Hunter Hayes may have made it rain down tears, sweat, heartbreak and crazy on a crowd of thousands of devout Hayniacs at his "MTV Artist to Watch Live" headlining show at Webster Hall in New York City (not to mention the thousands of rapt Hayniacs streaming the show live from home. You're WELCOME, by the by). In fact, the MTV Artist To Watch may have actually made it rain -- songs like "Storm Warning" and "Rainy Season" showered the country crowd with an entire relationship narrative and emotional arc as another June storm continued its relentless pursuit of Manhattan. And, on the eve of his Encore album release, Hunter Hayes may have made me ugly cry my mascara all the way down my face and partially into my neck (yo, don't worry, I totally got this) with tearjerkers like "Find Yourself In A Song" and "Faith To Fall Back On" and then had me bump Adam Levine way way down to the bottom of my list of Favorite Living Men when he covered Maroon 5's "This Love" during his encore. (Adam... who? Doesn't ring a bell. Sorry! It's Hunter's song now.)
And His Royal Hayness may have packed Webster Hall with more cowboy hats than a rodeo...
And he may have filled out a raglan tee like his last name's Hemsworth...
And yes, he did that adorable little signature Hunter Hayes hop (siiiiigh... PLEASE READ THIS AND BE MY BOYFRIEND)...
But the highlight of the entire Hunter Hayes live experience was, for me at least, finding a group of his coolest, funniest, most committed Hayniacs singing "Wanted" at the top of their lungs in the lobby before the show started and then insisting that I take a photo of them twerking. Sorry, all other Hayniacs. Y'all are definitely cool, but I wanted crazy, and these awesome fans -- who met online and became friends going to Hunter shows -- definitely brought the best possible form of crazy.
I'm pretty side-eye skeptical of any Hayniac who had something better to do that night (OK, unless you were watching the "Voice" finale), but on the off chance you missed the show because you had to go to the emergency room or something, here are two set lists I stole for you:
+ Stay tuned for full-length Hunter Hayes "Artist To Watch Live" performances, photos and more, coming soon!
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