The album from which all of Benson Boone’s most recent viral songs have exploded into the music chart stratosphere, Fireworks & Rollerblades, was released only twenty days before the publishing of this article. And yet, “Beautiful Things” a single from the album, was the biggest song in the world, firmly planted at the top spot of the Billboard Global 200 for eight weeks in a row, only just falling to third this week, with 599,567,329 plays on Spotify to date. These metrics are not normal for an artist as new as Benson Boone. That’s not to say they’re not well deserved. But it explains the buzz around his tour, which was chartered in midsized venues with capacities of around 2,500, presumably booked before the rapid increase in the artist’s global audience. To put it simply: It’s clear that this tour will be one of the last times we’ll get the chance to see Benson Boone on a smaller stage.
His latest stop was at House of Blues in Houston, Texas on Monday, April, 22, 2024, where fans packed the venue’s 2 floors to see the “Cry” singer perform. Boone has garnered so much attention after a recent string of viral songs on various social media platforms, that tickets for his sold-out Houston show were reselling for quadruple their value throughout April.
Boone doesn’t need fireworks to astound his audience—no rollerblades needed for a flashy entrance, either. His bubbly, dynamic presence would be as entertaining on a dirt road as it is on a stage. When he stepped on stage, his fans erupted, louder than any sound the band could manufacture, it seemed. Benson wore a white denim vest over a white shirt with wide legged white trousers and his signature single pearl earring (left ear). This look struck me as refreshingly simple—not a brand name or embellishment in sight—feeling somehow, at once, modern and 1970’s.
The singer-songwriter sat at a keyboard, the lights dimmed, and he played the album’s “Intro.” The piano’s initial descending chords and chromatic voicing sang out into the room while the band stood silence in the background. No accompaniment was needed as the singer began its opening line, “Do you believe, there is a life where it’s just you and me and I?” This was a uniquely intimate moment for a show that was, otherwise, vibrant and packed with enthusiasm and energy.
Like in the album, the band moved from “Intro” straight into the next track, “Be Someone.” In Houston, this expression has its own importance (IYKYK). Fans sang along, of course, to every word. It was a young crowd, (Benson, himself is only 21), but the music felt a-generational, and, perhaps more importantly, it’s good music, performed live, with real instruments, by a band who has the skill to back up the lead’s talent and charisma.
Flips. Back flips, front flips, side flips—there were flips. Which was to be expected. Boone has become famous for his flipping habit at shows, in American Idol Auditions, in daily life. The first flip came at the end of the very first song.
After “Be Someone” the group ran through many of singer’s hits: most notably, “Cry”, “Ghost Town”, and “Forever and a Day.” But the crown jewel of the set? As you’d expect, his smash hit, “Beautiful Things” which was performed right at the end of the show to a sweaty, elated, packed House of Blues who sang every last word back to the stage.
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