Photo Credit: Jennifer McCord<\/p>\n
Review by Stephanie Ahn<\/p>\n
Last Friday night, the words \u201cMYLES SMITH SOLD OUT\u201d sat glaringly atop Brighton Music Hall\u2019s entry doors. But this isn\u2019t Smith\u2019s first sold-out tour. In fact, almost all of his concerts, apart from his \u201c<\/span>The <\/span>Not So<\/span> Slightly Less Lonely\u201d tour<\/span> from Montreal, Quebec to Sydney, Australia, are completely full. Born in Luton, England, Myles Smith, the singer-songwriter, is best known for his hit singles \u201cStargazing\u201d and \u201cMy Home,\u201d accumulating over 135 million streams on music platforms. Smith\u2019s music has tones of folk and blues while still incorporating reggae\u2013an ode to his Jamaican roots.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Matt Schuster, an up-and-coming country artist hailing from a small town in Illinois, opened the night with a smooth voice to warm up the house. Schuster sang multiple of his own songs, such as \u201cWasted Prayers,\u201d as well as some fun crowd-favorite covers, such as Billy Joel\u2019s \u201cVienna.\u201d Schuster\u2019s midwestern twang filled the venue as he sang on stage alongside his guitarist. Despite not being the biggest fan of country music, I quite enjoyed his set. An especially wholesome moment was when he walked down the stage to hug his parents in the audience to thank them for coming.<\/span><\/p>\n As 9 P.M. approached and the house lights dimmed, Myles Smith and his band ran onto the stage elevated by the crowd\u2019s roars and screams of excitement. Immediately, the energy shifted as they began to play. His band\u2014comprised of Joe Devine on guitar, Jules Konieczny on keys, and Daniel Said on drums\u2014were phenomenal. Not only were they incredibly talented, but they genuinely seemed to be having a blast on stage with Smith, sporting wide grins when the audience would sing along. Smith even shouted them out, talking about his deep appreciation for his band, which had been across the world away from their home for six weeks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps the most apparent thing about Myles Smith that sets him apart from other artists is his storytelling. He would introduce his songs with very deep and meaningful anecdotes about his life that resonated with the audience. The most emotional song he sang was an unreleased one called \u201cMy First Heartbreak,\u201d which captured the complex relationship between Smith and his absent father. He made it clear to the audience that this song is a very vulnerable one that he doesn\u2019t always play at his concerts. In fact, he even stopped to shush the talking voices in the back of the venue to make it clear that this moment was important to him. Immediately, this gained my respect since this was my first time hearing \u201cMy First Heartbreak,\u201d and I wanted to listen to the story he had to tell. As Smith strummed his guitar with his SLL tour merch cap, hiding his eyes, I noticed how the rest of his band stood watching him with somber eyes, allowing him to soak in this moment. The lyrics \u201cthey say blood\u2019s thicker than water, but I\u2019m closer to the ocean\u201d brought tears to my eyes as Smith reflected on how his father leaving at thirteen was his first true heartbreak. Being so open about his familial traumas was truly poignant and resonated with me.<\/span><\/p>\n The special thing about Smith was that he didn\u2019t just share his story\u2014he wanted to know others\u2019. During the concert, he took time out to have everyone who has ever struggled with mental health issues like depression or anxiety to put their phone flashlight on and look around. This vulnerable exercise showed how Smith\u2019s music united his audience into a safe space. But this isn’t all. As I dug deeper through Smith\u2019s Instagram, @mylessmithuk, I noticed that he has multiple comments on his posts asking people to share their stories with him. Smith\u2019s ability to lend a listening ear to people he has no ties with shows his humility and down-to-earthness.<\/span><\/p>\n As I left the concert, I found myself wondering how this artist, who I knew only a few hit songs of, could connect with his audiences so personally after one 90-minute show. Smith\u2019s genuine passion and love for music and the way it intertwines itself into the lives of people is so refreshing in this music industry. To continue on this journey, Smith just recently announced his UK\/EU tour for 2025, We Were Never Strangers, where tickets are almost already sold out. I\u2019m excited to see Smith grow in the future because, with that kind of love for music, he will definitely go far.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo Credit: Jennifer McCord Review by Stephanie Ahn Last Friday night, the words \u201cMYLES SMITH SOLD OUT\u201d sat glaringly atop Brighton Music Hall\u2019s entry doors. But this isn\u2019t Smith\u2019s first sold-out tour. In fact, almost all of his concerts, apart from his \u201cThe Not So Slightly Less Lonely\u201d tour from Montreal, Quebec to Sydney, Australia, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24057,"featured_media":44098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[33,215,327,2084,1585,2151,2144],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24057"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44096"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44136,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44096\/revisions\/44136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}