The Wishbone Pajama Show; a wishbone never breaks even. The brightly lit words appear on the stage’s projector behind the band. The band begins to play dreamy background music as artist Conan Gray appears from the side of the stage riding a bike, initiating the Tinley Park, Illinois, concert.
Gray began his music career on YouTube, self-producing his song “Idle Town” in 2017. Later, he signed his first EP, “Sunset Season,” with Republic Records in 2018. He went on to release three more albums, “Kid Krow,” “Superache,” and “Found Heaven,” before releasing “Wishbone.”
Gray released “Wishbone” on August 15, and the Tinley Park show marks the third concert for the tour. He played songs from this album, as well as songs from his older albums.
The trend of surprise songs has made its way to Gray, but he added a unique twist to this. He takes a wishbone, breaks it with a fan, and the fan is able to pick between two songs for him to play. Most seem to like the idea of him incorporating it into his tour; however, others find it upsetting that his older songs are not getting chosen.
His song “Sunset Tower” on the new album did not make the setlist for Tinley Park, but it was one of the options for the surprise song. The lucky fan chose it, and there it was played live for the first time.
Some fans are confused about why Gray did not interact with his fans as much as he did on his other tours. Many speculate that it was because of the numerous set changes, but it is a big change for Gray. With this, it seemed like the concert was more of a theatrical show as it was planned out with scenes and costume changes.
Despite this, one of the qualities of Gray is his authentic singing. He tends to change the notes in his songs during live performances, but it is raw, real, and his live and studio singing sound very similar.
There are questions about whether or not Gray is considered a famous artist. Multiple of his songs have gone viral on social media, some including “Heather” and “The Cut That Always Bleeds.” Currently, “Wishbone” is his highest charting album on the Billboard 200, so he will likely reach larger audiences and keep growing his music career.
