So I went to Boston on September 8th with my daughter and wife to see David Kushner. My daughter loves him, I knew nothing about him really, but a show is a show so we went.
First off, the venue (Royale) was great. Very nice club with the friendliest security staff ever. They were nicely collecting trash from people in line outside, cracking jokes, and they even handed out bottled water later in the night between sets to all the peeps crammed onto the floor of the venue. We cozied up on the balcony to avoid being crammed in with the crowd and had a great view. We also had free water! Nice touch.
First up was a kid named Chance Peña. I don’t know him but my daughter did of course. He’s just a dude with a guitar, another buddy on guitar, and some drum effects. I didn’t capture his set list but he played a song called Cruel World, he covered Kid Cudi’s Pursuit of Happiness, and closed his set with what I’m told is his most popular song, In My Room. Overall, he was ok. Basic guitar and singer. One song he says he wrote in 3 minutes which I’m not sure if I find impressive or lame. It wasn’t stellar, so maybe more on the lame side? Lol. But teenage girls loved him and that’s his core audience. So kudos.
David Kushner was the headliner. He has a growing following (of mostly teenage girls) and is apparently sorta considered Christian music? But his lyrics aren’t overtly religious. I’d say it’s fairly subtle to the point where my daughter wasn’t even aware when she first started listening to him.
He opened with Dead Man, then a song called Cigarettes, and then Mr. Forgettable. He sang, played acoustic guitar and also electric guitar. While he wasn’t super interactive with the crowd, he did a story teller type of approach where he’d explain the inspiration of the song he was about to play or just played. He also left the stage and went to the front of the crowd for one song, and there was a lot of pointing and waving to the excited girls in the crowd. I like that it wasn’t just song after song with nothing in between. Always great to acknowledge and talk to the crowd in my opinion.
Overall, the music is very mellow. I don’t mind mellow, except when 1000 screaming girls overpower the music and make it hard to hear the perform…which is exactly what happened several times. They scream all the lyrics, but he enjoyed it. He seemed legit taken aback a couple times hearing his songs sang back to him which is pretty cool. Stay humble dude!
Full Kushner set list here
He did have a drummer with him as well as a bass player/keyboard player. It’s always nice to see new artists with actual instruments. He closed the show with Daylight which is his big song. Overall, it was decent. While not my style of music, he’s got a good voice, seemingly writes his own music, plays an instrument, and has a loyal fan base that seems to be expanding. On top of that, my daughter loved it, so it was a good night and a worthwhile show.
Next up….Billy Idol on September 9th!
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