Attention - Charlie Puth

As my time as an usher this season starts to come to an end, I've started to reflect on all the shows I've seen and which ones were the most memorable. My last four shows should be pretty tame so this one is  probably my last big show of the year. Luckily, amongst a throng of soaked teenage girls and slightly disgruntled parents, I was able to enjoy Charlie Puth's performance last night. Puth grew up in New Jersey and attended the Berklee College of Music where he studied music production and engineering. He's an accomplished piano player and has studied jazz since he was 11 years old. He gained his first pop exposure when he began releasing Youtube videos of his songs in 2010 and gained the attention of none other than Ellen DeGeneres. She signed him to her record label and he began writing songs for himself and other artists. He signed to a new label in 2015 and released his first major record, "Marvin Gaye" later that year. His first album, Nine Track Mind was released in 2016 and Voicenotes followed in 2018. Puth has co-written and produced almost every song he has released and his slick pop has found great success around the world. At only 26, Puth is still in the beginning of a promising career and his musical background will hopefully lead to great music in the future.

To say it was raining is an understatement. It was pouring when I got there and the sold out lawn were reduced to huddling under the theater overhang to avoid being soaked. Despite that, the lawn did eventually fill up and Puth's primary artist, teenage girls, came out in droves. His opener was Hailee Steinfeld who's also popular among that demographic. Another actress turned musical performer, Steinfeld has the talent but still needs to find her voice in the crowd of female pop-stars. That being said, she's still 21 and hasn't even released her first album yet so she has plenty of time to figure that out. Puth gave a clean and crisp performance that didn't have any surprises but gave the audience everything they wanted. Yes, that does mean he took his shirt off. On the musical end though, he has a unique and passionate voice and surprisingly, he's been able to translate his jazz background to the often constricting landscape of electronic pop. He does really seem to care about his fans and I was happy he left the long cultural monologue at home. I may criticize him as a light pop star, but Charlie Puth makes catchy music and there's nothing wrong with that. Plus he did go to Berklee and to be sure, they probably wouldn't even let me touch th instruments there so hats of to you Charlie!

My favorite part of the show is when he sang "How Long". It's just so damn catchy and I love it I can love pop music music ok!

Looking forward to more shows in the future!

DC

Charlie Puth 

Hailee Steinfeld