The last few days have seen the news cycle inundated with stories about the things that happen to people when they’re young. Some have suggested that events which occur while still in high school are innocent, coming-of-age happenings, and, in a way, inconsequential. While some of Troye Sivan’s songs echo that idea of youth as a guiltless, happy-go-lucky time, the best of his output shouts about the poignancy and power of the things that happen to people as they’re trying to figure out who they might be and what they’d like the rest of their lives to look like.
For 90 minutes on Friday, in front of what felt like a sold-out Mahaffey Theater, the 23-year-old delivered anthem after anthem for a crowd that pulled from every age group but leaned hard on fresh-faced (and sometimes glitter-faced) youth.
PHOTOS
Australian pop star Troye Sivan, plus Leland and Kim Petras at Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg
The Australian-born pop singer and songwriter emerged, solo, dressed in a loose-fitting burgundy suit and immediately dove into the hits (“Seventeen,” the clubby-thump of “Bloom” and gauzy “Plum” opened the set) before explaining that “Heaven” was a song that he wrote about coming out and living with the struggle of being an LGBT teen in a world that sometimes, it seems, wants those youth to stay in the closet, save face or express a different kind of pride. In the song, Sivan wonders if there’s a way for him to still go to a place that’s labeled him a sinner before he even wakes up in the morning.
Onstage, members of his four-piece band (two keyboardists who also handled drum programming and harmonies plus a guitarist-bassist and drummer armed with no less than five toms) unfurled a moving take on the ballad. It wasn’t all heavy though. Sivan withered around sensually on “Fools,” lurched to the AWOLNATION-esque doom on “Bite” and elicited big screams from the crowd before bounding towards each end of the stage and back on “Dance To This.”
He even gave fans a cover of a Post Malone breakup song, “Better Now.”
Some naysayers (pop music fuddy duds, in reality) will be quick to criticize Sivan for the myriad of co-writing credits on his two albums (Blue Neighbourhood from 2015 and Bloom released last month), and there was at least one moment where the tune felt like it didn’t belong to Sivan (“What A Heavenly Way To Die,” written by Sivan, Allie X, producer Bram Inscore plus Leland who opened the show). But who can blame Sivan for tapping other like-minded collaborators in helping him explain to complexities of his youth succinctly enough to make sure his words have maximum impact for a generation of young, often maligned music fans who don’t identify with most of what pop, rock, country and even hip-hop are presenting?
On a waavy take of “Lucky Strike” loaded with a trunk full of guitar texture, Sivan sang (metaphorically, maybe literally) about cigarette kisses with his boyfriend. Set-opener “Seventeen” is not-veiled in how it tells the at times harrowing story of a teenager being pulled, by sexual temptation, towards experimentation with older men. It’s about the abandonment of innocence, but it’s also about using the mind to control one’s urges. “Animal” — which Sivan said he only dreamed of “playing in a theater like this” — is a primal reflection on accepting one’s flaws and learning to live with them.
Earlier in the set, on his own post-breakup song “Good Side,” Sivan, accompanied by an acoustic guitar arrangement, reflected on the privilege of being able to turn deeply personal accounts of romance into songs that the whole world will hear.
“But I sympathize, and I recognize. And baby, I apologize,” Sivan sang as the room hummed along. “That I got the good side.”
Empathy. From a 23-year-old. Novel, especially during a week when a nation’s leaders displayed an inability to believe a woman who tried to explain how a privileged classmate attempted to take advantage of her in a bedroom when they were still teenagers.
Sivan’s warmth and ability to connect with a crowd was literally on display before “Wild” when he brought a very young fan onstage so that the crowd could have a better look at her shirt (which featured a quip about Sivan’s dog, Nash, who is on tour with the singer). Sivan gave the little girl a hug and wouldn’t continue the show until she was safely offstage. It was heartfelt and genuine. Not bad for a guy whose songs touch subject matter that sends evangelical preachers into rage tantrums.
in every city on the Bloom Tour u guys can bring new socks and new pads and tampons to donate for LGBTQ youth. I’m collecting them for @allycoalition and the legends over at @corawomen and @bombas are going to match your donations ❤️❤️❤️
— 👼🏼 (@troyesivan) September 25, 2018
Every stop on Sivan’s tour in support of Bloom gives fans an opportunity to donate new socks, new pads and tampons to LGBTQ youth (The Ally Coalition collects them; Organic period care company Cora and sock company Bombas are matching the donations).
There are those who say that the events of our youth pale in comparison to the things we’ll experience and achieve in our adult lives. In some ways, that’s true, but it shouldn’t diminish the weight and substantive nature of our youngest days.
You should’ve seen the kids — some draped in pride flags — running down the aisles and towards the stage during an encore take of “YOUTH.” The lyrics (metaphors about photobooth lights and stars exploding) are innocent enough, but the chorus (“My youth is yours”) is heavy. It’s a declaration that those formative years, in so many ways, mean the most. The things that happen to us when we’re young and impressionable will all play into the way we’re able to be functioning, healthy adults.
Sure, Sivan’s pen isn’t the only one pushing the narrative in his songs, but that’s how it should be. His pain and his pleasure are indicative of the highs and lows we experience in our own lives. His narrative is the same as so many others out there in the world. When he sings, he’s saying something substantial. And when others, especially the marginalized outliers, are trying to speak, well, we should listen — and believe them, too.
Listen to a playlist of songs from the set below, and see more pictures of Sivan, plus openers Leland and Kim Petras, via photos.cltampa.com.
Setlist
Seventeen
Bloom
Plum
Heaven
Fools
Lucky Strike
Wild
Postcard
The Good Side
What a Heavenly Way To Die
Better Now (Post Malone)
Bite
Dance To This
Animal
—
Youth
My My My!