Back in 2022, American singer-songwriter Natalie Janowski, professionally known as Natalie Jane, went viral on TikTok with her song ‘AVA’. Ever since, she’s gained a steady group of fans, who tend to come to her concerts clad in her signature silver. On the 30th of April, Janowski played a show in Tilburg’s 013 as part of her ‘the world i didn’t want World Tour’, in support of the EP of the same title.
Doors to the venue opened at 19:00. The show was not sold out, so part of the hall and the balcony were closed, making the venue feel a lot more intimate. About 45 minutes later, the night’s first support act, kylekelly, took to the stage together with his drummer and guitarist. Right away, the singer opened his set with a song from his latest EP, ‘is there something (i don’t know)’. “Hello Netherlands, it’s good to be back!” he said in between songs. While the singer has quite a few singles and EPs out on streaming, he dedicated most of his set tonight to as-yet-unreleased songs, such as ‘all the things’ and ‘vintage and blend’. The latter is kylekelly’s favourite song he’s ever made, and he wrote it about being in a relationship with someone and having no idea why.
As not many people in attendance were familiar with kylekelly’s music, and even his own fans that made it to the show were, of course, unfamiliar with the unreleased songs, he wondered if “I can get you guys singing”. That’s when he performed a cover of Ariana Grande’s ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’. This definitely got the crowd singing and also laughing, when, after the lyric “me and my truth, we sit in silence”, the music actually shut down. Of course, this was all planned, and the crowd got rickrolled before kylekelly continued with the song as if nothing had happened. He then played a mash-up of his own songs ‘it always ends the same’ and ‘HOW IS THIS GONNA END?’. “Ladies and gentlemen, girls, gays, and theys, we’ve made it to the last songs of the set,” kylekelly said, before playing one more cover and one more original song. The former turned out to be Oasis’ ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, and the latter ‘my little heart <3’. kylekelly surely won the hearts of the fans in attendance tonight, and hopefully, he will be back for his own show soon.
A mere twenty minutes later, the second support act, colby!, took to the stage. The singer-songwriter from Texas, whose full name is Colby Leslie Johnson, was joined on stage by her brother RJ on the guitar and Cameron on the bass. Johnson moved effortlessly all over the stage, interacting with her band members as well as the audience while singing her own original songs, such as ‘To Each Their Own’. “Tilburg, how are we doing?” she asked afterwards as she explained it was her first time in the Netherlands. “Truly obsessed with this place!” Johnson continued her set with her latest single, which she wrote after a break-up. ‘Who’s Your Angel Now’ tells the story of her ex-boyfriend’s dysfunctional family, who kept calling Johnson an angel.
“Is it alright if we play a little game?” Johnson asked the audience. The game in question was Put a Finger Down, and so Johnson motioned for everyone to hold one hand up in the air. Johnson told everyone to put a finger down if they’re single; if they’ve just gone through a bad break-up; and if they’ve been blasting old Katy Perry songs to get through it. This is how Johnson introduced her cover of ‘The One That Got Away’, which she performed together with her brother on the acoustic guitar. The two of them followed this with an acoustic version of her own song ‘You’, before the bassist made it back onto the stage for the final two songs of her set. The energy picked right back up as she ended with ‘Don’t Know What to Say’ and ‘Doing What I Can’.
In the next half hour, the stage was made ready for Natalie Jane herself. Fake plants and flowers decorated the areas around the instruments and the mic stand, and the lights at the back of the stage lit up. Just after 21:30, a public service announcement was made over the speakers: “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to ‘the world i didn’t want tour’ express. Natalie will be stepping off at any moment”. Indeed, not much later, Natalie Jane took to the stage to perform three songs back to back, namely ‘any1 but myself’, ‘4ever’, and ‘never gonna c u again’. Afterwards, Jane said that “we’re gonna have fun tonight, but we’re also gonna be sad”. She continued with ‘everything 2 nothing’, one of several songs performed tonight that included an extensive dance break. Jane is not only a talented singer, but also a talented dancer. Jane told the audience that she likes the Netherlands so much because this country knows how to party, so she urged her fans to party for the next song, ‘Waiting 4 U’. Halfway through, the music suddenly died. “What happened to the music?” Jane asked. “Uh Oh!” Of course, this went as planned, and she moved into the song that’s called exactly that, ‘Uh Oh!’. After this little rave, Jane decided it was time to quiet the show down a little. As she walked over to her keyboard, she told the audience she’s been learning Dutch on Duolingo and can say sentences such as “Ik drink water” and “Ik ben geen banaan”, which made the audience laugh. She continued with acoustic versions of ‘r u gonna love me?’ and ‘girls will b girls’.
To pick the energy right back up, Jane moved on to a song that she hadn’t played on this tour so far, ‘Sick to My Stomach’, which was followed by ‘Tattoos’. Then, she played one of her own favourite songs from her latest record, and the shortest song she’s ever put out, ‘breaking me’. As soon as the song faded out, a fan shouted “who the fuck is Ava?”, which was, of course, a reference to her hit song. Presumably, the fan was wondering when she’d play it, but as it was hard for her to hear what else they were saying, she just went “Yeah, that’s what I’ve been trying to figure out”. She told the fan she loved them, which led to the audience teaching her to say that in Dutch. After this little interruption, Jane talked to the audience about how she wrote her record about feeling ready for change, ready to move on. This led to her playing ‘gone’. One fan in the audience held up a sign that she read out loud: “Natalie, this gift is for you, because ‘gone’ made me feel understood”. From that moment onwards, not only did that fan give her a gift, but many others threw things onto the stage, including bracelets and panda plushies. She was also given a Dutch flag while performing the next song, ‘Somebody to Someone (I Just Wanna Fall in Love)’.
Another PSA sounded out over the speakers as Jane took a small break. “In just a minute, we’ll be passing a butterfly garden as we pass into the city”. Jane continued the set with ‘butterflies’, after which she pretended for her phone to ring, asking the person on the other side ‘how u been’. Jane then tried to talk to the audience about how she found the next song really hard to sing, but she kept getting distracted by her fans wanting her attention. “I can’t stop talking, I have so many ‘Intrusive Thoughts’, what can I say?”. ‘Intrusive Thoughts’ is a song that many fans clearly appreciate, as they all held up little hearts to show the singer their love. One heart was not so little: two younger fans had made a gigantic cardboard cut-out that they handed to Jane after the song was done. Jane then made it back to the keyboard one last time tonight to perform a cover of Ariana Grande’s ‘Break Free’, together with colby!’s guitarist RJ.
Making it back to the front of the stage, Jane told the audience it’d be her dad’s birthday the next day, which led to the audience singing the Dutch Happy Birthday song. Jane then continued with ‘sabotage’ and ‘Seven’, before she was interrupted by the audience again. Some fans wanted drumsticks, so the crowd parted to let them through and have Jane personally hand them one singular stick. She also took this moment to take a picture with the crowd before moving to the final part of the set. Jane stated she wasn’t originally planning on playing the next song, as the German part of the tour was over, but because Tilburg knows how to party, she did it anyway. This unreleased track contains German lyrics in the form of her counting: “Eins Zwei Drei, put your hands on my thighs”. She then continued with ‘fallin’, for which she wore a red zip-up hoodie representing her lover’s “favorite sweater”. Finally, Jane had to play ‘AVA’ before leaving the stage. Upon the fans shouting out they wanted more, the singer came back for one final song, ‘I’m Her’, ending the night with a true banger.
