Noah Kahan BST Hyde Park review: ‘A wild night with a stunning surprise’

Launching into a rendition of ‘All My Love’, the track proved to be an instant tone-setter as a euphoric singalong in the crowd ensued. As Kahan basked in the applause of the endearing London audience, beaming in genuine appreciation at performing his biggest headlining show to date, the following he has built over the years is a testament to his ability.

It was only seven years ago that the singer performed for the first time in London – in front of 77 people at The Social, something the singer reminisced about early in his set – but as demand grew, the venues continued to get bigger. 2023 saw Kahan headline the O2 Forum in Kentish Town before February 2024 saw the singer headline Wembley Arena twice and he returned later that year for two memorable shows at O2 Arena. Eager to impress on “the most amazing night ever”, as Kahan put it, the singer exploded into ‘New Perspective’ before the arrival of Gracie Abrams midway through ‘Everywhere, Everything’, and the crowd belted the lyrics back to the pair in full voice.

Following a performance of the twangy guitar-laden ‘She Calls Me Back’, Kahan encouraged the crowd to sing their hearts out for the follow-up and joked that they’d “organised security to escort you out” for those who didn’t know the lyrics before a stomping rendition of ‘False Confidence’ exploded after a delicate acoustic-led opening. Throughout the evening, Kahan proved to be witty, charming, charismatic and comedic, introducing one of his unreleased tracks, ‘Deny Deny Deny’, by stating, “If you need to take a s*** or a p***, here’s the time,” and after climbing through the crowd to get to the B-stage, the singer joked, “It’s like the Eras Tour, but the only eras are depression,” before three stripped-back acoustic renditions of ‘Pain Is Cold Water’, ‘Maine’ and ‘Strawberry Wine’, offering a touch of intimacy in such a massive venue.

However, the intensity quickly ratcheted up as an atmospheric piano part, a suspenseful violin line and a simultaneous bang of a tom, snare and kick drum paved the way for the fan-favourite anthem ‘Dial Drunk’ as Kahan screamed, “London, I would die for you,” at the end of the track. After the band broke off for individual solo parts following Kahan’s introductions, the singer performed another unreleased track in ‘The Great Divide’, which sees the piano part and drums serve as the driving forces in the live arrangement.

As the first part of the set came to a close, Gigi Perez returned to the stage to harmonise with the singer on a rendition of ‘Call Your Mom’ – dedicated to Kahan’s mother in attendance – before the euphoric singalong of ‘The View Between Villages’ was a fitting finale ahead of the joyful encore.

Serenaded by chants of “Noah Noah Noah”, Kahan returned to the stage donning a Chelsea shirt whilst recreating Cole Palmer’s celebration to a chorus of boos. However, those boos quickly dissipated as a slow-burning opening to ‘Forever’ with Kahan on acoustic guitar erupted with a full band performance, setting the tone ahead of the biggest surprise of the evening. Midway through a stirring rendition of ‘Northern Attitude’, Lewis Capaldi emerged to a deafening response and replaced Kahan on lead vocals as the Vermont-born singer watched whilst beaming.

After expressing his delight at seeing Capaldi make his return to music, a mesmerising rendition of ‘Stick Season’ left the 60,000+ in attendance singing their hearts out. As fireworks filled the sky and the last banjo note rang out throughout the greenspace, Noah’s ultimate goal had been achieved. Indeed, we left BST Hyde Park feeling unhappy – unhappy that the performance had ended but utterly thrilled to have witnessed such mastery from Kahan.

BST Hyde Park may have been Kahan’s biggest-ever performance to date, but with a hotly anticipated new record on the horizon, I doubt that will be the case for very long.