A man of the people, Kane Brown draws a big crowd at Grand Forks' Alerus Center

Apr. 21—GRAND FORKS — Kane Brown came all the way to Grand Forks to sing, but then barely had to.

The award-winning country rocker performed a down-to-business set before a big crowd at the Alerus Center Saturday as part of his "In the Air Tour." Once the curtain dropped — a massive curtain literally did drop — at 9:20 p.m., many of the thousands in attendance sang along, at times overpowering even Brown's amplified vocals.

"Thank you guys for coming out," Brown said early in a set that stretched some 20 songs. "I've been waiting to come back to North Dakota."

He last played in Grand Forks in February 2017, when he performed at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. This time, the visit came at the end of a weekend that included stops in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday and Minneapolis on Friday. From here, the tour will get a few days off before resuming Friday in Lubbock, Texas.

He opened with "Bury Me in Georgia," and rolled through a number of hits. His fifth song was "I Can Feel It," which includes a sample of Phil Collins' 1981 "In the Air Tonight." Brown probably doesn't realize it, but the iconic Collins song has a certain significance in Grand Forks, due to its traditional placement in the lead-up to UND hockey games at the Ralph.

Brown is a multiple-time American Music Awards winner and was the Academy of Country Music Awards' New Male Vocalist of the Year in 2017. According to various online sources, he first gained notoriety a decade ago as an internet content generator, posting videos of himself singing cover songs that were seen online millions of times.

In 2015, he produced a six-song album, titled "Closer." He raised money for the album by reaching out to fans via Kickstarter, a crowdfunding site on the internet.

So fans helped him get started in the business a decade ago and these days, fans know most of his hits by heart. His man-of-the-people approach seems to have struck a chord.

"I haven't changed," he told the crowd Saturday. "I grew up in a trailer park."

A few times Saturday, he urged the crowd to "make some noise," but he really didn't need to. And at one point, he simply turned his microphone toward the crowd and said, "y'all sing" — a superfluous prompt for the thousands who were already belting out the lyrics well before the invitation.

The Alerus Center does not immediately release attendance figures, but the Herald estimates Saturday's crowd at more than 15,000.

Brown followed two opening acts that weren't openers in a traditional sense. Pamalee opened the night at 7 p.m. with "Just the Way" and performed a 30-minute set that eventually made its way to the band's roots in North Carolina.

"We're going to take you back to Carolina," Matt Thomas, the band's lead singer, said. "Are you all ready?"

The band — which includes two brothers, a cousin and a family friend — then played "Carolina," which was a national hit after its release in 2013.

Sandwiched between Parmalee and Brown was Tyler Hubbard, known for his time with Florida Georgia Line, which won the ACA's New Artist of the Year and a number of other honors between 2013 and 2019. With Florida Georgia Line, Hubbard performed at the Ralph in 2016.

"North Dakota, are you with us? Are you feeling good tonight?" he asked during his set. "You probably know this about me — I love writing songs."

Just like during Kane Brown's set after him and even during Parmalee's set before him, the Alerus Center crowd robustly sang along to a number of Hubbard's hits during his 46-minute performance.

And more evidence that Parmalee and Hubbard were more than just your typical opening acts: Midway through his set, Brown brought Thomas and Hubbard on stage to perform "Famous Friends."

"Are you having a good time?" Brown said after high-fiving dozens — more like hundreds — of fans as he made his way to a small secondary stage on the opposite side of the arena to perform a cover of "Georgia On My Mind," written nearly a century ago by Hoagy Carmichael but made famous by Ray Charles in the 1960s.

"Thanks so much for hanging out with us."