Troye Sivan Concert Review: October 2018
Advertisement for the Bloom Tour at the Greenbelt Metro Stop in Washington D.C.
So last time I discussed my discovery of Troye Sivan and how I quickly became a fan of him and his music. Once I learned Troye was coming to Washington D.C. the first week of October I had to see him live. He was performing at a new venue called The Anthem which had just opened the year before on the water front. I remember it opening because The Foo Fighters were the first band to play there.
Before the show I got a few things. First Troye mentioned he was setting up donations for homeless LGBTQ youth which I thought was such a great idea so I bought socks to donate. I also went to Party City and bought some mini rainbow flags to show my pride during the show.
The day of the show I wore my Scott Weiland t-shirt which I got as a gift from my brother shortly after Weiland had passed away. Scott Weiland had been my favorite singer of all time since 2002. That night though the torch was about to be passed.
Waiting in line before the doors opened for the Troye Sivan concert.
Once my husband and I got into the venue I donated the socks and bought a tour t-shirt. My husband and I found a place to stand on the second floor that gave you a little more space than on the ground floor. From the onset though I was completely taken with the audience and crowd at this show. The gays had come out in full force. One gentleman had a shirt that said “Keep Calm and Stay Kinky” and another gay fellow had a giant fan that said “Daddy” on it! There was also a young gay couple in front of us who wound end up singing every song to each other. There was also lots of girls and young women as well who were smitten with Troye and Troye’s homosexuality didn’t seem to bother them one bit. I talked with an older gentleman who had brought his daughter and her friends to see Troye and he told me he was blown away by the fact that this was a packed concert for an openly gay pop star. I talked with other people that night as well which I had not really done before at concerts.
Wearing my Scott Weiland shirt & holding the pride flag.
Attending rock shows over the years I had I learned to keep to myself. Despite my love for rock music and the fact that 90s alternative was supposed to have taken away the toxic masculinity that had infected hard rock in the 80s the fans at these shows were not what you'd call approachable. I tried talking to 2 gentlemen at a show in New York city in 2007 for Live and Collective Soul when they were discussing 90s alternative and they just gave me cold looks. At a Pearl Jam show this guy standing behind me drank so much beer he fell on top of me and spilled his beer all over me. At a Foo Fighters show their opening act was The Flying Cunts of Chaos (Charming eh!) and it caused the guys to start moshing and they kept shoving into me and my friends. When one guy started to crowd surf he kicked my friend Jen in the head! I love Alternative music but I wasn’t loving the atmosphere at their shows. I didn't belong in the rock audience and was consciously playing down my "gayness" at these rock shows as much as possible to fit in and not stand out.
The Troye Sivan concert was the first time that it didn't feel like an audience, it felt like a community. I felt like I could go up and talk to people. I felt like I could be more intimate with my husband in public. At the very least I could hold his hand or have his arms around me during the show. I didn't have to be on high alert which as a gay man you always have on when you are out in public especially when you are with your partner. This was the first time I felt accepted and safe at a concert.
And this is all before Troye came out. He opened with Seventeen of course which was the perfect opener. He wore a big red silky suit which looked fab on him. From the start he had the audience in the palm of his hands. Troye exuded star power the whole time and yet always felt approachable and relatable too. He felt like one of us. He pointed out how there were more hunky boys at this show than his last tour which caused a lot of cheers. He pointed out the young man with the Daddy fan. He also knew the platform he was being given and how important this show was for many of the LGBTQ youth in the audience. He said that we were all the gay agenda that those in power were afraid of and to keep it up.
The emotional high point was Heaven and his talk before singing it. He mentioned how it was the most important song he ever wrote because of how it helped him come to terms with coming out of the closet. Yet now the song had taken on a whole new meaning after performing it all over the world. Troye said he could see the song connecting with the LGBTQ audience and he could see their stories, their struggles and their triumphs as they sang along. The song he said no longer belonged to him but to the fans and that he would have to sing it at every show for the rest of his life. I got emotional singing along to it and the moment the lights on stage turned into the rainbow flag during the song's climax the entire crowd cheered. By the time he ended the concert with My My My the entire audience was practically family as we all sang along at the top of our lungs.
By the time the lights came on I realized that it had been one of the best nights of my life. Troye had also asserted himself as my new favorite singer after that show. As I had mentioned before Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots & Velvet Revolver had been my favorite singer until he died. I learned something really interesting after that night which was that Scott Weiland had died on the very same day that Troye Sivan released his first album Blue Neighborhood: December 4, 2015. There just couldn't have been a more symbolic passing of the torch for me and it felt like a sign in retrospect.
The official Bloom Tour T-Shirt that I purchased.
I still liked rock music and Stone Temple Pilots were still my favorite rock band but I no longer was gonna present myself to other people as a rock fan first who also happened to be gay. Now I was a more confident gay man who felt like he could finally be himself with no judgement thanks to gay pop music and gay pop concerts. That night changed me and I knew I needed to attend more gay pop concerts soon.
If you want to hear more by Troye Sivan check out my Spotify playlist below called Dougystyle Presents: Troye Sivan.
