In Noah Kahan's Flannel World, You're the Main Character

THE SAD, SWEAT-SOAKED flannel is the first thing I clock when I walk through the sunny open field turned parking lot to the BankNH New Hampshire, Pavilion in Gilford, where Gen Z's New England royalty, Noah Kahan, is playing his first of two sold-out headline shows for a crowd of 9,000 a pop amid an earlySeptember heat wave. That number may be a drop in the bucket compared to his 1.5 million followers on TikTok, but Kahan is a long way from where he was last year, playing for crowds of a couple hundred at small festivals. And his pop-inflected folk hits different in front of Northeasterners who have claimed him as their own.
Kahan sings from a perspective situated inside a childhood bedroom or from a passenger seat, staring out the windows onto familiar landscapes at the bleakest and most desolate times of the year, metaphors for sensitive-suburban-boy ennui. His fans say they like him for one of two reasons: his openness about mental health (he sings and posts extensively about depression and positive experiences with therapy) and the way his music captures what it's like to grow up in this region, an underexamined point of view versus the mythologized teendoms of, say, California or Texas.
There are tons of mothers and daughters here, younger teens in need of rides and supervision, and women in their early 20s whose own personal-favorite coming-ofage New England media is almost certainly Gilmore Girls. There are straight couples, too; blonde women and softboys who get it; a boyfriend with a Nalgene carabinered to his cargo shorts and a T-shirt that reads CORGZILLA with a corgi on it who walks by another boyfriend in a shirt that reads POODLE DAD. And: mohawk-mullet boyfriend. American-flag-print Vineyard Vines-whale boyfriend. Matching-tourshirts glasses boyfriend. There are also lots of lesbian couples and BFF duos holding hands.
この記事は New York magazine の September 25 - October 08, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は New York magazine の September 25 - October 08, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン

'We're Running Out of Mansions'
How The Gilded Age makes absurdly low-stakes period drama into must-watch television.

THIS SUMMER WE'RE EATING IN GROCERY STORES
They're more affordable, more flexible, and a lot more fun than restaurants right now. HERE ARE THE 65 BEST SPOTS TO GET STARTED.

What a Cosmetic Chemist Buys at the Drugstore
WE ASKED Dr. Julian Sass, the creator of a viral sunscreen database and an expert fact-checker of product claims, about the most effective items he routinely picks up.

Alfargo's Marketplace
On a recent Friday night, shoppers (and sellers) parsed through vintage pieces at the pop-up menswear bazaar held at NeueHouse.

Attention Seeking
Amid a growing awareness of our dwindling ability to focus, people are trying to reverse the damage, with mixed results.

The Emancipation of Addison Rae
The TikTok star's debut album breaks with the past.

Play on Words
A Eurydice production that’s lush with language.

Appealing Pieces for Petite Balconies
Designers and tasteful apartment dwellers share the furniture that has made their tiny outdoor spaces worthy of spending time in.

E. JEAN CARROLL'S UNEASY PEACE
IN THE YEAR AND A HALF SINCE DEFEATING TRUMP IN COURT FOR THE SECOND TIME, SHE'S WRITTEN A NEW BOOK—KEPT SECRET, UNTIL NOW—AND PLOTTED HER LEGACY.

Everyday People Brian Wilson and Sly Stone were musical innovators.That's where their stories diverged.
THE VAST MAJoRITY of humans alive now aren't old enough to feel the shell shock from the musical paradigm shifts of the 1960s.