Review: Troye Sivan Brings His Blue Neighborhood to Portland [Photos]

Troye Sivan touched down at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon this past weekend, as part of his current Blue Neighborhood tour. Just after 9pm, the Australian wunderkind arrived onstage, backed by dramatic lighting and glowing outlines of houses in a nod to his album’s suburban themes.

With some angular dance moves to compliment his soaring voice, he began with his fairy-tale twist “Bite” and stayed fairly faithful to Blue Neighborhood’s track list. When he reached “Heaven,” Troye gave a short heartfelt speech about his personal journey in coming out and self-acceptance. His frequent dialogue between songs was a key element of the show, and just as endearing as his YouTube persona: a little bit goofy, and oh-so down to earth. He thanked a mom standing in the front row, talked about the city in eager fashion and jokingly admonished that it was “not that kind of show” when chants broke out for him to remove his sweater.

“Cool” whipped up a full on dance party, and perhaps the biggest surprise was that he didn’t even save “Wild” for the end. His confidence that he could drop his debut full-length's hit midway through an hour-long set and still keep the audience enchanted throughout proved true.

Amid a sea of cell phones set on record, hands held high in the shape of hearts and spontaneous confetti being thrown from within the crowd, Sivan kept the audience not just hanging on his every word, but singing along. There was a venue wide sing-a-long for the entirety of the set, as he sang his own songs and covered Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself.” The way the acoustics rang out, the audience’s voices rose and remained at the same volume as his in the microphone, making the audience an active participant rather than just a spectator. The buoyant flute-like keyboard sounds on “Lost Boy” at the end of his set have never seemed more on point, given his Pied Piper-like appeal.

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