Saturday promised to be a big night when Big Time Rush’s In Real Life Worldwide Tour braved the Arizona heat at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre. Fans dressed to the nines in BTR gear and even costumes from the group’s popular TV show descended on the pavilion to celebrate the band’s career from TV to today.
It simply couldn’t be a proper Big Time Rush event without Gustavo Roque himself, Stephen Kramer Glickman. Known as the band’s boisterous manager in the show, Glickman is a talented singer and prolific entertainer in real life and he brought that fabulous energy to his brief opening set. With his patterned jacket and rose-tinted glasses, Glickman and his band emerged to a wildly enthusiastic audience and treated them to a series of reimagined covers to get the party started. His rendition of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” put him on the map as a singer during the pandemic and he took the ball and ran with it on choices like The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” and Britney Spears’ “Toxic”. The final number was a shiny disco ball interpretation of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” as the fans danced along to get warmed up for the rest of the night.
This tour really pulled out all the stops, with Katelyn Tarver (also known as Jo Taylor on the Nickelodeon sitcom) providing the direct support for the night. Tarver has been making indie pop as a solo act for years and these audiences have rediscovered her music as she also previews new songs for the fans each night. With her cheeky “Phoenix Ur Hot” shirt, Tarver wore a huge grin throughout her set as the love was exchanged between artist and fans. They were ready to sing along, too, shouting back the words to “Nicer” and “You Don’t Know”. Tarver performs with the ease and confidence of a seasoned singer and she’s finally getting the recognition she deserves in front of these huge crowds every night.
The In Real Life Worldwide Tour is part nostalgia and part celebration of what’s to come in the future and Big Time Rush blended these elements to perfection with their lengthy set. The show’s theme song segued right into the band’s dramatic entrance at the top of the triangular structure built to house the quartet and their stellar live band and the guys strutted down the ramp on a mission. Kendall Schmidt, James Maslow, Carlos PenaVega and Logan Henderson even added in some fun choreography to go along with their impressive four part harmonies as they ran through “Windows Down”, “Music Sounds Better” and a mashup of “Shot in the Dark” and “Big Night”.
To the delight of the crowd, Glickman re-emerged to accompany each of the guys for soulful acoustic renditions of “Cover Girl” for Schmidt, “You’re Not Alone” for PenaVega, “All Over Again” for Henderson and “We Are” for Maslow. Each member was hyped up by the others and the fans as they got the chance to show off their unique voices on their favorite tracks to take the show nearly to the halfway mark. The rest of part one was a speedrun of songs from the group’s incredible self-titled album (including the spoof track “Giant Turd”) before the aptly-titled “Halfway There” took the boys to the b-stage and the second part of the night.
Perched on the lawn under twinkling string lights, Big Time Rush took the time to connect with the fans at the back of the venue as they sang a few acoustic tracks and even brought Tarver back out for the feature on “Count on You”. Each member then handpicked their traditional Worldwide Girl to bring onstage- a cute and wholesome moment for four very lucky fans. Not even the oppressive temperatures in the amphitheatre could dampen the enthusiasm so the band simply kept the party going with even more energetic songs like “Elevate” and “Run Wild”. They ran all over the stage, slid down the ramps in the middle and made every fan feel like they were singing right to them.
Massive cannon blasts showered the pavilion in rainbow confetti right into the encore of “Till I Forget About You” and “Boyfriend” to end a set that contained a whopping 43 songs. Big Time Rush could have continued all night and these fans would have stayed- their adoration was palpable and returned in spades by the four guys onstage who are clearly happy to be back together and performing every evening. This incredible endeavor rolls on into 2026 and it’s a tour that’s simply not to be missed.
