‘It’s been a crazy year for me’: Benson Boone goes big in Vegas
It took all of 60 seconds for his wish to come true.
“I wanna be the name you scream,” Benson Boone thundered on the chorus of show opener “I Wanna Be the One You Call,” and scream they did — if not every last one of the 15,000 fans packed into a sold-out T-Mobile Arena, you wouldn’t have known by the sound of it.
On Friday, Benson brought his first headlining arena tour to Vegas, the burgeoning pop superstar prowling a massive bright red catwalk that led to a heart-shaped stage in the crowd, backed by a four-piece live band outfitted in a matching shade of crimson.
“It’s been a crazy year for me,” he acknowledged early in the show. “I’m talking about my career.”
In a 14-month span, Benson has dropped two albums — most recently “American Dream” in June — become one of the world’s most-streamed artists (his smash hit “Beautiful” has been streamed over 2 billion times alone) and graduated from an opening act on recent tours by Imagine Dragons and Taylor Swift to a major draw all on his own.
A few takeaways from his biggest Vegas show yet:
He’d wear his heart on his sleeve … if only he wore sleeves
Somebody get a tourniquet for Benson Boone’s heart, it bleeds like a street fighter’s knuckles.
The big-voiced 23-year-old acknowledges as much in song.
“You really make me bleed / Blood on these ivory keys,” he confessed on “Man in Me,” which began ruminatively before cresting into a bombastic pop kiss-off.
Benson’s highly impassioned songbook serves as a slingshot for his emotions, whether he’s belting out odes to the coolness of his father (“Mr. Electric Blue”), his feelings for his mother (“Momma Song,” in which family videos of his parents on their wedding day played on the big screen behind the stage) or pining for a love lost abroad (“Young American Heart”).
“I’d be just fine as long as I’m wherever you are,” he sang on the latter tune, which ended with red, white and blue confetti raining down from the rafters.
Of course, all those papier-mâché bits came shaped like little hearts.
The only thing shorter than the average height of the crowd was the beer lines
“You’re, like, 12!”
Boone is working the crowd flanked around the catwalk, asking audience members if they’ve ever been in love, by way of introducing ballad “Love of Mine.”
When they respond in the affirmative, Boone sounds an incredulous note, considering all the young faces gazing back at him.
“You’re 9!” he says of another.
And so Boone poses a more age-appropriate question: “Have you ever had a crush at school before?”
Cue, like, 10,000 shrieks.
Yes, this was a very young crowd, with many, many moms and dads with kids in tow at their first concert.
On one level, it was a bit of a surprise, hearing thousands of tweens singing along passionately to songs that largely revolve around the complexities of grown-up relationships (“Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else”; “Drunk in My Mind”; “Everything Reminds Me of You,” etc.).
On another, it wasn’t, considering that Benson first built a following on TikTok before he even had a record deal and radiates a boyish precociousness to go with the Burt Reynolds ’stache and oft-bared abs.
Still, not everyone was so impressed: A teen boy sitting next to us, flanked by two younger sisters and his father, impressively managed to sleep through the entire show.
A nod to Vegas
During the show’s third act, Benson brought a T-shirt-cannon-wielding buddy out onstage with him to blast a shot into the rafters.
A fan who caught the shirt unfurled it on camera: “My Way,” it read, scrawled in black marker ink.
Every night on tour, Benson performs a cover song.
On Friday, he paid tribute to a Vegas icon, performing the aforementioned Frank Sinatra classic with chest-heaving gusto, his voice escalating from flickering flame to raging bonfire by song’s end.
The most emotional moment of an emotional show
“Feel these words.”
Benson is introducing a song about the death of his grandmother, his emotions as elevated as the sparkly blue piano he’s seated at, positioned on a circular riser high above the crowd.
“This was the first time losing someone I was comfortable with,” he says beforer launching into a stirring rendition of “In the Stars.” “I’m singing about my life, and you’re singing about yours. Let’s sing together.”
For the next 3½ minutes, much of the packed house did just that, many holding their cellphones aloft, illuminating a room temporarily darkened by grief.
Flippin’ out
What’s more lithe, Benson’s voice or his limbs?
We’d have to call it a draw after Friday.
But two songs in, Benson was doing flips off the riser at the end of the catwalk.
He’d bust out another two shortly thereafter, including a back flip off a piano during “Slow It Down,” whose title he seldom heeded on this night.
Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jasonbracelin76 on Instagram.