Kahan's show featured a surprise duet with Chappell Roan on her song 'California' before getting back to the land of sticks.
Plus IconChris Willman
Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic
ChrisWillman See All
Patrick McCormack “My name is Noah Kahan and I am here to make you fucking miserable!” the biggest male rock star on the charts right now announced almost at the outset of his sold-out show Saturday night at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Stadium. In this, he was unsuccessful, but to Kahan’s credit, he did not really try very hard to turn the 57,000-strong crowd into a miserablists’ convention. There was some truth ungirding Kahan’s introductory joke, given how much of the song catalog that has made him a superstar is devoted to what he would call “intrusive thoughts” about disconnection, loneliness and unworthiness. But the celebrative spirit of the two-and-a-half-hour show kept all of those undercurrents at bay, to maybe be better experienced when you’re back home, just the records and you and your neurodivergence. In concert, Kahan’s about nothing but putting on a pure jubilee — as good a time as you’re likely to have in any concert venue, large or small, in 2026.
Related Stories
