Cheers broke out in Viejas Arena when Troye Sivan finally took the stage to the tune of the familiar yet iconic melodic motif of his hit single “Got Me Started.”As its title suggests, this song kicked off Troye Sivan and Charli XCX’s San Diego stop for their co-headliner tour: SWEAT. For nearly two hours, this duo artfully led a night of dancing, jumping, and singing, successfully scaling up the energetic and grungy ambiance of the club to a sold-out arena show.
Aside from a few on-stage interactions and collaborative songs, Troye and Charli alternated throughout the night, performing around two to three songs before passing the microphone to the other. This continuous switching created a back-and-forth musical dialogue-type concert experience, maintaining consistent energy and momentum throughout the show.
In addition to “Got Me Started”, Troye performed other hits from his most recent album Something to Give Each Other, including the lustful long-distance tune “What’s The Time Where You Are” and the euphoric dance-pop single “Honey”. Amidst this upbeat and electronic sound, Troye also performed songs from his 2018 album Bloom, such as “My My My!” and “Dance To This.” Despite the high production of the rest of the show, these songs felt oddly intimate. Hearing some of his earlier releases in a packed arena reminded me of how far Troye has come and just how much he has progressed as a musical artist. For those who have been fans since his YouTube days, those songs were for you!
Yet, my standouts from him still had to be lead singles “One Of Your Girls” and “Rush.” “One Of Your Girls” found Troye recreating scenes from its music video on stage, although without Ross Lynch this time around, while “Rush” was the triumphant encore of his solo set. Accompanied by his group of dancers, who Charli XCX previously referred to as “Troye’s sexy backup dancers,” Troye and company lit up the stage performing and dancing to the song’s iconic choreography.
On Charli’s end, Brat needs no introduction. It was arguably the biggest pop release of the year, and its cultural impact was unmatched. To a sea of lime-green clothes imprinted with blurry Arial Narrow lettering, Charli XCX performed Brat hits such as the bold and boisterous “Club classics,” the orchestral yet heavy-hitting “Everything is romantic,” and also worked out it out on the remix live with “Girl, so confusing featuring lorde.” Shygirl, who is the opening act of the tour, was also brought out to perform her and Charli’s newly released remix of “365” together. But it wasn’t all Brat that night, as she included older hits like the celestial-sounding “Track 10” from her 2017 mixtape Pop 2 and the punchy SOPHIE-produced “Vroom Vroom.”
It is difficult to single out a few standouts in a setlist of hits, but Charli’s performances of “Sympathy is a knife” and “Spring breakers” were my personal favorites of hers from the night. The addictive melody in the chorus of “Sympathy is a knife” transformed the arena into a choir. Lyrically, hearing Charli vent about her insecurities and jealousy was a moment of connection for not only me but likely many others in the crowd. Produced by A.G. Cook and sprinkled with Britney Spears samples, “Spring breakers” is quintessentially Brat. This confident tune captures the essence of being unapologetically outspoken and expressive, and Charli even dedicated this performance to all the “crazy girls” in the audience.
To close their show, Charli and Troye joined forces for a performance of their most recent collaboration, “Talk talk.” As they strutted along the stage, I found myself in a moment of introspection amidst the chaotic club-like concert ambience. Having supported both of their journeys for a few years now, seeing the grand production and national success of SWEAT was inspiring. Leaving Viejas Arena that night, I felt content knowing that the electronic and dance music scene would be in good hands with Charli and Troye at the helm.