Conan Gray continued the Found Heaven tour in downtown San Francisco, California at the Bill Graham Auditorium on October 17th, 2024.

Starting off the evening, Maisie Peters shared many songs from her new album the good witch. She accepted a crocheted bag from a fan and wore it while performing a couple of songs in her set. Peters performed her hit “Lost the Breakup” and had the fans dancing and singing along.

Next up, Gray opened the night with “Fainted Love” an ‘80’s-inspired song off his third album, Found Heaven.  Lacey Dalimonte, Los Angeles-based fashion designer, designed Gray’s outfits for the tour. For this show, he wore a multi-colored vest with ties in the front and sparkling fringe. His pants included many brightly colored designs such as a star and the word ‘Heaven’ down the left leg. The stage included multiple levels and two light-up stars towards the back of the stage, one inside the other. The combination of smoke and the lighting created an ‘80s music video look on stage. Gray and fans alike then danced together to “Never Ending Song” using the music video dance as inspiration.

Gray’s non-stop dancing and energy as well as his unmatched vocals created an environment where the only option was to dance, especially to the upbeat songs such as “Boys and Girls” from Found Heaven. Though this was one of the smaller venues on the tour, the impact Gray had on his fans could not be more clear. Between songs, Gray would intersperse fun anecdotes that showed his true personality and spent time getting to know the audience.

Overall, there was a huge sense of community between the fans and artist. Fans traded small hand-made crafts such as guitar picks with custom designs. Most fans wore hand-made outfits themed after Gray’s albums or sporting his logo which consists of a teardrop with a star in the middle. Gray took time during his set to stop the music and read signs that were created by fans. He led a rendition of “Happy Birthday” for a fan. Within the fan base, it is a well-known fact that Gray loves sharing fun facts about koalas. A fan gave Gray a handmade koala hat that he wore as he provided fun koala facts such as “koalas can’t drink water.”

Throughout the show, Gray also performed songs from his first album Kid Krow including “People Watching”. He also sprinkled in songs from his second album Superache and had fans singing along to “Jigsaw”. Gray then slowed things down a bit to perform an acoustic version of “The Story” with a black guitar with a large yellow star on the front. When Gray asked the crowd if they liked his guitar, which looked similar to the Conan Gray logo, the crowd roared in approval. Toward the end of the song, Gray encouraged the audience to sing acapella with him for the last verse, and it was a truly beautiful end to the lovely song.

Gray released his new single “Holidays” to represent the feeling of missing your home and returning to your hometown after moving away to a big city. Gray was raised in Texas and wrote about missing it after moving to California. “This song came out about 15 minutes ago,” he said as an introduction before he played “Holidays.” This show was the first time Gray performed this song in front of a live audience after it was officially released.

Before performing a crowd-favorite “Memories”, Gray announced, “This is my final song…” of the night and with raised eyebrows continued, “…and I never lie.” Later, for the encore, Gray changed into a white, cropped tank top with his logo and ‘BOOGIEYOISEESAYS’ in red letters as an ode to fans who have trouble spelling and pronouncing ‘bourgeoisieses.’ This song from Found Heaven is a Gray-coined play-on-words for the Bourgeoisie, the correct plural for the upper elite class. Gray then performed his hit “Maniac” from his first album Kid Krow. Lastly, Gray wrapped up the show with “Alley Rose” a heart-wrenching song from Found Heaven and the entire audience sang along. Multi-colored confetti shaped like teardrops floated throughout the venue.

Overall, the show created a sense of community and mutual caring both between members of the audience and between the audience as a whole and Gray. Throughout the evening, Gray continued to remind the crowd to bend their knees to avoid locking their knees and potentially pass out later on. “Take a break if you need to, I will still be here…” Gray encouraged the audience. In addition to Gray’s concern for his fan’s health and wellbeing, Gray made the live experience unique for the audience by including many vocal riffs and changes from his recorded songs.

Photo (c) Elizabeth Porodina