Benson Boone
PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh
July 7, 2026
Photos provided by tour photographer Shayden Schoonover
Headline: Having the time of our lives on Benson Boone’s mystical, magical Wanted Man Tour
By Rob McCune
Twenty-four-year-old Benson Boone appears to have a firm hold on his skyrocket to fame, which even the most cynical, if they’re being honest, must admit can’t be all that simple.
In his breakout single “Beautiful Things,” a No. 1 song on global charts, Boone confides that he’s “up at night thinkin’ (he) might just lose it all.”
With wide-open eyes and maturity beyond his years, the superstar takes criticism in stride, at least outwardly. Cheekily, his own tour merch trumpets the headline “One-hit wonder” (according to “the whole internet”), “backflips and magic included.”
It’s this vulnerability that his fans—fast friends and new—relate to and connect with. In return for the unfettered access to Boone’s “Young American Heart” that his music provides, fans are willing to give anything and everything.
In Pittsburgh, the opening show of Boone’s Wanted Man Tour, the faithful heaped gifts at his feet. A rose, a pair of sunglasses … one young fan tossed him her phone, which he joked she might legitimately fear not getting back. A Spider-Man mask, which Boone put to excellent use as he back-flipped into a hero stance.
The crowds do their best to make him “feel like a wanted man.”
And their reward is a performance like no other.
It’s not all backflips and pyrotechnics—though, we counted at least seven of the former, all of which landed impactfully, and the heat from the latter certainly complemented the energy.
Boone’s showmanship is bigger than the props and the stunts. He owns every bit of an enormous stage, as well as the airspace above it and the runway around it.
The show is packed with fun surprises, from a Star Wars-like scroll entrance to the appropriately high-flying rendition of “In the Stars.” For “Young American Heart,” the arena erupted with red-white-and-blue heart-shaped confetti.
It rarely slows down. The exceptions being intimate reflections like “Momma Song,” played to home videos and for his mom, watching from the crowd; and “Love You Again,” a new unreleased song in a piano solo from Boone.
On this opening stop of the tour, the Pittsburgh crowd also was fortunate to be the first, of anyone in the world, to hear “The Time of My Life” live.
Experiencing this performance with my wife and 19-year-old daughter (a Benson Boone fan from early on in his Tik Tok surge) was no doubt a “time of our lives” moment.
Follow Rob McCune on Instagram (@Every_Thing_After_Photo) and listen to the “Every.Thing.After Podcast” on Spotify.
