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Earlier this week, Charlie Puth was performing to a stadium packed with 15,000 people in Montreal. But last night (July 12), the pop singer went back to his roots at Berklee College of Music for an intimate album release show at The Red Room at Cafe 939.
A select amount of Berklee students who had been granted tickets lined up outside the Boylston Street venue yesterday afternoon to celebrate the release of Puth's new album, May's Voicenotes. The private event, which was hosted in collaboration with Spotify, literally brought Puth back to where it all began.
“This Cafe 939 is the first place I ever did a show at,” Puth told the small crowd gathered at the front of the room.
Roughly 100 people ogled as Puth played a five-song “greatest hits” set with nothing more than his keyboard and acoustic guitar player. Voicenotes being the cause for celebration, Puth rolled out “Done For Me,” “The Way I Am,” “Attention,” and “How Long,” often breaking out the jazz chords on his keyboard. Because, well, “I’m at Berklee,” he quipped.
“What’s the deal, are you guys in Five Week?” he asked the students, referring to the college’s summer performance program, which elicited a din of squees. “I was in Five Week in 2009. That was when shutter shades were really popular and LMFAO was on the radio.”
To cap off his performance, Puth brought the Berklee choral group onstage to join him for a rendition of “See You Again,” the most choir-worthy Charlie Puth tune of them all. In between songs, he offered earnest encouragement to the current Berklee students.
“It took 10 years to get where I am up here... it’s persistence,” he said before he left the stage, encouraging them to hop on the Acela express train to New York City like he did years ago.
After the quick show, guests snapped up free merch, including Charlie Puth and Spotify-branded hats and tote bags, as well as notebooks whose covers memorialized the evening with the date and show info. For everyone who missed out, Puth plays the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion tonight (July 13).
Swipe through the gallery below to get a better glimpse of cozy concert with the 2013 Berklee grad.
All photos by Victoria Wasylak for Vanyaland.
