Concert Reviews
The pop star shed his shy persona for a bold, four-act spectacle in Boston, mixing in surprise songs and fan-fueled moments.
Conan Gray performs ‘Vodka Cranberry’ during last year’s MTV Video Music Awards. Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Conan Gray is often known for his shy boy persona, writing lyrics about loneliness and watching life from the sidelines. But at TD Garden on Wednesday night, he embraced the spotlight with a fully-realized confidence.
The 27-year-old pop singer-songwriter has come a long way from his days as a teenage YouTuber. The Boston show was the fourth on the first leg of Wishbone World Tour, Gray’s headlining concert tour promoting his fourth studio album, “Wishbone” (2025).
“It’s such a pleasure to be in Boston!” Gray expressed early in the show. “Y’all have shown me your love in this city for many many years. So, thank you, let’s have a great night!”
Fans filled the Garden donned in pajamas, a nod to Gray’s immediately preceding North American tour, The Wishbone Pajama Show, or wearing sailor costumes to mirror his album cover. In his announcement on social media, Gray said “every song [on “Wishbone” was] written by me in my bed in my pajamas.”
Wishbone has a visual storytelling component that was brought to life on stage. The concert was split into four acts, using a wishbone as a metaphor to explore themes of heartbreak, yearning, and growth.
As fans were singing along in the crowd to Gray’s best friend Olivia Rodrigo’s hit single “bad idea right?”(2023), they were interrupted by the venue lights turning off, signaling that the show was about to begin. Act I’s title, “a wishbone never breaks even,” appeared on the screen, which soon displayed a landscape of rolling hills and blue skies behind the band, who were all dressed as sailors. Gray himself was dressed like a sailor too, which he revealed by riding a bicycle on the stage.
Gray’s performance of “My World” was dripping with Americana nostalgia. Skipping around the stage gleefully like a little kid enjoying a summer day, Gray sang the lyrics “it’s my world and it’s my life.” He then launched into “Never Ending Song,” from his third album “Found Heaven” (2024), a track with a very strong ’80s new wave influence. After introducing himself with a wide grin across his face, Gray treated the audience to a moving performance of “Care” and an upbeat live version of the popular single “Wish You Were Sober” from his debut album “Kid Krow” (2020).
The mood shifted as Gray moved into the second act, titled “i got the short end of the stick.” Gray undressed into a pair of sparkly periwinkle blue pajamas and flopped into a bed, referencing the environment in which he wrote the album. This part was centered on Gray’s more raw, emotional tracks with heavy themes of rejection and isolation: “Class Clown,” “People Watching,” “The Cut That Always Bleeds,” “Eleven Eleven,” and “Nauseous.”
His performance of “People Watching” (2022) was especially memorable, as Gray pulled out a rainbow flag and danced around the stage with it. Gray has been the subject of rumors regarding his sexuality for much of his career, so it is refreshing to see him embrace his identity as a queer man publicly and on his own terms.
Before Gray appeared on stage, a fan had handed out blue pieces of paper with a heart on them that said, “Hold up to your flashlight during ‘Eleven Eleven’ to make the arena glow!” The blue lights dazzled the Garden and added an angelic quality to Gray’s wistful ballad performance.
The halfway point of the show was very special. Sitting in front of an artificial fire pit with an acoustic guitar, Gray introduced a segment called “Conan’s Campfire.” Taking a page from his idol, Taylor Swift, Gray offers every stop on his tour a “surprise song” that’s unique to each location. Here in Boston, Gray expressed that his favorite movie of all time is “Good Will Hunting” (1997), which revealed that not only does he have impeccable taste in films, but that the song he would play next was “Movies,” the first track from his 2022 album “Superache.”
Act III was titled “I took the long way to realization” and began with an interlude describing the complications of a romantic tryst, which gave Gray time to change into his third outfit of the night, a billowy purple chemise under a white pants. This was the perfect dramatic, Shakespearean outfit for his performance of “Romeo.” Gray then let his audience in on a performance of his unreleased song “The Best” and displayed the lyrics on the screen behind him so that everyone could follow along.
Next, Gray chose someone in the audience to break a wishbone with him and gave the choice of two songs, with whoever got the larger piece of the wishbone choosing which song he plays. Though the audience member got the smaller piece, Gray quickly gave them the larger one and said “Wow, you won!” The audience’s choice was “Sunset Tower,” which got the whole crowd singing and dancing their hearts out.
This act was also when Gray performed “Heather,” his most well-known song thanks to its popularity on TikTok. The emotional vulnerability of the hit was intensified by the ocean waves set piece and a brilliant black and white mosaic of Gray performing in real time on the screen. This was the “lost verse” version of the song, released with the five-year anniversary album “Kid Krow, Decomposed” (2025).
The final act, titled “i wished for love, and i found it,” brought closure to both the story and the show. Gray performed another major hit of his that garnered TikTok fame, “Maniac,” with a riveting enthusiasm that got everyone screaming. He ended the show with “Vodka Cranberry,” the lead single from “Wishbone,” a catchy anthem about asserting agency and ending an emotionally tumultuous relationship.
And of course, the show would not be complete without the encore. Gray returned to the stage in a glittery marching band uniform with a wishbone emblazoned on the back to perform “Memories” and “Caramel,” to leave the audience with a “sweet taste in their mouth.”
Australian singer-songwriter Esha Tewari opened for Gray. While Tewari and her remarkable band displayed clear talent, her soft-spoken indie songs and lilting voice did not match the upbeat, poppy vibe that Gray’s music brought to the show. The audience seemed bored despite Tewari’s popularity, and she may be better suited to support an artist more centered in the indie genre.
Setlist for Conan Gray at TD Garden, Feb. 25, 2026
- “My World”
- “Never Ending Song”
- “Care”
- “Wish You Were Sober”
- “Class Clown”
- “People Watching”
- “The Cut That Always Bleeds”
- “Eleven Eleven”
- “Nauseous”
- “Movies”
- “Romeo”
- “The Best” (unreleased)
- “Sunset Tower” (chosen by fan River; not chosen: Astronomy)
- “Heather” (“Lost Verse” version; extended intro)
- “Family Line”
- “Connell”
- “Actor”
- “Maniac”
- “Vodka Cranberry”
Encore:
- “Memories”
- “Caramel”
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