In early 2020, Noah Reid’s sold-out North American tour was abruptly halted due to the widening COVID-19 pandemic. Almost four years later, the Canadian artist has returned triumphantly to the stage; this time with yet another album under his belt.
Kicking off his ‘Everything’s Fine’ Tour in Ireland in September, Reid has been traveling across the UK and Australia, finally returning to North America. His concert on Tuesday, October 10th, at The Belasco in Los Angeles marked the start of the North American leg of his tour.
I attended this momentous return to the venue for Noah Reid; his last time performing there was in late 2019 at the start of his previously mentioned tour. He even started the night off by saying that being on the mainstage was quite the upgrade from 4 years ago when he’d been “upstairs on a much smaller stage.”
Something new for Noah Reid this time around is his opening act, Clerel, who is an R&B/Soul artist currently based in Montreal. This artist has a way of hyping everyone up and bringing the best of what Soul music offers.
He knows he is the opening act, but the audience treated him as if he was the star — if only for a little while. Even if you can’t attend one of Noah Reid’s stops on the tour, you should check out Clerel’s music.
It is evident from the moment he addresses the crowd that the Canadian charm, which made him especially lovable as Patrick Brewer on the Emmy-winning show Schitt’s Creek, is 100% his go-to personality. He was eager to warm up the crowd and interact with them in a way that made everyone feel like they were at home just hanging out, jamming.
Noah Reid made it apparent that he is aware most of his fanbase comes to him because of his time on the show. His tongue-in-cheek humor about his signature song from Schitt’s Creek — ‘The Best’ by Tina Turner — saying things like “I sometimes wondered if I’d ever be the best or nothing,” kept the audience fired up and laughing.
Having just traveled back to North America from his stint in Australia, Noah and his band members joked they weren’t aware of where they were. This type of engagement with the audience kept the fun flowing during transition times.
Reid’s band is also something special about the artist, and it’s quite clear from his demeanor that he loves being able to travel around with all the guys — that they are somewhat of a family at this point. He takes the time to introduce them and allows them to play a few bars of music on their respective instruments, with some banter in between.
For those curious, Noah Reid’s band members are as follows: Adrian Gordon Cook – keyboard, Jamie Kronick – drums, Kurt Nielson – bass, and Jasper Smith – guitar. Adding a full band to back up Reid for the tour allows him to add layers to his songs that aren’t even heard on the studio recordings of his three albums.
As the night went on, Reid took the audience on a journey through his music based on a flow of his own making. There were stories to go along with a few of his songs — especially the ones from his new album Adjustments.
Reid didn’t shy away from the emotions behind songs to inform us of why he wrote the songs that he has. After all, his third album responds to the unrest we all felt during those many months of quarantine in 2020.
Finding out that his song ‘Everyday’ is just a fun way of explaining how he dealt with the uncertainty of quarantine with his friends gives a deeper meaning to the lyrics. The fact that he can use words to make his very specific experiences that much more universal is a talent not many have.
That’s what makes a Noah Reid experience that much more special and homey; he takes the time to have a conversation with the room. His stories are relatable and make us all feel like we are hanging out with family and dear friends — some of us came in groups, so we are.
At one point he even said, “Since everything’s fine, here’s ‘Everything’s Fine’.” It was a nice lighthearted way of acknowledging that times are tough, but music will always be there to comfort us.
Before performing his song, ‘Minneapolis,’ Reid tells of the tour that the cast had gone on once upon a time and how a snowstorm made air travel extremely unnerving during one of their stops. It gives another layer to a song already charged with emotions and allows us all to feel what Reid felt that night.
His set also included numbers from Gemini, such as fan favorites ‘Hold On’ and ‘Honesty.’ There was even time for the old road trip song, ‘I Miss Writing Songs,’ which for me — who drove from my mom’s place in Kansas to Los Angeles for this show — was a favorite of the night.
I also enjoyed that he did a section of his set dedicated to songs from his first album, Songs from a Broken Chair. Hearing a longtime favorite of mine live is an experience I will never be able to describe fully.
The evening was a mix of these stories and added emotions to familiar songs. It creates a vibe in the room that allows the chaos in the real world to slip away, at least for a few hours.
By the time he reached the end of his set, he was making jokes about how we all know an encore will happen despite artists always acting like it won’t.
“So, to make things more fun, why don’t you guys decide how long of a break I will have before I come back? Then you count me down. I think fifteen would be great so I can have a beer and relax.”
Once again, it shows off his charm and how at ease he is on the stage performing for people. Noah Reid might be an actor, but music is his first and truest love.
Overall, the experience is one I won’t soon forget and gave me a newfound appreciation for the musician side of an actor I’ve come to love.
See the remaining dates of Noah Reid’s ‘Everything’s Fine’ Tour:
*Featured Image Credit: Dane Clark
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Mads Misasi
Mads is a part-time entertainment journalist and full-time marketing content creator. They love reading the latest in Queer novels -- especially romance ones and watching the latest dramas, sci-fi/fantasy, Star Wars, and romcom films/TV shows. You can join the conversation by following them on Twitter: @dorothynyc89.
