Review: Were there really only that many people at Meghan Trainor’s Charlotte concert?

I really want to believe Meghan Trainor knows more than I do when it comes to estimating the sizes of her crowds. But on Sunday night in Charlotte, she was challenging that belief something fierce.

The 30-year-old “All About That Bass” pop singer proudly made multiple references to there being 9,000 people at her concert here — and on the one hand that sounded rather unimpressive, seeing as PNC Music Pavilion’s capacity is more than twice that, at 20,000.

On the other hand ... it sure did seem like Trainor had some bad numbers. Some too-low numbers.

While the 30-year-old hit-maker was far from selling out the huge amphitheater, from where I was sitting, I would have said the venue felt much closer to two-thirds full. It certainly didn’t feel like 9,000, which would qualify as “more than half-empty.”

Maybe more than anything that’s a credit to the enthusiasm and sheer volume of her fans.

From the moment Trainor kicked off the “Timeless Tour” show by appearing atop a hydraulic lift high above the main stage to sing a remixed version of her 2023 single “Mother,” the crowd went wild — and stayed wild, for 27 songs over 92 minutes.

By wild, of course, I do mean LOUD.

Pleasantly loud for more-recent efforts like “Been Like This” (with pre-recorded backing from rapper T-Pain), “To the Moon” and “Whoops,” all off her 2024 album “Timeless.” Remarkably loud for more-established hits like “No,” “Me Too” and “No Excuses.” Even louder for her doo-woppiest stuff — “Dear Future Husband,” “Lips Are Movin” and “All About That Bass.”

But fans reserved their most eardrum-rupturingly loud noises for Trainor’s family members, who have become familiar faces to many of her 18 million followers on Instagram. More on that in a minute.

In what marked her return to touring after a years-long break as well as her first-ever concert in Charlotte, she looked the pop-star part.

With the exception of a blue fan-made cowboy hat with furry trim she donned for a ukelele-backed version of “Title” and futuristic sunglasses she wore for part of “To the Moon,” Trainor kept the same look for the duration of the concert: blonde hair down to her waist; black boots up to her knees; a glittery see-through-ish top over a black bralette; and a short net miniskirt over black high-waisted bikini bottoms.

There were a couple other “cry songs,” as she called them — including “Superwoman,” about the mental struggles of motherhood, and “Like I’m Gonna Lose You,” which she sang while standing at an upright piano.

The vast majority of the set, however, was devoted to flirty, festive fun, with most of her songs delivered with an effervescent smile on her face, many performed while swishing her hips and/or voguing, and a few even accompanied by some good-old-fashioned twerking. Much of that dancing was pre-choreographed and woven into the upbeat numbers that featured support from six backup dancers. Kinetically, they were terrific. They only seemed miscast on the couple of occasions when they stood at mic stands and appeared to be providing additional vocals.

I mean, it was hard to tell how much they were really adding vocally since at all other times there was heavy and constant use of pre-recorded tracks mixed in with Trainor’s (beautifully realized) live singing. I found myself wanting several times for top-quality live backing singers, who IMHO could have added a powerful visceral punch to the harmonies — particularly in her doo-wop songs.

Still, by and large she nailed it, and despite a fair bit of focus on her backside and a few milder profanities in a couple of her songs, she kept things family-friendly for the many young girls in the crowd but also kept things family-friendly for herself. Literally.

Near the top of the show, the singer acknowledged her eight-year absence from touring by explaining, “I was making babies” before mentioning that hers — 14-month-old Barry and his older brother, 3-1/2-year-old Riley — were “sleeping on the bus.”

Then she shouted out her own older brother, “Ryan Trainorrrrrrrrrrrrrr!,” for warming up the crowd with some hype-man work that bouncing back and forth from the DJ booth to the aisles of the pavilion, where he danced and mugged for cellphone cameras with fans.

“He’s a star,” Meghan Trainor told the roaring crowd. “He’s a big, big star.”

We knew this was coming. In an interview earlier this summer, she told The Charlotte Observer that her tour bus was outfitted with bunks for her and her husband, actor Daryl Sabara; for Ryan; and for Riley, as well as a crib for Barry. She also mentioned her workout regimen and dance rehearsals, saying: “I’m gonna be so fit. It’s gonna be insane.” And although in concert she didn’t directly address the weight-loss journey she went on after Barry’s birth in July 2023, the singer did nod to what inspired it.

“I wrote this song five days after my C-section,” Trainor told the crowd as she introduced “Forget How to Love.” “Because there’s so much hate online. It was making me so sad. Everyone was getting so down on me.” (She’s talked openly in the past year about how her kids, her C-section scar, and her distaste for negativity led her to losing 60 pounds through diet and exercise.)

Fans cheered her so loudly during her confessional that I couldn’t make out the rest of what she said. It was something like “And now I have 9,000 people (unintelligible) anything in common (unintelligible) from here on out, you wanna sing? Scream if you wanna (unintelligible)!”

A few minutes later, while referring to Charlotte as “the NASCAR place,” she noted that “my husband loves cars.”

A few songs after that, Sabara emerged from the wings stage left — sporting a Chase Elliott No. 9 NAPA uniform jacket — to dance with her as she sang “Doin’ It All for You.”

I wish I’d had a decibel meter with me, because I’d swear the “9,000 people” here Sunday night got as rowdy for this Meghan as the 20,000 I was with at a show headlined by another Megan — Megan Thee Stallion — got a couple of months ago.

Even Trainor herself made comments that seemed to at least somewhat belie her own crowd-size estimates, mentioning at one point, “Charlotte, you’re the loudest crowd we’ve had!”; and at another, “I didn’t even know there was this many of youuuuuuu!”

Right before the encore, Sabara and their kids made one more cameo, via a family-portrait-studio-session video that featured a couple of scene-stealing moments for the bespectacled Riley, a regular star of her Instagram posts.

But Trainor saved the family-friendliest moment of all for the end: In an age when so many headlining sets end at least an hour later, she wrapped at 9:35 p.m., meaning less-cruel-than-expected wake-up calls on Monday morning for roughly 9,000 people.

Possibly even more.

Meghan Trainor setlist

1. “Mother”

2. “Don’t I Make It Look Easy”

3. “Lips Are Movin”

4. “No Excuses”

5. “Crushin’”

6. “Bestie”

7. “Better When I’m Dancin’”

8. “Title”

9. “Forget How to Love”

10. “Superwoman”

11. “Like I’m Gonna Lose You”

12. “Dear Future Husband”

13. “Crowded Room”

14. “Doin’ It All For You”

15. “Criminals”

16. “All About That Bass”

17. “Wave”

18. “Genetics”

19. “NO”

20. “Hate It Here”

21. “Me Too”

22. “Whoops”

23. “To the Moon”

24. “Been Like This”

Encore:

25. “Timeless”

26. “I Wanna Thank Me”

27. “Made You Look”