Last night, Grammy award-winning duo Dan + Shay brought their headlining Dan + Shay The Tour to the historic Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City with special guest, Morgan Evans. Luckily for us New Yorkers, we were one of the stops on their completely sold-out tour this spring, making it a night to remember.
To kick off the night, Dan + Shay invited their friend and labelmate Morgan Evans to warm up the crowd. Evans took the stage with nothing but his acoustic guitar and loop pedal, performing in his signature style to showcase his undeniable talent. Opening up his set with his song “American” off his debut album, Things That We Drink To right off the bat, the rising country artist was captivated the crowd. Slowing it down for one song, Evans began talking to the fans about his album and how he was picking the songs during the time he was seeing a girl. Mentioning to the crowd, “When your a guy that sings and writes songs in that part of your life you write a lot of love songs and I just want to chill this out for 3 minutes and 9 seconds. I really want to play this song for you guys, it’s maybe my favorite song I’ve ever written, it’s the first song I wrote for my now wife, it’s called “Dance With Me.”
Picking up the pace, Evans continued his set with his latest single “Day Drunk.” While in the middle of the song he stopped to say, “I’m here to warm you up for my buddies Dan + Shay tonight! This is the third show of the tour, I’ve watched the first two shows they are going to rock your socks off tonight. As I’ve said I got one job to warm you guys up! Are you feeling warm yet NYC?!?” Evans continued with the crowd singing along, doing just what he was set out to do. Not stopping there, he incorporated covers “Free Falling” by Tom Petty, “Hey Jude” by The Beatles, “We Will Rock You” by Queen, and “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan into his song. Throwing it back, getting the crowd fired up while belting out the lyrics along with him.
Before ending his set Evans told the crowd, “It’s early in the night but I’m going to go out there and say you guys are the best crowd of the tour so far! You showed up early in the freezing cold and are singing your asses off and it sounds bloody beautiful!” Performing his number one hit song “Kiss Somebody,” making it a moment to never forget with the entire venue singing back his lyrics. To close out the set, Evans did one final jam, performing his song “Young Again” while incorporating “Honey I’m Good” by Andy Grammer and “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk The Moon.
Next up was the moment everyone was waiting for, as the lights went down and a video started playing the venue erupted in cheers and screams waiting in anticipation for the duo to take the stage. Running out, Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney kicked off Act I of their set going straight into their songs from their newest self-titled album including “Alone Together,” “Make Or Break,” their most current single “All To Myself,” and their duet with Kelly Clarkson “Keeping Score.” This was just the start of their set and the crowd was already fired up screaming the words to every song they played. After “Keeping Score,” Smyers took a moment to speak to the crowd saying, “You caught us off guard, this is absolutely insane. I’m at a loss of words right now…Thank you so much for being here, this is one of the most beautiful venues we’ve played in our entire career and you guys, I think, are like 4 or 5 songs in and Y’all might be the loudest crowd we’ve ever played for New York!”
With the night just getting started they continued Act I performing their hit single “From The Ground Up,” while the entire crowd belted out the lyrics with the duo. After the song, Dan + Shay stood there in disbelief looking into the crowd with tears in their eyes before the crowd started to chant their name. After the chant, Smyers began talking to the crowd again, “Wow that may be the coolest thing that’s ever happened to us, that’s crazy. Thank you!… I feel like we are letting you all down we are supposed to keep this thing rolling but man that was such a moment there, like the last like 30 minutes of our lives, we’re just trying to soak this in if that’s okay, I’m sorry I’m getting emotional.” Doing just the opposite they exceeded everyone’s expectations, putting on a show to never forget. Their hard work shining through each and every song they played, showing they deserve every last bit of success they have. They continued Act I playing their songs, “What Keeps You Up At Night,” “Stupid Love,” and “No Such Thing.”
When it came time for Act II of their performance, another video popped up onto the screen showing Dan + Shay’s journey along the years including them winning their very first Grammy Award. As the lights came back up the duo were seen sitting on a couch in the middle of the stage getting ready for an acoustic set. Before continuing, Smyers mentioned that New York City has been the loudest crowds they have ever played for and thanked the crowd once again saying, “I know we sound like a broken record up here and we get emotional a lot but this is seriously the coolest thing, we dreamed about this our whole lives and we appreciate you guys sticking with us throughout it.” They were nothing but appreciative the whole night and to show it, they took the time to check their socials to see what the fans wanted to hear, coming up with this part of the show were they perform some of their older songs acoustically. Each date being different this time it was their single “Show You Off,” “Sway,” and “Lipstick,” before bringing the band back onto the stage to continue the set. They covered the song “Someone Like You” by Adele along with their hit single “How Not To” to end Act II.
As the night was coming to an end with the Final Act approaching they once again thanked the crowd for listening to their music and coming out to see them live. They ended the night on a high note, starting Act III with their number one hit single “Speechless,” before continuing with their first debut single “19 You + Me.” Before performing their last song of the night Smyers said, “If the previous songs are any indication I feel like this has potential to be the loudest this song has ever been sung, we’re going to do this together, we are gonna do it big, we’re gonna do it loud!” Performing their number one hit single “Tequila,” the crowd did just that, screaming the lyrics back, making it the loudest song of the night.
Luckily for us New Yorkers, Dan + Shay will be back again in July when they open for Florida Georgia Line on their Can’t Say I Ain’t Country Tour coming to Jones Beach in Long Island on July 20th.
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