BURGETTSTOWN ― "Stick Season" finished the Star Lake season opener Wednesday with flair.
"Dial Drunk" started Noah Kahan's thoroughly entertaining two-hour performance for a sold-out crowd.
Between those bookended crossover hits, Kahan delivered a rousing night of rock, indie-folk and Americana, spotlighting his sharp songwriting, high-reaching vocals and endearing personality.
Kahan's wide-eyed facial gestures were a hoot. The 27-year-old Vermont-er spoke humbly about playing for such a sizable audience, and poked fun at himself for things like his slouched posture − as if anyone could look graceful in the white overalls he chose for the evening.
He played the two-song encore in a Pittsburgh Pirates jersey, earlier mentioning his mom and grandfather hail from Pittsburgh.
Kahan started the night with "how you doing, Pennsylvania?" type banter before checking with the largely 20s-ish crowd if it was OK for him to simply say Pittsburgh.
Kahan's ascent has been spectacular; just two years ago he was singing on the B-stage mid-afternoon at Hartwood Acres' one-and-done Maple House Music Festival.
Kahan returned to a B-stage in Burgettstown, this time jogging to a platform in the lower part of the second tier of seats, to sing and solo strum acoustic guitar on "Growing Sideways" and "Strawberry Wine." For that latter song, spectators illuminated the night with their cellphone flashlights.
Escorted by a few burley tour security guards, Kahan then breezed back to the main stage, extending his arms like airplane wings along the way to slap hands with elated fans.
At that point, 16 songs in, Kahan switched out his acoustic guitars for a Fender Stratocaster electric.
Throughout a night blessed with crisp, clear and excellently volumed sound, Kahan's band added enticing banjo and occasional standout fiddle and mandolin moments. Kahan pleasurably plucked a ukelele for "All My Love."
Picks like "Everywhere, Everything" demonstrated Kahan's impressive and expressive vocal heights that often soared into a falsetto realm.
His energy was infectious, ranging from pantomimed gestures acting out the "I'll give you my blood alcohol" and "I'll change my faith" lines of "Dial Drunk" to his brief backwards, Chuck Berry-style duck-walk on "New Perspective."
He poked fun at a not-so-seamless set change, one-third of the way in, where photos, paintings and other decorations were brought out to evoke his mom's house, setting up an acoustic segment that began with "Come Over." That homey stage backdrop reminded him of his childhood home minus the "generational trauma," Kahan wisecracked.
Actually Kahan, who has talked openly about his struggles with anxiety and depression, takes mental health seriously, making sure his charity organization, The Busyhead Project, set up its Action Village tents on-site at Star Lake, amplifying local mental health organizations and offering a community wall where fans could share encouraging messages.
Kahan introduced the intense rocking "Your Needs, My Needs" as a song about anti-depressants.
Many of Kahan's songs intensified after switching tempos, like "You're Gonna Go Far," starting out as an indie-folk strummer and evolving into an alt-country banger.
Kahan pulled from his New England roots with "Northern Attitude," as faux snow drifted down from the rafters to lower-tier audience members shouting the lyrics.
An overall rousing performance from the ascendant Kahan.
The much mellower Ryan Beatty opened the show. He and his band stayed seated throughout a 43-minute set of Americana flavored by pedal steel and keys.
Beatty's voice was solid, standing out on originals like "Little Faith" and a cover of Brooks & Dunn's "Neon Moon."
Acknowledging he's not much for stage theatrics, Beatty said he was happy to just be sitting on stage singing. His 2023 album "Calico," made "best-of" lists like Rolling Stone, The Guardian and The L.A. Times. He also wrote four cuts and contributed background vocals on Beyonce's acclaimed "Cowboy Carter" album.
As for Star Lake's new season? There are a few new concessions, notably Shaker Cup co*cktails.
The Burgettstown venue took to social media the morning of the show, advising concertgoers to arrive early to avoid traffic tie-ups.
Leaving at 4:45 p.m. from central-Beaver County for an 8 p.m. show yielded a relatively easy access. Getting out of the parking lot afterward was significantly harder, with four lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic coming to standstills. A bunch of vehicles were allowed to park in a corner grassy spot near the top of the driveway, an area not normally used for parking. A line of cars, some of them Ubers, parked on the berm of Route 18 northbound. Even though Kahan was singing one of his biggest hits, many concertgoers streamed out of the gates halfway through "Stick Season," hoping to beat traffic.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Overall(s)? Noah Kahan delighted sold-out Star Lake at season opener
