When I walked into The Showbox on the night of March 31 for Evan Honer’s Seattle show, I was expecting a concert of the standard folk music that I know and love. So, when South Carolinian folk artist Sam Burchfield took the stage with his co-guitarist Ryan Plumly playing traditional folk music to open the night, I thought that we were getting a taste of what was to come.

I was wrong.

After Burchfield exited the stage following his set, the crowd stood in anticipation, waiting for Honer to take the stage. Just moments later, the lights dimmed and guitar riffs echoed throughout the venue. As everyone was turning their heads and pulling out their phones, all the attention was brought to the right side of the stage: Honer was seen doing a sequence of backhand springs into a backflip upon making his appearance before the crowd.

From this moment, I knew that this wasn’t going to be your standard folk concert. The genre that is typically known to be slower and more acoustic was now replaced with a high-energy, almost rock-and-roll style.

Jamie Stout, whom I spoke to after the concert, has been a fan of Honer for multiple years, having seen him in concert on two previous occasions. Stout commented on how Honer’s way with his lyrics provides an almost indescribable feeling to his audience, which is what keeps her listening.

“His ability to storytell within his music, his lyrics hit every time. He also has those moments where you’re just like ‘melting,’ for a lack of better words,” Stout said.

Honer kicked off the night performing the opening track to his most recent release, “Everything I wanted (& more),” an extended version of his 2025 album Everything I Wanted. From there, Honer took essentially no breaks during his entire 20-song set, except for when he did his classic bottle flip in the middle of “Foolin’ Ourselves,” moving at a very fast pace that kept the audience engaged throughout the performance.

An interlude came when Honer sang a cover of “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce, referring to his dog, Leroy Brown, whom he brings to every show. Leroy Brown is the second of Honer’s two dogs. His first, Bruno, passed away in 2024. The artist pays homage to Bruno in his song “Place I Hate”, where he talks about all the things from his life that he misses.

Though every song in his set was well-received by the audience, there was one that everyone in the crowd was waiting for. After the completion of every song, the crowd would yell out to Honer for him to play a song that he didn’t even write. This song is “Jersey Giant.” Originally written, but not released, by popular country artist Tyler Childers, Honer’s cover with Julia DiGrazia has accumulated almost 200 million streams on Spotify.

I was one of these audience members who was yelling out to Honer, as Jersey Giant has been one of my favorite songs for multiple years. When I heard the classic guitar chords that have been played in my car dozens of times before, my feet sank into the floor and it was as if it was just me and Honer in the room.

The night ended with Honer faking out the crowd by walking out after performing “Maybe For Once.” As people were starting to walk out of the venue, Honer made his way back onto stage, singing a cover of Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Going Down.” He wrapped up the night, for real this time, playing “idk shit about cars” from his 2024 album, Fighting For.

Honer hails from Surprise, Ariz., where he gained influence from his father, who introduced him to the likes of The Eagles, Jim Croce and James Taylor. Honer has described his genre as “Sad Folk,” but the Arizona native tends to jump around genres. A lot of his music can be classified as folk or indie, but many of his songs also fall into the rock and pop categories. Honer auditioned for American Idol in 2022, where he received three “No” votes from the judges, and was even told by popular country artist Luke Bryan to “stick to diving”, referring to how Honer was a Division 1 diver. That same year, Honer released his debut album, West on I-10. Honer now receives almost three million monthly listeners on Spotify.

For many, this concert wasn’t their first time experiencing Honer’s music live. For others, this was their first experience of the “Sad Folk” artist. Kaytlin Vanderhorst didn’t listen to Honer prior to the concert, but she was familiar with his style of music.

“I thought he was amazing. I know that one of his top artists was Medium Build, which is one of my favorite artists of all time, so I was really excited to see a similar but different style,” Vanderhorst said.

Burchfield hit the road with Honer at the latter end of March after wrapping up being on tour with Canadian rock band The Strumbellas. Although he was with Honer and his crew only for a short time, Burchfield commented on the high quality of this tour.

“It’s honestly been one of the best tours I’ve ever been on. The crowds have been amazing. Evan and the crew are all so kind, and the geography of this tour… It’s as good as it gets,” Burchfield said.