Brisbane – 13 July 2024 – Fortitude Music Hall – review by Charlotte Poynton
Melbourne – 11 July 2024 – JCA – pictures by Briarna Dal Col
Review – Brisbane – Fortitude Music Hall
Conan Gray has begun his highly awaited Found Heaven On Tour shows in Australia this week, marking his second time touring the country after 2022’s Superache tour. I was lucky enough to attend the second show of the tour, which coincidentally was his second show in both Brisbane and in The Fortitude Music Hall, and my second Conan Gray concert. Legions of teenaged and young adult fans rushed to buy tickets the second they went on sale, with this show and a subsequently added second show selling out with ease.
With three different ticket packages on offer to fans (Q&A, VIP or general admission), the usually hectic line outside the venue became even more chaotic, but fans did not let this disturb their perfect day. From bracelet trading (of which I found myself receiving niche fandom inside jokes, marauders references and his secret TikTok username on bracelets), the coordination of fan projects and gifts, and multiple sing-along instances of Chappell Roan’s ‘HOT TO GO!’ complete with dance moves, this was the most wholesome day I have spent in Fortitude Valley.
Upon entering the Fortitude Music Hall, the excitement ramped up another level as the crowd chorused along to the house music, with songs such as ‘Girl, so confusing’ and ‘Brutal’ resonating perfectly with the target audience of the evening. A fan had created a flag of Conan Gray’s face stylised on a Sacred Heart of Jesus image, which received much applause from the crowd when held up high.
Naarm based artist Kat Edwards holds the coveted role of opening for Found Heaven On Tour, reaching a new base of young fans bubbling with pure adoration for her performance. Her ethereal indie-pop sound kept the energy high and only heightened the excitement for the main act of the evening. Slipping a cheeky Chappell Roan cover into her set resulted in the crowd ecstatically singing every word of ‘Casual’. Kat Edwards introduced her latest single, ‘Waiting Room’, by sharing a story of how she was about to leave the music industry before being offered the slot as an opener on Found Heaven On Tour, and how this tour is fuelling her passion for performing again. My personal highlight of her performance was her anthem discouraging dating men ten years your senior, ‘Childish’.
The young age bracket of concert attendees was something strongly evident during lineup for this concert, but the fact that this concert was the first for many patrons was coming to light during Kat Edwards set. From phone flashlights being waved during the upbeat songs to hand claps occurring through more sombre songs, and pompoms and hats blocking the view of fellow crowd members, it was becoming abundantly clear that there’s a generation of new music lovers who desperately need to learn concert etiquette.
The opening echo of the ‘Found Heaven’ intro paired with flashing strobe lights at the back of the stage as deafening screams filled the venue. A lover of grand entrances, Conan Gray appeared in custom silver outfit, complete with the album motif of a tear drop and a star. The audience’s chorusing sing along almost overpowers Gray as he begins ‘Fainted Love’, making his way down the stage to wave at the audience – some of whom had been waiting over 15 hours for this very moment.
An unmissable drum beat welcomes us into the lead single of the “Found Heaven” album as crowds scream the lyrics to ‘Never Ending Song’, complete with Gray interpolating choreography from the music video, which recently won the title of “Best Music Video” at the 2024 Tribeca Festival Awards. We then get to one of my most anticipated performances of the night with 2020’s ‘Wish You Were Sober’, where I took every opportunity to relish in singing lyrics about being nineteen.
The overwhelming excitement bubbling through the crowd did not appear to dull at any moment of the set, with fans screaming the lyrics as if every song performed was their personal favourite of all time. Pure 80’s pop bliss filled the music hall with ‘Eye Of The Night’ and ‘Killing Me’, before we got a “Superache” fan favourite with ‘The Exit’.
It was at this point in the set that Conan Gray took some time to interact with the audience, draping an Australian flag, covered in messages from his fans, around his shoulders. Whilst reacting to signs addressing his funny tweets from years past and his yearn to have an avatar in the Fortnite game, Gray asks the audience to sing happy birthday “in your most Australian accents” to a fan named Sky, before mocking our accents for the first of many times that evening.
When the crowd begged for Conan to partake in the quintessentially Aussie act of a shoey, he turned around and said “I’m sorry, I currently can’t speak English” before proclaiming that he was “done with all this People Watching” as he began his 2021 hit of the same name. Jumping down into the pit, Conan sang directly to the audience, leaving several crowd members in completely shocked dazes of “oh my god”.
This section of the concert plays host to many songs from the previous albums of “Superache” and “Kid Krow”, featuring fan favourites including ‘The Cut That Always Bleeds’, ‘Jigsaw’, and ‘Family Line’, a back-to-back-to-back trifecta that did not leave a single dry eye in the room.
Grabbing an acoustic guitar adorned with a big yellow star, Gray announced that it was time for an acoustic song. “I like to talk about this because it reminds me how dumb I am” he begins, prefacing a beautiful speech on love and vulnerability. “Holy shit, I’m so fucking scared to die because for the first time ever, I realised that my life is so good that I didn’t want to lose it, you know?” he confesses, before playing an acoustic version of ‘The Story’, the vulnerability of the lyrics merely amplified by the raw nature of the performance. The closing chorus was sung exclusively acapella by Gray and the audience, creating a purely magical moment that will certainly be remembered as my favourite performance of the night. In a charmingly shy manner after every sad song, Conan Gray thanks the audience, this time remarking “Y’all’s Australian accents were so big in that”.
After taking a moment to sing of the fear surrounding growing apart from friends with the overly emotional and powerful ‘Astronomy’, we then re-entered our “Found Heaven” era with a performance of the title track. Bold and bright bisexual lighting illuminated the stage for ‘Boys & Girls’, a song many fans (including myself) had dyed their hair “ch-cherry red” for in excitement of this performance. Fading effortlessly into a performance of ‘Lonely Dancers’, these two back-to-back songs saw Gray bouncing about onstage and having the time of his life dancing to.
Dampening the adrenaline filled mood was the heavily emotional ‘Winner’, which saw tears and wavering singing voices, before we reach one of Conan Gray’s biggest and most popular hits with ‘Heather’. Prefacing his performance by saying “Heather, if you’re out there, I’m sorry. But I’m also kinda not!”, before going on to include the originally written and never released lyrics including the line “I wish I could kiss her to know why you love her”, which left the crowd speechless.
Announcing that this would be the “last song of the evening” with an exaggerated tone, Conan Gray played 2021’s ‘Memories’, with one of the strongest cathartic bridge sing (well, more like scream) along moments of the evening. Shouting a quick “Bye!” as he bolted off the stage, the crowd remained hyped for the pending encore, as we all had a feeling which of his hits we would be hearing shortly.
Appearing shortly after in a tank top that read “Borjwazeezes” and a cape, Gray performed his light-hearted hit about wanting to be part of the ‘Bourgeoisieses’. Fading after into the 2019 radio hit ‘Maniac’, this encore saw the crowd cathartically screaming along to new favourites and songs that played integral roles in who they are today. Closing the night off with the real final song, fan favourite and latest single ‘Alley Rose’, fans feigned disappointment at songs including ‘Miss You’, ‘Forever With Me’ and ‘The Final Fight’ being omitted from the setlist.
Despite missing some key favourite songs from the setlist, the night came to a perfect close with Conan Gray tossing his own necklace into the crowd as confetti cannons flooded the Fortitude Music Hall in a sea of yellow, red, and blue teardrops. The colours yellow, red, and blue of the confetti each represent one of Conan Gray’s three albums (Found Heaven, Superache and Kid Krow respectively), as well as representing the album cover colours of this Found Heaven album and tour. Gathering confetti mementos as the house lights come in a last effort to gather as many material memories of the night as possible, fans revelled in the magic of this concert and of getting to see one of their favourite artists live.
Gallery – Melbourne – John Cain Arena
