By Luke Matthews

Shawn Mendes is living in a dream. He’s standing with his arms in the air, one hand holding a guitar, the other pointing to the sky. Confetti has just exploded into the air and is raining down on the screaming crowd of over 12,000. Air cannons shoot white fog up from the stage from one side to the other. It’s quite a spectacle.

As Mendes waves one last time to the crowd and departs the stage, one wonders how you top the feeling he must get as he closes out his show each night on his “Shawn Mendes: The Tour.” He’ll have plenty of time to attempt to top this. He’s only 20 years old, you know.

The combined ages of both acts Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena is just 42. Opening performer Alessia Cara has two years on the not-yet-legal-to-buy-alcohol Mendes. These are two performers who are riding the upswings of their respective careers. It’s exciting to think about how high each will go.

Shawn Mendes is touring in support of his self-titled third album. Saturday night was the Canadian’s first visit to the Hawkeye state. In just four short years, Mendes has become an international superstar with his total pop package. He’s handsome, muscular, talented, and charming. He’s everything you want in a pop star.

Watching Mendes perform his hour and 45-minute set, one couldn’t help but see a lot of a young John Mayer in him. Mendes has made it no secret that Mayer is one of his idols. It’s almost uncanny to see Mendes this early in his career as it looks so much like Mayer in the beginnings of his vault to fame. Both were good looking, great singers, even better writers, and both oozed with charisma. Mayer went on to great success as both a songwriter and guitar virtuoso. Time will tell if Mendes follows a similar path. Let’s hope he skips the vagabond/introspective/sexual napalm phase.

Mendes has one up on Mayer in that he has truly grasped the power pop live performance. His show was full of energy and fun. Everyone at the show was given LED bracelets that were synced with the music of the show. Waves of light and color washed over the crowd as Mendes sang. The songs didn’t need much accompaniment, but during “Lost in Japan,” “Treat You Better,” or “Stitches,” the LED lights added an additional visual enjoyment to the show.

Mendes spent the better part of the evening on the large, round main stage with an equally large and round video screen hovering above. The effect of the two together gave the look of a tiny, well-quaffed man singing on a woman’s makeup compact. Mendes spent a quality amount of time on a smaller “B stage” near the rear of the arena floor, on which an oversized, illuminated flower dangled above throughout the evening.

He began his second stage set with a brief cover of the Whitney Houston classic, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” It was a sweet moment in the night that showed Mendes’ appreciation for the artists that came before him. As did his charming cover of Coldplay’s “Fix You,” later in the show.

The evening was started well by Mendes’ fellow Canadian, Alessia Cara. Cara herself has had a bevy of hits including the massive “Scars ‘To Your Beautiful” and her smash with the Chainsmokers, “Stay.” Cara herself could be filling arenas soon. She needs one more really great album under her belt before she can get there. All of the other intangibles are already present.

Cara stalked the stage early in her red oversized sportcoat, red pants, and black & white Chuck Taylors, looking like a girl who herself would have bought a ticket to a Shawn Mendes concert. She then proceeded to belt through a 40-minute set that seemed to breeze by leaving the audience wanting more. Cara was a wise choice to put on the bill with Mendes. It gave the whole show a more rounded feeling of true up and coming talent.

At just 20, Shawn Mendes already has plenty of hits to buoy a full arena show. He’s got the talent and he’s certainly got the fans. While Saturday night’s show was just shy of a full sell-out, you can bet that the next time he comes through town, tickets are going to be hard to get. It’s hard to say if selling out arenas including ones in Des Moines, Iowa is a big dream for Shawn Mendes, but you have to think of something to top the dreams he’s already living.

SHAWN MENDES SETLIST

Lost in Japan
There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back
Nervous
Stitches
Señorita / I Know What You Did Last Summer / Mutual
Bad Reputation
Never Be Alone
I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Whitney Houston cover)
Because I Had You / A Little Too Much / When You’re Ready
Life of the Party
Like to Be You
Ruin
Treat You Better
Particular Taste
Where Were You in the Morning?
Fallin’ All in You
Youth
If I Can’t Have You
Why
Mercy

Encore:
Fix You (Coldplay cover)
In My Blood