{"id":6201,"date":"2019-11-16T17:43:18","date_gmt":"2019-11-16T22:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=6201"},"modified":"2019-12-17T20:06:16","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T01:06:16","slug":"review-conan-gray-umi-house-of-blues-11-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2019\/11\/16\/review-conan-gray-umi-house-of-blues-11-13\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Conan Gray, Umi @ House of Blues 11\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Harper Wayne<\/em><\/p>\n

Conan Gray is a Youtuber-turned-singer who on his tour, The Comfort Crowd<\/em>, came to the House of Blues on Wednesday, November 13, 2019.<\/p>\n

Before I get into the headliner, I wanted to highlight Gray\u2019s opener Umi. I often do not like openers and wish for them to be over so I can get to the main act, but Umi changed that for me. Her songs \u201cBreathe,\u201d \u201cRemember Me,\u201d and \u201cRunnin\u2019 feat. Yeek\u201d were a few of my favorites. Her set was short but she was interactive with the audience and brought on what I assumed to be palo santo<\/em> and took \u201cdeep breaths\u201d with the crowd. She reminds me of a lot of Kehlani in While We Wait with the calming voice of Zo\u00eb Kravitz.<\/p>\n

Gray entered very energetic, with a lot of high kicks cheerleaders often do at football or basketball games. I liked the way he performed without choreography, bouncing around the stage or not, feeling as though he had to move a lot during slower songs. One thing to note: Gray\u2019s band, a bassist, a pianist, and a drummer, were all female.<\/p>\n

During the concert, Gray\u2019s string broke on his guitar as he was tuning it, which stalled the concert. His set still remained in the one hour bracket and although Conan played calmly, his complaining about the mishap did get on my nerves as it stalled the concert on more.<\/p>\n

Following that, he played \u201cComfort Crowd,\u201d the inspiration for the title of the tour. He would often give backgrounds for many of the songs, \u201cComfort Crowd\u201d being about the people that make you feel comfortable and are irreplaceable. Hearing the small aspects of the meaning for Conan of his songs added a nice personal touch to the experience of hearing him sing. I enjoyed the order of the setlist: Conan would go from an upbeat song of his and then play a few more mellow ones before returning to the upbeat songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreek God\u201d was introduced by Conan reading a fan\u2019s letter about being proud of him and he said, \u201cYou are nice, but this song is about mean people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The audience was given a treat, and I mean that literally because this song was my favorite of the whole night, from Conan\u2019s upcoming album when he sat down and played \u201cThe Story.\u201d Conan described the song as being, \u201cabout kinda my whole entire life,\u201d and many of the concert-goers were in tears by the end. He played the song alone as his band stepped off the stage. \u00a0This interlude from released content made me very excited for the newest album\u2019s content as this song dove very deep into what I assume was Conan\u2019s childhood. The new song sounded more mature, as though you could hear his personal growth through it.<\/p>\n

Before \u201cIdle Town\u201d Conan discussed his old hometown and often how he wanted to get out of it, but once he did, he would want to go back. Following \u201cThe Story,\u201d Conan\u2019s narrative felt more put together for me since I am not aware of the majority of his Youtube content or backstory.<\/p>\n

Ending the concert, Conan mashed up the Jonas Brothers song \u201cBurnin\u2019 Up\u201d with two of his other faster songs. I was a big fan of his cover work, he sung a little like a younger Nick Jonas with the ability to sing at higher tones.<\/p>\n