It was a busy kickoff to the Super Bowl Week concert offerings on Thursday night, with Benson Boone, Fall Out Boy and Noah Kahan all making appearances in San Francisco.
Boone — who drew rave reviews from fans for his performance at the 2025 BottleRock Napa Valley festival in Napa — performed at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.
The pop star, who also appeared at Salesforce’s most recent Dreamforce event in October, reportedly performed such songs as “Take Me Home,” “Young American Heart,” “Mr Electric Blue,” “Reminds Me of You,” “Cry” and “Beautiful Things” during his set.
Noah Kahan review by Grace Hase
When Noah Kahan took the stage at The Warfield on Thursday night, he told the packed house that “I’m here to kind of make you feel like (expletive).”
But the feverish crowd, which hung onto every poignant lyric that came out of the indie-folk singer’s mouth, was feeling anything but.
Fresh off the release of his new single “The Great Divide,” Kahan’s performance at the intimate venue was a treat for fans whose next opportunity to see the indie-folk singer is during his 23-city stadium tour this summer — which includes a stop Aug. 21 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.
Kahan’s rich voice reverberated throughout The Warfield as he kicked off the show, which was hosted by SiriusXM and Pandora as part of Super Bowl weekend, with “Dial Drunk.” The balcony shook as fans erupted at the sound of a banjo being strummed, dancing and shouting along to the 2023 hit.
The singer, whose music often explores his challenges with mental health, heartbreak and growing up in New England, moved through the nearly two hour long show with ease as his impressive vocals filled with textured runs were on full display. He often interjected his quirky sense of humor between emotion-driven tunes that included a warning of how sweaty he was going to get and a call out for a doctor to check out his armpit infection. (Sadly, no doctor was found).
Kahan played a mix of hits off of his 2022 album “Stick Season,” such as “All My Love,” “She Calls Me Back” and “New Perspective,” as well as new music from his upcoming album “The Great Divide,” which is set to be released on April 24.
Despite the venue’s size – The Warfield seats roughly 2,250 – the crowd roared for Kahan, who at times seemed overwhelmed with emotion.
“It sounds like 20,000 people in here,” he said.
Kahan closed out the night with “Northern Attitude,” exiting the stage before coming back for a two-song encore of “The View Between Villages” and “Stick Season.”
Those who missed Kahan’s performance can watch it on SirirusXM’s Alt Nation on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 5 p.m.
Fall Out Boy Review by Patrick Cant
As part of the whole fancy Super Bowl Week, Fall Out Boy rocked the Regency Ballroom on Van Ness in San Francisco Thursday night.
Entertainment after dark on a school night is always fun, and the vibe was exciting. The intimate venue was packed at showtime and the crowd were ready to sing. From the opening bars of “Love From The Other Side” to the end of the show, with bassist Pete Wentz standing on the railing at the front of the crowd to sing the end of “Saturday,” they sang. With one voice, they roared.
That is always wonderful, to hear a crowd sing a band’s songs back to them, and it was especially appreciated in this instance as the vocals were a little lost in the churning maelstrom of rock coming from the stage.
Wentz, singer and rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump, lead guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley tore the roof off the place, truly, with the help of the crowd’s lungs. With every opening chord or drum strike, the crowd would scream its approval. And the band loved it. They were clearly having a good time. Not a lot of banter, mostly just rock.
At one point, sitting at a piano onstage, Stump explained that he might not be able to sing the next song as he’d been a bit under the weather and almost before he even asked if they could help the crowd had his back.
Stump introduced one song as being “old enough to vote,” and I may have heard a few groans from the crowd mixed in with the laughter. Some fans had brought their kids, or maybe the kids had brought the parents, but either way there were more than a few gray hairs but also loads of Fall Out Boy shirts of all eras and no shortage of smiles.
I did see five or six fans try, for most of the show, to get a mosh pit going and I want to laud them for their attempt. Alas, the rest of the crowd was not that into. Still, these wannabe moshers did make a heck of an effort.
Ostensibly, the reason to be here was the Super Bowl. There was a wall of gold footballs in the lobby by the coat check, logos on the stage and the pre-show DJ stand, and a conspicuously logoed selfie wall, but that was about it. I did see a few sports logos on hats and jerseys but nothing from New England or Seattle, for the record.
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