I’m a quiet, introverted person, but as soon as I saw the crowd jump up and Conan Gray bike on stage, I didn’t stop screaming his life-altering lyrics until the show unfortunately ended.
I am lucky to have been to as many concerts as I have, including: Taylor Swift’s Reputation and Eras Tours, Avery Anna’s Narcissist, Breakup over Breakfast, and Let Go Letters tours, Conan Gray’s Found Heaven Tour, and numerous small concerts in downtown Grand Rapids. None of them compare to Conan Gray’s Wishbone Pajama Tour that I was lucky enough to experience.
I bought three tickets in June before the album was released, so this was a risky purchase. I had seen Gray in concert months before and enjoyed it, so I had a feeling I would enjoy this concert as well, but I did not expect to cry and lose my voice.
When Ella Peirce, Audrey VanSkiver, and I arrived, we had to find parking, stand in an hour-long merchandise line, and we were late to the opener, so it was not a strong start. But my optimism wasn’t gone. The opener was Hemlocke Springs. She was a solid performer, but I didn’t watch her intently because I didn’t know her music.
Surprisingly, one of my favorite parts of concerts is the time between the opener and headliner when they play music, usually the same genre as the headliner. Spectators sing and dance to a wide range of popular artists. At this concert, everyone was loving Olivia Rodrigo–Gray’s best friend. This part always creates a stronger sense of community among all the fans, lasting until the end of the concert.
Another part of this specific concert I love was that, since this was only the fifth show of the tour, I didn’t know much about it. I was excited to be surprised.
As fans were singing their hearts out to Rodrigo’s hit “Bad Idea Right?” I realized they were getting increasingly louder. When the song built up to her iconic lyric “stop,” all the lights in the venue turned off. We jumped up and screamed. All of a sudden, Gray’s band started playing, and the lights on the stage gradually brightened. I’ll never forget the ringing in my ears as everyone screamed when Gray biked on stage. “This is it,” I thought to myself. “This is the concert and community I’ve been waiting for.”
The concert was split up into four acts: Act I: A wishbone never breaks even, Act II: I got the short end of the stick, Act III: I took the long way to realization, Act IV: I wished for love, and I found it, and two encores. I loved this aspect of the show because it felt more intimate, organized, and professional. The first act featured upbeat, “lighter” songs to get the crowd excited. Act II completely shifted into the heart-wrenching songs I call my favorites. These include: “Class Clown,” “People Watching,” “The Cut That Always Bleeds,” “Eleven Eleven,” and “Nauseous.” Act III contained the songs about healing after a relationship. Act IV was all about closure. This was a perfect lead-up to the two encore songs “Memories” and “Caramel.”
My number one shout-out song of the night was “Connell” because it was immensely better live. This song started in the middle of my ranking, but it quickly rose to the top five. Hearing the instrumental buildup and the piercing vocals live healed a myriad of inexplicable emotions that had been lingering subconsciously around me.
One thing that made this concert different from others was the incorporation of specific themes. The most recurring theme was a comfy bedroom vibe. I wanted this to be perfectly demonstrated because I connected with an interview Gray did, where he explained how personal and vulnerable it was to write this album alone in his bedroom. Since I consider my bedroom my safe place, I found the concert’s vibe comforting and secure. I could scream his lyrics without overthinking about the fans around me.
I have one complaint: I wish the concert were longer. He passionately performed for almost two hours, but I didn’t want it to be over. I did think it was strange that he left two songs from the Wishbone album out of the setlist, “Sunset Tower” and “Care.” While I listened to the album leading up to the concert, “Care” was one of my favorites, so I was disappointed not to hear it live. While he was playing those songs as surprise songs for other shows, I wish he had played both.
The Conan Gray Wishbone Pajama Tour was one of the most riveting and personal experiences of my life. I was so engrossed in my favorite songs that I only took my phone out twice to record, which is significantly fewer times than at other concerts I’ve attended. I slept from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. that night, but I wasn’t tired at all the next day because of the pure joy that persisted. The concert I was anticipating for four months has finally concluded. I couldn’t be more grateful for this opportunity to scream songs that could have been copied from my diary with a crowd that could relate to me. I’m still in disbelief that I get to go back in February, and I’m anxiously counting down the days until I can experience all of these emotions again.
