Noah Kahan treated the Night Two crowd at Chicago's Wrigley Field to a surprise performance of ‘Pain is Cold Water’. The much-loved song has never been officially released, with fans disappointed to see it omitted from Kahan's The Great Divide album.

Kahan blended the pared-down, intimate ‘Pain is Cold Water’ into another fan-favourite, ‘Maine’, with the Vermont native delivering stunning renditions of both tracks. Much of ‘Pain is Cold Water’ finds Kahan crooning softly about his struggles alongside nothing more than a gentle acoustic guitar and the faint cry of a violin.

Kahan has spoken regularly about why he decided not to record a studio version of ‘Pain is Cold Water’, which he first teased back in December 2022 via social media. The ‘Northern Attitude’ singer-songwriter warned fans ahead of releasing his new album, The Great Divide, that the song wouldn't be included, reflecting, “Pain is cold water is just one of those songs that wants to be left alone”.

The folk trailblazer echoed this sentiment in his 2026 Rolling Stone interview, where he explained why he didn't record it, “I love that song too, and like, when we started recording for the album, I was like, ‘Oh this is a slam drunk, I already have half this song’”.

He went on, “And I just kept going back to it and feeling like I was just finishing it just to finish it. But I didn't feel like there was any more of a story that needed to be told. The same thing happened with ‘Stick Season’. When I put something out and I put half of it out, and I find out people like it, then I'm f***ed, because I have to finish it, and I'm doing it under the lens of, ‘Oh, this is really good’ or ‘Oh, people want this’”.

As Kahan's Rolling Stone interviewer, Angie Martoccio, muses, fans will always have Kahan's Live from Fenway Park version of the song, which he included on his 2024 live album.

But we'd be lying if we said we didn't still yearn for a full studio version of the song, even if it's just the two-minute snippet that he performed in Chicago and at Fenway Park in 2024.

While it could just be a special treat for Kahan's fanbase, the fact that he decided to add it back into his setlist for Chicago Night Two could be a hint that he will one day release it. There have been rumours bubbling away for months now that Kahan might have a song on the new Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping soundtrack. These at first revolved around ‘Staying Still’, which Kahan ultimately added to his The Great Divide: The Last Of The Bugs deluxe album, but perhaps the plan all along has been for ’Pain is Cold Water’ to feature, instead.

At the moment, this is just conjecture, but with the haunting violin and the traditional folk feel of the song, there's no question that ‘Pain is Cold Water’ would fit perfectly into the sonic tapestry of the Hunger Games soundtracks so far. We can only hope...