-year-old jumped on stage sporting double French braids and his staple white overalls over a plain navy shirt for a 90-minute show featuring his chart-topping hits and underrated anthems.

Kahan’s shows display two performers: him and his humor. Before the third song of the night, “New Perspective”—a tune about longing to rekindle a failed relationship— Kahan jested that the crowd showed too much positivity, and he wanted to knock us down a notch.

Kahan flits between an easy-going stage presence and a focused, in-the-moment performer who feels out his lyrics. That’s a fraction of what makes him such a strong performer. He prefaced his song, “Your Needs, My Needs,” by stating it’s about Zoloft.

The song mimics the effects of the SSRI experience, starting with smooth fingerpicking rhythms and soft lyrics to build up tension to replicate withdrawal and dependency. Kahan instituted his artistic brain throughout the performance, fashioning the lights to match the ups and downs of taking medication.

The opening sequence featured dim, blue-black lights representing the calmness when you begin taking medicine; as the track sped up, Kahan switched from fingerpicking to strumming patterns, establishing a temporary soft tone prior to the bridge. The bridge plummets from stability into manic highs with Kahan crescendoing, “See a ghost, bitter-brained, always drunk. Rail-thin, Zoloft. Subtle change, shorter days. Dead-eyed, dead-weight,” backed by flashing red lights, paralleling the medication's side effects.

Granted that Kahan performed on World Mental Health Day, he spoke about the importance of recognizing mental health and advocating for education and awareness about the worldwide epidemic. He quipped with the audience about Club Penguin, mentioning how he used to play 14 hours of Club Penguin a day, suggesting his obsession with the computer game indicated his deteriorating mental health.

To entertain the masses, he asked the crowd if anyone played Club Penguin. They cheered as he laughed, “Aww, you’re damaged... I had a sick fucking igloo, but my actual bedroom was covered in slime and grease,” Kahan continued.

Kahan strummed through a solo version of his touching tale of lying to his therapist, “Growing Sideways.” Following that song, he debuted a track he said he’d never played for anybody, “Shape of My Shadow,” which he wanted to share on World Mental Health Day despite the difficult subject matter. The crowd respected the live debut, silently listening to the ode to body image, eating disorders, depression, and anxiety, except for the girl next to me who sang the lyrics seconds after Kahan, proving that she “knew” the unreleased number.

Kahan reverted to his easy-going stage presence and grabbed a mandolin for a country twang version of “All My Love.”

Kahan lauded the audience’s participation, catching (and missing) a few items from the crowd. For “You’re Gonna Go Far”–a solemn departure tune acknowledging the small-town kid born with a city heart— he caught a knock-off Ratatouille plush, which his bandmate affixed to his overalls. During the interlude for “You’re Gonna Go Far,” he introduced his band: a four-piece outfit, two of which have been touring with him for six-and-a-half years.

He threw on a pirate hat for “Dial Drunk,” a fan favorite (with a new remix featuring Post Malone), which he joked was titled “Drunk Dial” and centers around the wholesome state of getting black-out drunk. After the final “Even the cops thought you were wrong for hanging up, I dial drunk, I’ll die a drunk, I’ll die for you.” Kahan shouted, “Tampa, I wanna die for you!” while the lights faded out, and Kahan and his band exited the stage.

As the opening chords of the first encore song, “The View Between Villages,” ricocheted through the open-air venue, a guy clad in a plaid vest, jeans, and country boots screamed, “You’re making me feel things.” The entire forum shared a sense of sentimentality when Kahan breathed, “I am not scared of death. I’ve got dreams again,” while he peered at the audience dressed in the same overalls he dons on stage and his merch.

You can’t attend a Stick Season show without a live rendition of the song Noah claims changed his life. The crowd broke out into their best hoedown and square dancing moves for the country breakdown of the nostalgic Americana anthem.

Typically, artists save their most popular songs for last, but Kahan shared his ballad of despising New England when he’s there and yearning to go back once he’s gone, “Homesick.” A perfect denouement for a crowd-pleasing show. Kahan gave Tampa all his love, leading us to believe he’ll “Come Over” again.