After seeing Benson Boone perform last October, I already knew what the Washington-born singer could do onstage. So when I learned he was coming back to Seattle with his Most Wanted Tour, there really wasn’t much of a decision to make. I was seeing Boone again.
And somehow, he got even better.
From the moment Boone took the stage at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, the energy was enormous. The audience — a wonderfully enthusiastic mix of teenage girls, moms, gay men and seemingly everyone in between — greeted the hometown star with the kind of screaming usually reserved for boy bands at the height of their powers. If anyone was wondering whether Benson Boone is still “wanted,” Seattle provided a very loud answer.
Very. Very. Loud.
At just 24, Boone has already moved well beyond the conversation of being a one-hit wonder. Songs like “Beautiful Things” may have introduced him to a massive global audience, but seeing him live makes it clear that there is much more happening here. He has developed into a confident, charismatic performer capable of commanding an arena with powerhouse vocals, humor, athleticism and enough unpredictable energy to make you wonder whether his insurance company has ever actually watched his show.
Because, yes, there were backflips.
Lots of them.
Boone’s now-signature acrobatics were on full display throughout the evening, with flips and leaps incorporated into a performance that rarely seemed to stand still. Somehow, he manages to throw himself through the air and then return to singing as though gravity were merely an optional suggestion.
The first half of the show also featured another Boone trademark: the sleeveless, mostly unbuttoned shirt.
Whoever invented that particular piece of concert wardrobe deserves a raise.
But beneath the abs, acrobatics and rock-star theatrics is what ultimately makes Boone such a compelling performer: the voice. His vocals soared throughout the arena, moving easily between intimate ballads and explosive pop-rock numbers. Songs including “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else,” “Mr Electric Blue,” “There She Goes,” “Wanted Man,” “Drunk in My Mind” and “Slow It Down” demonstrated just how quickly his catalog has expanded.
Rather than watching an artist trying to stretch one or two recognizable hits across an arena show, we were watching a young performer who already has an audience invested in the songs surrounding those hits.
And Seattle was definitely invested.
There was an added emotional layer to this particular stop because Boone was performing close to home. Born and raised in Washington, he took time during the concert to acknowledge his roots and give some love to Monroe. The hometown connection became especially meaningful when he dedicated “Take Me Home” to the city.
For all the spectacle surrounding him, it was one of those quieter moments that reminded the audience that beneath the rapidly growing international career is still a Washington kid coming home.
Then, naturally, Boone went back to causing chaos.
One of the funniest surprises came when the show’s confetti blast arrived not during the big finale, as concert tradition practically demands, but right in the middle of the show.
Because apparently Benson Boone doesn’t believe confetti should have to wait until the end.
It was a perfect representation of what makes his concerts work. There is always a sense that something unexpected could happen. A backflip might appear out of nowhere. Boone might leap across the stage. A massive vocal moment might suddenly turn into an intimate one. Even the confetti refuses to follow the rules.
Songs such as “Mystical Magical,” “Pretty Slowly” and “In the Stars” also showcased the different sides of Boone as an artist. The quieter material allowed his voice and emotional delivery to take center stage, while the bigger numbers transformed Climate Pledge Arena into one enormous sing-along.
That balance is important. The backflips might generate viral clips and the wardrobe certainly isn’t hurting ticket sales, but Boone doesn’t need either one to carry a concert. When the production pulls back, his vocals are more than capable of doing the heavy lifting.
What struck me most compared with seeing him last October was his growth as a live entertainer. Boone seemed even more comfortable controlling an arena-sized audience, knowing when to unleash the spectacle and when to simply stand there and sing. There was a confidence to the performance that suggested an artist settling into his place as a genuine headliner.
That might be the biggest takeaway from the Most Wanted Tour: Benson Boone isn’t simply riding the momentum of a breakout moment anymore. He’s building a career.
And he’s doing it his own wonderfully unpredictable way.
Seeing Boone for the second time confirmed what I suspected after the first: this is an artist worth seeing more than once because the show doesn’t feel like something that has been programmed down to the last perfectly rehearsed second. There’s a sense of spontaneity and youthful abandon to it.
You genuinely don’t know what Benson Boone is going to do next.
Will he hit an impossible note? Probably.
Will he backflip? Almost certainly.
Will he keep his shirt buttoned? Let’s not get ridiculous.
Will the confetti cannon suddenly explode when nobody expects it?
Apparently.
Benson Boone came home to Washington with a bigger show, a growing catalog and even greater confidence than when I saw him last October. Seattle responded by giving its hometown star enough screams to register on the Richter scale.
Round two was even better than round one.
At this rate, I’m already wondering what he’ll possibly do for round three.
