On the evening of Oct. 22, the Moda Center in downtown Portland, Oregon filled with people dressed in lime green and glitter for the Charli XCX and Troye Sivan Sweat Tour. I had decided to take a whirlwind mid-week trip to Portland for the concert and to visit some friends. The journey from Victoria to Portland totalled at about eight hours and included a bus, ferry, and a drive. While making the journey mid-week was ambitious, I enjoyed the trip and the break from campus life.
Once in Portland, I met up with friends before the concert to get ready and take an Uber to the Moda Center downtown. We arrived soon after the doors opened at 6:30 pm. Entering the arena was shockingly easy with online tickets and after a quick walk through a metal detector, we found our seats in the nosebleeds. The tickets cost $55 USD, which was about half as much as similar seats in Seattle would have cost. Although our seats were far from the floor, I enjoyed the bird’s-eye view of the stage and being able to see the entire crowd. The opener Shygirl began around 7:30 pm. Shygirl is an English DJ and singer who is featured on Charli XCX’s remixed song “365” on her album “Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.” Shygirl’s set featured upbeat electronic and hyper-pop songs with both originals and covers. Shygirl’s opening set established the high-energy, club-like mood of the arena and her set ended around 8:00 pm. Then, there was a short break before Charli XCX and Troye Sivan took the stage. For a complete setlist, click here.
Troye Sivan started the show with three songs: “Got Me Started ”, “What’s The Time Where You Are?”, and “My My My!”. To me, these three songs also had the feeling of an opener. The arena was lively, and everyone was clearly anticipating Charli’s grand entrance, which shortly followed. A large green curtain with “brat” emblazoned on the front rose from the stage. It fell to reveal Charli XCX, and the arena immediately erupted into screams. Charli began with three major hits from the brat album: “365” (featuring Shygirl) followed by “360” and “Von dutch”. I was pleasantly surprised to hear these hits so early into the set, and I feel like it filled the crowd with excitement and energy that would last throughout the two-hour concert.
The show continued with alternating sets of three songs from Charli and Troye. While both are undoubtedly talented performers, I did not think the format of the show best suited their music styles. Troye’s songs tended to be more down-tempo than Charli’s and the crowd became more subdued during his sets; the frequent switch between styles felt incongruous. I found myself feeling slightly disappointed whenever Troye took the stage (which could have been because I am not very familiar with his music, but it seemed to be a common feeling among the crowd). Albeit, I was amazed by what incredible performers Charli and Troye both were. They used the entire stage with their strutting, dancing, crawling, running, jumping, and more. The backup dancers were also extremely talented and engaging, and the show even featured a memorable make-out session between Troye and one of the dancers! The tradition of choosing a crowd member to perform the “Apple Dance” (a popular TikTok trend) was continued, and Charli and Troye finished their set by performing “1999” together.
Charli XCX re-emerged onto the stage to strobe lights and loud cheers for the encore, performing “Track 10” followed by “I Love It”. The energy during “I Love It” was absolutely incredible––the entire arena was screaming as loud as possible. It was a beautiful contrast to the more sombre feeling during “Track 10”. Troye then performed “Honey” and “Rush”, and the two completed the two-hour show with a spectacular performance of “Talk talk featuring troye sivan.” Overall, the concert was well worth the trip because it was such a memorable experience. It’s an unbeatable feeling to be in an arena filled with people screaming to some of your favourite songs, and I’m very glad I got to experience it!