Charlie XCX and Troy Sivan perform at Columbus’ Nationwide Arena during their “Sweat” tour Friday. Credit: Nick DeSantis | Assist. Arts & Life Editor
There are many concerts capable of emotionally moving people, but not many can turn an arena into a full-blown club rave.
The voice behind June 2024 electronic-pop album “Brat,” Charli XCX, and Australian singer-songwriter Troye Sivan brought their co-headlining “Sweat” tour to Columbus’ Nationwide Arena Friday night.
The tour promised fans a dual celebration of each artist’s recent successful studio release — Sivan’s 2023 album “Something to Give Each Other” and Charli XCX’s record “Brat.” Needless to say, the pair more than delivered.
The party began before the pair even arrived on stage. Starting at 7:30 p.m., show opener, electronic singer-rapper Shygirl, entertained the crowd with a setlist that combined fast pop melodies with U.K. grime and electronic dance music.
Despite her simple stage setup — consisting of her, a single DJ and a few background dancers — Shygirl got the crowd ready for the main acts, hyping the audience up with hard-hitting bass and psychedelic visuals.
At 8:30 p.m. — nearly a half hour after Shygirl departed the stage — the lights in the arena began flashing, and two massive hanging signs lit up in bright color to reveal the word “Sweat.”.
A slowed version of “Club classics” — the second track on “Brat”— rang out throughout the arena’s speakers. “When I go to the club I want to hear those club classics” was followed by the screams and applause of the crowd as Sivan and Charli XCX’s names each appeared on the hanging LED signs.
Sivan kicked off the show by performing “Got Me Started” — a single from his 2023 album — bringing with it one of the show’s highlights — the choreography. The background dancers performed extremely intricate choreography as Sivan sang smooth, poppy vocals.
After a few songs, Sivan exited the stage as a massive lime-green curtain fell from a lighting fixture with one word displayed across the front — “brat.” Following a minute of intense strobe lighting, the curtain dropped and Charli XCX emerged wearing a wedding veil as she addressed the crowd, asking “Columbus, will you marry me?”
Charli XCX immediately went into a remix of her “Brat” closer, titled “365,” with some help from tour-opener Shygirl. The pair danced and rapped throughout the remix while club-esque lighting beamed upon the crowd.
Charli XCX went on to perform a couple more songs from her recent album — including singles “360” and “Von dutch” — before Sivan returned to the stage.
Before the show began, one of the most intriguing aspects of a dual tour seemed to be how Charli XCX and Sivan would share the stage. The format — which proved to be rather effective — allowed each artist to perform three-to-four hits before the other would take the stage again.
The result was an extremely fast-paced, high-octane show that made the audience literally sweat. Both artists sang their hearts out in autotune, enticing the crowd with extremely provocative dancing during the show.
Each artist interacted with the audience throughout, often asking “Are we sweaty yet?” The peak of the crowd interaction, however, came from Charli XCX’s performance of hit song “Apple.” The artist picked a group of girls in the crowd and displayed them on the on-stage screens as they performed the viral dance — made popular via social media platform TikTok — which received roars from the audience.
The performing pair kept the crowd engaged with constant set changes, such as a silk bed Sivan used to create many sensual moments with the crowd, increasingly intense strobe lights and a cage-like design both below the catwalk and behind the stage that allowed the performers to grab the bars and bang their bodies against it while performing.
The show’s camerapeople were also very involved with the set design, capturing different angles of the performance to be displayed on the on-stage screens, in turn providing the audience with another interactive element.
Musically, the highlights of the show included Charli XCX’s remixes of her popular “Brat” songs, including “Guess featuring Billie Eilish” and “Girl, so confusing featuring lorde.” The crowd responded to both songs with ecstatic amounts of energy, as fans jumped and threw their hands in the air.
Arguably the best part of the show came from the encore. Charli XCX paid homage to the start of her career with her 2012 feature on Icona Pop’s hit song “I Love It,” while Sivan gave the audience the best choreography — and the most provocative moment of the night, which featured a full makeout with one of his background dancers — during his club-banger “Rush.”
The show concluded with a remix of “Talk Talk,” a track featuring Sivan from Charli XCX’s upcoming album, “Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.”
The pair sang the track together, a final celebration of their success in making the audience sweat.
Rating: 5/5
