Conan Gray Comes to the UPMC Events Center

Photo Credit: Julia Wasielewski

Ellie Schroeder, Assistant News Editor

Conan Gray brought his Superache tour to the UPMC Events Center on Sept. 22. This was the third stop on his North American Tour.

The show kicked off with singer Kacy Hill who is from Phoenix, Ariz. The singer was previously a model and launched her music career with her first single in 2015. Kacy performed most of her set alone on stage along with backtracks.

She had a very laid-back and breathy sound to her music and the crowd seemed to love her; many singing along during the performance. Kacy performed for about half an hour before skipping off the stage for Conan.

The turnaround for Conan’s set was very quick, and while the stage crew was setting up, the energy in the room was steadily building. The crowd sang along to the songs playing over the loudspeakers. Some of the most popular songs included “Still Into You” by Paramore and “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry.

Conan Gray, who was raised in Georgetown, Texas, released his first single in 2018 and has quickly gained popularity since then. He gained much of his popularity in 2020 with his album, “Wish You Were Sober.” His song “Heather” blew up on TikTok and has stayed his most popular song with more than 980 million streams on Spotify.

His set kicked off with a rose being projected onto a curtain on stage. The curtain suddenly moved aside with a rush of music and light and Conan appeared behind it and immediately launched into his first song, “Disaster.”

The crowd was ecstatic and sang along to every one of his songs. Conan held the crowd’s attention during his entire set and was incredibly interactive with his fans. He waved to many of them and even led the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” to one of his fans.

His final three songs were some of his most popular; “Family Line,” “Heather,” and “Maniac.” The songs left fans in tears and he delivered a very heartfelt speech before “Family Line.”

After his final song Conan joked with fans that he was “definitely done” and not just playing a “little joke-y joke.” After leaving the stage for a few minutes, he appeared again to cheers from his fans to perform one final song: “Memories.”

The UPMC Events Center will host its next concert featuring Earth, Wind, & Fire on Oct. 8.