The one about the Sweat Tour
Charli xcx, Troye Sivan, and the Camera Man walk into a bar...
“The Sweat Tour surpassed the hype, y’all,” I posted on my Instagram Story.
My friend Perri replied: “Give us the rundown on substack bb.”
This is that. 😌
After seeing content from the Tour all over my feeds for the past 5 weeks, I can finally confirm that all of the glowing reviews are entirely based. Being sober for it was a beautiful choice, as well, because I can say with my full chest that it was the best arena show I’ve ever experienced. I attended the San Diego show on a Friday night, after two nights of industry people, influencers, and a crazy person who shoved Brittany Broski in Los Angeles for the Apple Dance. The SD crowd was mostly college-aged brats and twinks who were not there to write a substack review of the show. They were present, silly, forgiving, fun, and ready to sweat.
As a fan of theatre, storytelling, cinema, and, of course, live music, this 31-song show fired on every cylinder imaginable with little room to take a breath. It was exhilarating, truly.
From start to finish, the hour-and-a-half live experience told a story of two (formerly niche) pop stars making their mainstream arena debut in their own way and captivating me entirely. One thing I love about Charli in this Brat era is that she takes up the whole stage—no backup dancers—just her, a live auto-tune track, lights, and a cameraman with whom she is performing for in this love-hate kind of relationship.
Charli performed Von Dutch not just to an arena of 13K+ fans, but also directly to the cameraman, embodying her essence as both a popstar and performance artist. The whole experience was both cinematic and ‘meta’ for every seat in the house. In Von Dutch, and throughout the show, she is performing for and attacks the camera, in homage to the music video (see below), which I’ve been thinking a lot about ever since.
The choice to perform to (and attack the cameraman’s camera) during Von Dutch and again in her final solo song of the night (Track 10), shows her decade-long love-hate relationship with fame, being a pop star, and as an artist. Famously, Charli has always been ahead of her time.
Track 10 has always been my favorite song—and she loves it too, I assume since she closes her solo portion of the show with it. There was a moment during the song where she was air-punching at the camera (seen in this tiktok) that made me pause and genuinely think about her entire experience as an artist to date. It’s been tumultuous at times, but also real. This year, I’ve been so happy to see her get the flowers she’s worked hard for—and deserves—and also proud of all that she’s overcome being part of an industry (and label) that’s maybe not always had her best interests in mind.
The show Got Me Started with Troye and his backup dancers floating through perfect choreo and then the Brat Curtain dropped in the middle of the arena. You’ve seen it, I’ve seen it, we’ve all seen it on social media—and it’s one of the greatest hype-inducing visual choices ever made. No other artist can ever do this without clearly referencing Charli’s Brat era. As the curtain falls to reveal the Main Pop Girl of the year (or if you’re LGBTQ+, the pop girl of the decade) standing centerstage surrounded by smoke with screaming fans from every corner of the arena. It was pure magic.
Artfully alternating between Charli and Troye for about an hour, there was no moment of rest for the audience. I loved it. Charli shouted out a guy in the front for wearing a “communist c*m dump” shirt” and I even think that this show had the best Apple dance cam of the tour so far—nothing better than seeing hotties perfectly in sync I must say.
Bringing me to the next point: Troye and his backup dancers gave 110% every second. The dichotomy of Troye and the dancer’s all-out energy during every song of his and Charli's solo stage presence during her sets complemented each of their parts of the show very well and took us on a journey that can best be described as a rollercoaster. We screamed, danced, sweat, and recorded unusable shaky videos—not to mention my jaw dropping to the floor a few times.
If you didn’t get to go, I’m sorry. If you did, I’m probably just preaching to the choir, but let’s talk about it next time we see each other. Rumor has it that there were cameras at the LA show(s) so you’ll get to experience it in full sometime soon hopefully.
On the Billboard 200…
In more recent (today) news, and after the release of her critically acclaimed remix album (Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat), marketing promotions (including a $5 digital download), and a lot of buzz online, the album peaked at #3 this week. Her fandom thought it was going to be her first #1 on the Billboard 200, but, in a year of Country dominating the charts, Jelly Roll took that spot. While I know Charli doesn’t truly care about the Billboard numbers at the end of the day, this situation cements Brat—and Charli—as cult classics. One day, the masses may understand, but if not… those who get it, get it.
Pure album sales and streams are one way to measure success—but I also had to take a peek at the ticket sales for Charli/Troye’s show compared to Jelly Rolls for October 22nd, and the Sweat Tour tickets are about double the price for the same section and the floor tickets are 33% greater than Jelly Roll’s.
What’s interesting to me about Jelly Roll taking the #1 spot this week is that it’s the first time since 2014 that 5 Country albums have reached the #1 position. Also, worth mentioning, we are in a year in which A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey has spent 14 weeks—THREE AND A HALF MONTHS—at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
This has been a year for Country music and Brat. But in a decade from now, we’re most likely not gonna be talking about 2024 being the year for Country.
We’ll remember the brat-green and the Sweat Tour being the concert of the decade—and that’s the that on that.