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By Maxim Mower
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Noah Kahan made his spectacular Lisbon debut last night (Thursday, July 10th) to a sold-out crowd at NOS Alive 2025, with the Vermont native serenading us with a slew of stand-outs from across his discography, in addition to two stellar unreleased tracks.
The ‘Northern Attitude’ hitmaker continues to hint that his long-awaited Stick Season (Forever) follow-up album is on the horizon, with Kahan regularly taking to his socials to test out clips of new songs such as ‘Wreckage of You’ and ‘All Them Horses’.
At Lisbon's NOS Alive 2025, Kahan treated the audience to two unreleased gems, ‘Deny, Deny, Deny’ and ‘The Great Divide’. The folk titan has been including these in his setlist increasingly often, hinting that they will be key tracks on his next album.
Kahan first started teasing ‘The Great Divide’ in early 2024, with the yearning, bittersweet anthem becoming such a hit with fans that the majority of the crowd was screaming every lyric of the hook back at him in Lisbon, despite the track not being out yet.
Although newer, ‘Deny, Deny, Deny’ is quickly blossoming into a similarly beloved track. The angsty track follows in a similar thematic vein to the stunning ‘Orange Juice’ - one of the most underrated tracks from Stick Season - with Kahan reflecting on the skeletons his friend is hiding in their closet (“You said you got a guilty conscience, I ain't ever seen it / And I'm well-prepared to never meet him”).
Elsewhere during his evocative set, Noah Kahan delivered an impromptu rendition of ‘Call Your Mom’ after a fan requested it. The undulating, sombre offering finds Kahan tackling the subject of mental health and suicide with a level of perceptiveness and tenderness that few artists can, with the ‘She Calls Me Back’ singer-songwriter singing pleadingly to a friend that is considering taking their life.
‘Call Your Mom’ has become a battle-cry for a host of listeners, with Kahan continuing to establish himself as a beacon of light for mental health awareness, both through his unashamedly honest lyrics and his game-changing Busyhead Project.
While Noah Kahan quipped - as has become tradition - at the start of his performance that fans would leave his set feeling a lot sadder than they were at the start, in reality, there is a beautifully cathartic nature that permeates Kahan's live show.
Whether holding back the tears to ’Call Your Mom’, singing jubilantly along to the infectious ‘Stick Season’ or bellowing into the coastal air “I wanna go to Maine”, Kahan's performance have transformed from mere music into real-time, DIY therapy sessions.
Partway through the show, Noah Kahan looked out across the roughly 55,000-strong audience that grinned disbelievingly, before endearingly confessing, “I never thought I'd make it all the way here”. Given how impactful and striking this performance was, we certainly can't wait for him to return to Europe as soon as possible.
With ‘Deny, Deny, Deny’ and ‘The Great Divide’ now being staples of his setlist, and Noah Kahan occasionally adding in other unreleased tracks such as ‘We Go Way Back’ and ‘Pain is Cold Water’, the excitement is through the roof following this fantastic NOS Alive set, as we patiently count down the days until Kahan's new album.
For more on Noah Kahan, see below:
Featured photo by SARAHAWKKK, courtesy of NOS Alive 2025