Palak JayswalUtah is home to a diverse array of concert venues — from indie shacks to amphitheaters galore. For the biggest shows, there are Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City and LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo.
But as Noah Kahan made clear in Sandy on Tuesday night in front of a sold-out crowd, America First Field has a stake in the stadium concert game, too.
Kahan’s set opened as the Utah evening sky turned a deep blue.
“This is one of my favorite places in the world to make music and to play music,” Kahan told the crowd.
Thousands of fans’ wrist lights flickered to life like fireflies, the last of the bugs, ready for a show many had been waiting months for.
America First is smaller than Rice-Eccles and LaVell Edwards in terms of seating, but it packs a mighty punch. Its long floor allows for an extended general admission area and accommodated Kahan’s stage setup — a house with a dynamic, flickering background — easily. The long stage also allowed Kahan to travel to different corners and sing to the crowds in those areas.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) America First Field in Sandy on Saturday, May 18, 2024.
Perhaps the most important quality of a good stadium is how the artist sounds. Kahan’s vocals soared into the Utah mountain air, amplified to a perfect pitch, his note changes cosmic.
This was clearest during a mostly acoustic set at a smaller stage centered closer to the back of the stadium crowd.
When he performed “Orbiter,” a forlorn, mystical little ballad with the moon bright behind him, even hidden behind clouds, it was the most spiritual moment of the show.
He followed it with “Strawberry Wine,” where, finally, a precious, soft breeze blew through the crowd, providing a sweet moment of respite from the stifling late August heat.
Kahan was joined by his bandmates on the smaller stage for “Paid Time Off,” where each member was able to show off their skills with their chosen instrument. It was intimate, almost like the audience was tuning into a front yard sing-along in a neighborhood somewhere in New England.
Though the lines were long practically everywhere at America First, it also had room for fans to interact with Kahan.
In the plaza, they wrote notes displayed on a big board as part of his nonprofit mental health foundation, The Busyhead Project, and left voicemails for him on yellow phones.
Jenny Teemsma, a spokesperson for Miller Sports + Entertainment, which owns the venue, said America First typically hosts eight to 12 concerts a year. In 2026, including Kahan’s show, there are 11 planned live music events. They’ve hosted the likes of music greats like KISS and Paul McCartney, and even The Eagles.
“As we look ahead, our goal is for America First Field to be a year-round destination and a venue of choice for artists, promoters and fans in Utah,” Teemsma said.
With just four shows left in North America, Kahan said he knew this stop would be one of his favorites from the tour.
He also shouted out Utah-centric things: a previous performance early in his career at The Depot, when he paused to do his comedic phone call bit, it was God (“non-denominationally”) calling him — and Kahan admitted he loves dirty soda.
“Salt Lake City that healed something deep within me,” Kahan wrote on X afterward.
On Tuesday night, thousands of fans, many decked out in merch or dressed as bugs, spent hundreds of dollars to see Kahan perform in Sandy. When the cameras that followed him for three hours showed glimpses of the crowd, it was nothing short of stunning.
Despite the woes of attending a big show — namely, the parking disaster before and after — it’s almost always worth it.
After all, no matter how many shows you attend, it’s always a little breathtaking to see a stadium full of people, synchronized, screaming lyrics to the same songs they love, like when Kahan performed “Dial Drunk.”
And at America First Field, for Noah Kahan, this was the norm for every song, and that says something.
