The night finally came on Nov. 30 for the Northern Arts and Entertainment (NAE) Noah Richardson concert with Iridescence. From the announcement of the concert to weeks of planning and promoting, the excitement and anticipation paid off. 

The concert began at 8 p.m. at the Northern Center, with Iridescence opening the show. The band that once started in Marquette came back for the NAE concert, which was their first concert of many that weekend. Kent Brock, Mackenzie Grace, Jake Tyler and Audree Stephens came together with similar backgrounds and love for music while in college.

“My family was really musical, so I grew up surrounded by music,” Stephens said. “But for all of us, we’ve been playing for a few years, and we’ve been friends for a few years.”

Stephens and Grace sang with powerful vocals for their whole show, bringing energy to their own songs and covering the song “Just a Girl” by No Doubt. The band brought so much vitality to a show that was just getting started.

Dreams for the group at the moment include their first album. There is no official release date yet, but it will come out sometime in Jan. 2024. The band also hopes to continue to travel and keep playing together, even though its members do not all live in the same town at the moment.

Noah Richardson and his band came all the way from the suburbs of Philadelphia to Northern Michigan University for this show, which was his first time being in the state of Michigan. The young artist got his start at an early age when he would perform in musicals, where he gained experience and strength in singing.

“I really enjoyed singing and performing, then it became not cool. I was playing football as a kid, but then also doing musicals. It was like a classic Troy Bolton kind of moment,” Richardson said. “So, I stopped doing it completely, but I learned to like guitar.”

He learned to play guitar with his brother and play covers for fun. He also continued singing just for fun for the next few years. Richardson eventually went to college at West Chester University in Pennsylvania for premed.

“Halfway through, I was about to get kicked out of school and lose my scholarship,” Richardson said. “I just came home and started writing music lyrics, then didn’t look back.” 

He serenaded the crowd with his songs, sang a cover of the popular “Zombie” by The Cranberries and even performed one of his new songs that is not even out yet and that he would not name. He also interacted with the crowd by passing around a disposable camera and getting the crowd to scream and shout. 

Richardson hopes for him and his group to continue traveling and making music along the way.

“I want to be able to hit every major city in the U.S.,” he said. “I also want to be able to play for people overseas at least once.”  

The line to the concert was long to begin with, and members of NAE and the crowd stragglers stayed behind to get autographs from Noah Richardson and Iridescence along with photos upon photos.

NMU student Rebecca Lane heard about the concert and started listening to Noah Richardson and Iridescence’s music to be familiar with some of the songs they might sing that night. 

“The setup was perfect with all the lights. It just brings the energy and I just love the performers, they were just amazing,” Lane said. “I loved “Playground” from Iridescence.”