On March 10. Noah Reid performed at Park West in Chicago as part of his “First Time Out Tour”, and honestly, it was the best concert I have ever been to.

That being said the only other concert I have ever been to was The Jonas Brothers in 2008.

The concert was not your typical “dance and mosh pit” kind of show. It was a sitting venue, and, with all the seats being general seating, seats were snagged on a “first come, first served” basis.

The doors to the venue opened at 6:30 p.m., an hour before the show started. I ended up arriving 5 minutes after the doors opened, and I was genuinely worried we were not being able to get good seats. Luckily, not that many other people chose to show up a whole hour before the show started, and we found a pretty amazing spot.

We were at an odd angle to the stage, sitting directly parallel to the wing, but we were close enough to touch the stage. It made for an exciting view of the show because we were able to see everything that was happening.

Since Noah Reid is a pretty popular performer, an abundance of people attended this event. This resulted in the chairs being quite packed together and a few uncomfortable encounters with random strangers. Despite that, I still felt I had my own space to exist and enjoy the concert, which I very much appreciated.

Given Reid’s music, I honestly expected the show to be him, a guitar, a piano, and maybe an accordian. Having a band was a pleasant surprise that added to the ambiance and excitement of the performance.

Reid performed many songs off of his unreleased album “Gemini” that comes out May 29, as well as several songs from his 2016 album “Songs from a Broken Chair” and a few songs that are on neither. The mix of songs was really enjoyable. It made me even more pumped for the “Gemini” album while also listening to old favorites.

Most of Reid’s audience is due to his role in the popular T.V. show “Schitt’s Creek” in which he plays Patrick Brewer. I’ll admit I am in this portion of the audience, yet I was worried the concert was going to revolve around the show. While I am a fan of the show, Reid’s music exists outside of the show and it’s context.

Discussing the show too much would have ruined the concert feel and made it more of a “Q&A with a ‘Schitt’s Creek’ star” kind of vibe. I am really glad the show as only sparingly mentioned when it related to the story that accompanied the song.

Reid did play his cover from “Schitt’s Creek” of Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best.” This song was played as an encore, which aided in the concert not being driven by the show.

Reid’s music is very emotional and shows a vulnerable side to him, without all being sad songs. It created an really interesting dynamic and flow to the concert.

Matthew Barber, a friend and colleague of Noah Reid, opened the show with a thirty minute set of a few of his songs. Although having never heard of Barber until that night, I was encapsulated with his set.

Barber is multitalented and in the thirty minutes of his set he played the guitar, piano and several harmonicas. The variation of instruments as well as tones throughout his songs had me hooked into watching him perform.

In addition to playing many instruments during his own set, Barber also played the drums for Reid’s set. A bassist and a guitarist also accompanied Reid on stage for several of his songs.

The concert from start to finish had my focus purely on the music. I had a lovely time, and I am now debating how I will be able to convince my parents to let me drive to Nashville for Reid’s show there next month.