So, I found myself at a Charlie Puth concert this past Saturday (June 10, 2023). This certainly isn’t the typical show I’d buy tickets to as I love hard rock and metal. Lucky for me, the tickets were free, and free is for me!
Locally, it was a busy night. I’m told Dave Matthews was also in Connecticut and Chris Stapleton was up the road in MA. But let’s talk about Charlie.
The opening act was a young lady named Blu DeTiger (her real name). I didn’t know anything about her prior to this show, but she was pretty good. She’s a bass player and leads a 3-piece band doing double duty as bass and vocals. Her brother Rex is on drums and some dude name Horace plays guitar. She was a pretty good bass player doing some bluesy, rock stuff and a decent singer. She seemed to be having fun up there and had decent tunes. No complaints here. I learned afterward that apparently uploading cover songs to Tik Tok during the lame Covid lockdowns is how she grew in popularity. But I respect someone who writes their own songs, plays an instrument, and can sing.
Charlie Puth was next. Apparently, he also writes his own songs. If you’re reading this, you probably knew this, but I did not. Putting my own musical preferences aside, let’s discuss!
He opened with what I assume is Charlie Be Quiet since that line was repeated several times. Must be the name of the song, right!? Right. Next was No More Drama, and he broke into some CeeLo Green Fuck You during this song. Is this part of the real song or a live performance special? I’m not sure, but it’s always fun to hear a crowd singing “Fuck You” in unison.
He played other songs that I could take a guess on titles based on repetitive lyrics. For instance, You Just Want Attention, Stay, Left and Right and then some others I couldn’t figure out. Then perhaps some We Don’t Talk Anymore, Attention, and then a cover of Taylor Swift’s Trouble. He also did some That’s Not How This Works, How Long, and the finale was that Fast and Furious/Paul Walker song (minus the Wiz Khalifa part) See You Again.
The crowd was into it. The heavy teenage girl crowd, including my own teenage daughter, likes Charlie Puth. Her seats were great, and not free. But I take what I can get. What I did not like about the show was the large amount of pre-recorded background vocals. There would be times where you’d clearly hear his voice but his mouth wasn’t moving because it wasn’t the main part he was singing. There was also limited crowd interaction which is kind of a pet peeve. Sure, he worked “Connecticut” and “Foxwoods” into a song and maybe said a few words here and there. Other than that, it’s almost like he was going through the motions. He seems too young in his career to be going through the motions. I could be wrong; he seemed to be having a good time himself, it’s not like he looked bored. But the interaction was minimal.
Would I see him again? If it’s free again, sure!
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