Charlie Puth Turns Rosemont Theatre Into a Love Letter to Live Music on the Whatever's Clever! World Tour: Live Review
- Abby Anderson
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
"This was the first show to sell out on the entire tour, we'll remember that," a grinning Charlie Puth cleverly proclaims to the crowd. But this is the first and last time you'll hear Puth talk of stats onstage at the Whatever's Clever! Tour; Puth's entire production is built on his palpably present adoration of music as an art form and uttermost respect for those who listen to it and create it.
On his tour stop at the Rosemont Theatre about fifteen miles outside of Chicago, Puth's charm, creativity, and unparalleled musical talent created an environment of fawning adoration for live music for all who walked through the door. Puth's set rumbles to life with a Broadway-esque flashing of lights and acapella intro sung by his stellar backing vocalists. With a personalized plea for screams by tour stop because "we have something real special for you on the Whatevers Clever! World Tour starring Charlie Puth," the man himself appears onstage under a bright spotlight to the amassed cheers and his name lighting up the screen platform below him. Not too flashy and just the right amount of classy, Puth immediately plants himself behind one of his dazzling dual keyboards to launch into the jazzy "Beat Yourself Up" off his freshly released album, Whatever's Clever!.
As an artist who thrives in the in between of mega-pop stardom and humble music nerd, Puth's setlist checks every box. He delivers his hits, both in their pure form and with some sonic reinvention. "Attention" holds strong with composition straight off the recording from the Voicenotes album, while "We Don't Talk Anymore" gets a bolero-esque revamp and "One Call Away" is stripped back to Puth's keyboard and the competing volume of the 5,000 voices who sing along to every word. He tacks ear candy instrumental and vocal falsetto interludes on the back of understatedly catchy pop songs like "Patient" and "Cheating on You." His bandmates get to join in on the instrumental jams, the backing vocalists get their moments to shine as they fill in for the slew of artists Puth has featured on his studio recordings, and Puth's rotation between a Fender synthesizer and Yahama piano from song to song is effortless.
While it's obvious that Puth's entire production is a treat for the senses, what may be the star of the show is the moments between the songs when he simply talks about music. "When you take music out of it for a second and put life in front of it and just hear it," he says, running a piano riff up his keyboard on top of a static synth chord, "I could riff on that for hours. You can put different chords under it, and if you just take it away it's back to the key. Perfect fifth. All that is fine, but it doesn't really mean much if there's not lyric on top of it. And I heard this perfect fifth, and something was telling me to put these lyrics on the song." (This leads into "Cry," which is his collaboration with the one and only Kenny G on his latest project.)
Bantering with the crowd about how much he loves looking out and seeing them all dressed in the "Scholastic Utopia" aesthetic of his latest album, joking about his niche love of Chicago-native Jan Terri's obscure music, and sandwiching his set between the front-of-house playing Earth, Wind, & Fire's "September" and Tears for Fears "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," Puth makes a home for music enjoyers of all ages. Puth's crowd spans from the kids jumping in the aisles to the older patrons who nod along to Puth's jazzier influences from the comfort of their seats. And as Charlie prepares to leave the stage after a dazzling finale of "Changes," there isn't a single soul, onstage or off, who doesn't have a smile plastered across their face. So whatever it is that you find clever in the world of live music, Charlie Puth is prepared to deliver it.
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