Spotify

Conan Gray’s Found Heaven album cover

Although I’ve only attended two concerts, Conan Gray’s Found Heaven On Tour was the most incredible experience of my life. On Saturday, Sept. 21, my friends, sister, and I drove almost three hours to the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre. We had lawn seats, so we wanted to get there pretty early, and we waited an hour in line just to get in. Once we got in, we were almost front and center of the lawn. We waited for another hour and a half, and then the concert started.

It started with the opener, Maisie Peters. I didn’t know many of her songs, but she was an amazing performer and singer. Although I wasn’t able to sing along, her songs were amazing to dance to, and it was fun watching some of the others sing along.

After Peters, we waited for about half an hour for Conan Gray to come out. We all sang along to the music playing from the speakers, and then it started slowly shifting into the first song of the concert, “Fainted Love.” Everyone in the crowd was eagerly staring at the stage as the curtain in front of him dropped to the floor. I almost immediately lost my voice as I sang with him.

After “Fainted Love,” he sang the songs “Never Ending Song,” “Wish You Were Sober,” “Eye of the Night,” “Killing Me,” and “The Exit.” In the first six songs, he sang at least one song from each album. “Fainted Love,” “Never Ending Song,” “Eye of the Night,” and “Killing Me” are from his newest album, Found Heaven, “The Exit” is from his second album, Superache, and “Wish You Were Sober” is from his first album, Kid Krow. Throughout the entire concert, he did a mix of songs from all three of his different albums.

The songs I was most looking forward to were “Astronomy,” “People Watching,” “Memories,” “Jigsaw” from Superache, and “The Story” from Kid Krow. When we got to those songs, it was safe to say that I was not disappointed. He made sure to match the mood of each song and made me and most of the people I went with cry at least once.

My favorite part of the concert was how he engaged with the crowd. As much as I love Taylor Swift and as much as I want to go to her concerts, she doesn’t engage with the crowd much. Gray talked to us many times throughout the concert and even had small conversations with the people in the crowd. He even signed a jacket and wore someone’s hat. His engagement with the crowd was one of the things that made me enjoy the concert most.

In the end, he left the stage for what most people thought was for good. They started leaving, but I told my friends to wait because he would come out for the encore. A few minutes later, he came out in a new shirt and sang “Alley Rose” and “Bourgeoisieses.” Both are from Found Heaven. Every concert, he comes out in a different shirt and bases them off of “Bourgeoisieses.”  It was exciting waiting to see which shirt he would come out in.

Found Heaven On Tour was one of the best experiences of my life. Throughout the concert, I spent time screaming, crying, and laughing, and it truly was worth the time and money that was put into it.