MAX North America Tour: Concert Review

Throughout the night, MAX demonstrated his relentless charisma and boundless energy which surrounded the entire venue. On Thursday, November 10th, MAX performed at House of Blues for his North America Tour. A full crowd was waiting in anticipation for what was to come.

Performing as MAX’s opener was Sara Kays, which with the full and mellow tone of her voice, brought a lot of emotion out of the crowd with her songs. The themes of her songs ranged greatly with regard to body image, breakups, not fitting in and reminiscing on the past. It was a deeply sentimental performance from her overall, with again, some songs bringing in a lot of emotion from the crowd. 

Kays even joked to the crowd before her performance of “Smaller Than This” stating, “If you relate at all to it maybe you can try to get that sadness out, and then when MAX comes out you can be like [she waves her hands in the air] because he makes us forget that we’re sad!” Kays stand-out songs for me were “Chosen Last” and “Smaller Than This” which were close to bringing me to tears. Kays ended her performance by thanking the crowd and wishing them a good night.

Soon after, MAX entered the stage through the ‘A’ in the stage light fixture of his name, beginning his performance with one of his recent singles “WASABI.” MAX’s energy electrified and spread throughout the room with his zealous performance of the song, which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the night. He kept this energy up with his next song “Love Me Less feat. Quinn XCII”, getting the crowd to sing along and have their hands up throughout the entire song. 

Before performing “Acid Dreams”, MAX exclaimed, “There are so many real ones in this crowd I like it! Well, if you are feeling something spicy tonight, I just want you to put those fingers up and snap for me alright? Let’s have a beautiful night, let’s do it Houston!” During the performance, MAX danced and hyped the crowd up with his moves joined by Saxophonist Cody Dear, who also showed off his dancing and impressive musicianship as well.

The next song started with a cover of “Isn’t She Lovely” by Stevie Wonder that transitioned to “Blueberry Eyes (feat. SUGA of BTS)” to which the whole crowd sang along. MAX also impressed the crowd by rapping SUGA’s part in Korean. It was truly a standout performance of the night.

Surprising the crowd once more, MAX performed an unreleased single for his upcoming album called Say Less which he utilized to introduce his bandmates on stage. On saxophone and keyboard was Cody Dear, on guitar was RyanEXOE and all the way from Japan on drums was Ichi. Each of the members when introduced had spectacular improvised solos showcasing their amazing musicianship and talent.

Later in the show, MAX reminisced over his past and performed a part of “Someday” one of his songs from the movie Rags (2012). MAX stated, “This year was the ten-year anniversary [of Rags] so this is the first time that I will be doing this. So, if you know it, represent Houston! Sing it with me, let’s go!” This was followed by the performance of “Butterflies” which included Sara Kays singing Ali Gatie’s part, both Kays’ and MAX’s voices blended beautifully together.

During some of the songs RyanEXO, the guitarist, taught the crowd how to sing along as well as continuously getting the crowd hype by getting them to put their hands up or jump and move. The night continued with songs from his albums Colour Vision and Hell’s Kitchen Angel, as well as his collaborative singles such as “Satisfied” by Galantis, “Worst Day” by ILLENIUM, “IT’S YOU” featuring Keshi and “Savage” by Whethan featuring Flux Pavilion. 

The final song, “Mug Shot” was a wonderful song to end the night with as the crowd chanted MAX throughout the song. It encapsulated the energy of the night, although an earlier piece of music from MAX, it still embraces the energy he holds to this day. MAX thanked the crowd for an amazing night and left the everyone satisfied with a spectacular performance.

Overall, it was an amazing performance by MAX and was one of the concerts with the most energy from the crowd and artist that I have been to. MAX stated he plans to return next year for another tour with his next album release and I am very much looking forward to it!