Bodies upon Bodies upon Bodies! Troye Sivan blasts pop perfection in a sweaty sold-out show at Berlin’s Velodrom filled with dance, love and sex.
Having seen some of the videos of previous Troye Sivan concerts circulating online before tonight’s show, I guessed that I was in for an energetic, hip-thrusting treat. But just how much of a rave-esque party the concert was going to be, well, that only became clear to me during DJ Jodie Harsh’s opening set, which featured track after track of driven techno and house beats. The interior of the Velodrom seemed to be bursting at the seams. A crowd of all ages, all genders, all sexualities and all colors was ready to party. It was hot before the show even started.
But it was about to get even hotter. Using the microphone as a prop for a blow-job allusion already in the first song, and soon after that bringing out a silk-sheeted bed to loll around on, Troye Sivan throws himself into the show, wasting no time to show us that he indeed has every intention of giving us the party he knows we want. One outfit change after the other, one hit after another, from “Got Me Started” off of Sivan’s latest album “Something To Give Each Other” (2023) to “1999”, a collaboration with Charli XCX to “Dance To This”, featuring co-singer Ariana Grande as an animated character on the stage screen. “One Of Your Girls” had the crowd ecstatic watching Troye in drag on the screen and then on stage reenacting the music video of that same song.
Sivan, no doubt, is the star of the evening, but he leads his choreographed show as part of a group of exceptional performers, who are so much more than your standard background dancers. Each brings their own individual style and energy to the stage, supplying the bodies essential to create the sweaty techno-club vibe, while also functioning as Troye’s love interests and occasional make-out partners.
The entire show is brimming with care-free and playful sexuality. Sivan is also charmingly upfront with us during the slower tracks, stating that he’ll get “sad songs about the ex-boyfriend” out of the way, so that we can “get back to partying”.
The city of Berlin had a special impact on Sivan both musically as well as personally, he explains. As most fans know, he filmed the music video for “Rush”, a song he says “literally changed my life” in Berlin’s nightclubs. As a way of honoring this impact, the Australian singer ends the show by playing that same track not only once, but twice. “I’m still here” he says cheekily after the first run-through, which would have been enough of a romp to end the show, as any fan could hope for. Those people who were already on their way out turn around curiously and hurry back to their seats as Troye reveals he’s not only playing the song again but he’s got yet another surprise for us: the entire cast of the “Rush“ music video joins him on stage for one giant last celebration. “This is your song, motherf*ckers!” he yells out into the exploding crowd.
“Where else in the world do you go to party but Berlin?” Troye ponders ahead of playing “Rush”. If his evening has proven anything, it’s that this question is obviously a rhetorical one.
You can find the German version of this review here.