Conan Gray’s Wishbone Tour kicked off its last leg in Auckland over the previous weekend, and while it was a rocky show back, he brought all the noise to Spark Arena. Earlier in the day, Conan posted a story on his Instagram with an apology to the fans who would be attending. Turns out, some of the props and outfits meant for the tour hadn’t quite made it over to little old New Zealand in time. Personally, that confused the hell out of me, since there had been four months since the last show and surely things could get moved around in that time. But that’s the way that it turned out, and Conan promised to make the show as special as possible to try and make up for the set pieces missing from the show. As someone who had previously taken a break from being a die hard Conan fan, I wasn’t too fussed, since I hadn’t been following along with the tour at all, so I wouldn’t know what it was supposed to look like in the first place. The main reason I went along was for my little sister, who is my ride-or-die concert buddy, and I’d go to anything and everything with.
We had to give it to him; the merch was super, super cute. Cost an arm and a leg as all concert merch does, but for once, it was decently worth the price they were charging (not that I bought any, I’m broke). And even though I was under the impression that Conan was super popular over here, the arena was nowhere near sold out, even after they’d shrunk the size of the seated sections. Somehow, that still wasn’t the end of sparse sections, as a security guard came up into the stands with floor tickets, which cleared everyone out real quick. As dedicated seated section girlies, my sister and I waited for the all clear, and then jumped ship to the very bottom of our section, much closer to the stage.
Esha Tewari – the opener – was apparently well known by the crowd, and an absolutely incredible performer. Highly recommend. And when Conan finally took to the stage, mind you, by riding out on a bike for two seconds before jumping off, the atmosphere completely switched up. There might not have been a full house in that arena, but we all screamed, sang, jumped, and danced like there was. Everyone stuck up their flashlights wearing the same blue and white hat from looksharp, and for those few hours, that was all there was. Conan sure knows how to put on a performance, and this, even with some missing props and costumes, was no exception. Sure as anything, I bawled my eyes out during Family Line, probably like a lot of other people there. I might not have known every word to every song, but the concert was everything to me, as I’d once been the young teenage girl listening to Heather while I got over my first little heartbreak.
To make up for the decreased production of the show, we got a lot of extra songs, both in the campfire section and the wishbone breaking section. And, according to Conan, New Zealand is his favourite place in the whole world and he’s certain to come back at some point. Now, I know that a lot of artists say that, but maybe he might actually mean it this time. He might not be like all the other girls (I guess we’ll find out).
