With the weekend approaching quickly, I was stressing due to the loose ends that come with helping plan a wedding. After loading the car for our early Thursday morning travel plans, I was ready to kick back and enjoy the flashing lights of Charlie Puth’s show. The first time I caught Charlie Puth was at last years’ Jingle Ball party, where he was easily one of the crowd’s favorite artist of the night.
After stopping at will call and flying through security. I wondered to the merch table and eventually my seat to await the opener. Supporting Charlie Puth on his Voicenotes tour was singer, songwriter and actress, Hailee Steinfeld. With Haiz as her only EP out, Steinfeld is anything but new to the music world. Hailee got her break after landing the role of Emily Junk in the second installment of Pitch Perfect. Since the she has been rocking the charts with hits such as “Love Myself”, “Rock Bottom”, and “Most Girls”.
With a late the start the lights dropped and a drumline like beat intertwined with Steinfeld’s “Love Myself” boomed through the speakers. Six dancers in shiny silver took over the stage from left and right. The group moved the to mix as the singer made her way the stage. The crowd erupted in applause as the light came up to reveal the pop star sporting a Minnesota Wild’s jersey. As Steinfeld worked to get the crowd excited for the headliner the crowd sang along and for the most part to almost every song. I found it difficult to figure out which track was the fan favorite. It had to be between “Most Girls” and “Let Me Go”.
Set List: Love Myself / Show You Love / You’re Such A / Hell Nos and Headphones / Rock Bottom / Capital Letters / Most Girls / Use To This / Starving / Let Me Go
With a brand-new album Voicenotes, Charlie Puth took Saint Paul by storm. Beginning with a haunting organ that bleed into “The Way I Am”, the audience was deafening as the silhouette of Puth took place against the white curtain the draped over the stage. From his first step on stage to his encore, the screaming fans never trailed off. Quite the opposite, growing more with each track. The four-piece band that accompanied the pop singer seemed to effortlessly move along from hit to hit without losing focus. During the preshow an interview with Puth was played on the big screen and he talked about he would be playing the key-tar on tour and boy did he ever. Servals times throughout his performance Charlie would pull out his key-tar and get lost in a solo.
The Voicenotes tour high lighting Puth’s sophomore album has heavy topic of infidelity both on his part and that of his partner. His fan base from what I could tell of the audience members were teenagers and young adults. It made me wonder how many of these people singing along could relate to such a topic. But with a catchy chorus and a beat that made me want to dance, it doesn’t really matter. Infidelity isn’t the only tough topic he brought to his show. Before his song “Change” Puth spoke about the high school students from Florida who have been going up against politicians and legislation trying to make a change. It was a moment that made everyone take a step back and look at how the world works.
I wasn’t sure what I was hoping to see from Charlie Puth, but I got to see so many people having the time of their lives seeing someone they look up to. I think that is the most important part of any show, fans forgetting everything outside of the venue and just loose themselves for an hour or so.
Set List: The Way I Am / Slow It Down / How Long / Empty Cups / L.A. Girls / Marvin Gaye / Patient / Change / We Don’t Talk Anymore / Somebody Told Me / Done For Me / Suffer / One Call Away / Attention / Boy
Encore: See You Again
