Charli XCX and Troye Sivan had TD Garden “bumpin’ that” at SWEAT tour

The pop icons stunned in their high-octane concert. See highlights from the show.

Charli XCX (pictured in 2021) performs with Troye Sivan Sept. 28 at TD Garden.

The much-anticipated SWEAT Tour featuring Charli XCX and Troye Sivan brought slime-green club classics to TD Garden, proof that even though some are saying brat summer is over, the 365 party girl doesn’t stop.

The pop icons are co-headlining the tour and promoting each of their respective albums; English singer-songwriter Charli XCX’s “Brat” (2023) and Australian singer-songwriter Troye Sivan’s “Something to Give Each Other” (2023). Both artists first collaborated together on the 2018 song “1999,” and have overlapping, largely queer fanbases.

Charli got her start in music as a teenager performing in London’s illegal rave scene, and is credited with being a pioneer of the hyperpop genre, alongside the late SOPHIE.

Charli’s album “Brat,” released in June, is her sixth studio album. It took the world (and Internet) by storm, and quickly launched the British artist from her place as a niche hyperpop star with an underground following to a mainstream artist. The album is her most commercially successful album to date, and received universal acclaim from critics. According to Metacritic, it is the highest-rated album of 2024 and the 16th-highest-rated album of all time as of August 2024.

The slime-green cover of the album and the aesthetic connotation of the word “brat” became so popular that it developed into its own ethos, “brat summer.” The cover art and brat aesthetic were even briefly adopted by Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign after Charli posted on X that “kamala IS brat.”

Sivan got his start as a singer on YouTube and in Australian talent competitions. “Something to Give Each Other” is his third album, and all three singles from the release (“Rush,” “Got Me Started,” and “One of Your Girls”) reached the top 40 of the U.K. singles chart. For his song “Rush,” Sivan received his first Grammy Award nominations this year, one for Best Pop Dance Recording and another for Best Music Video.

‘Are you ready to sweat?’

Twinks and girlies were dressed to the nines and ready for the club — er, the concert. The crowd was a sea of slime green “brat” T-shirts, mesh, and mini skirts.

“Boston, did you come to party? I came to sweat.” Shygirl said to the crowd, nodding to the tour’s name.

Charli and Sivan entered the stage to a recorded track of Charli’s “Club classics,” and the tour’s setlist was split into “chapters,” with each artist alternating between their hits.

“Boston, I can already tell you guys are [expletive] mental. Are you ready to sweat?,” Sivan asked the crowd. He praised the city for its energy numerous times during the show.

The stage was industrial, with just a few onstage cameras, a catwalk with a cage-like tunnel underneath, and scaffolding at the back.

The crowd’s screams were deafening as Troye kicked off the show with “Got Me Started.” He was joined onstage by a troupe of dancers body-rolling to the upbeat track.

‘Boston, you guys are so [expletive] hot tonight! I’m trying to find a boy from Harvard’

Talk (talk) about potential surprise guests had begun circulating online ahead of the show, given the star-studded special guests at the Madison Square Garden shows — these included TikToker and singer Addison Rae, as well as New Zealand singer Lorde.

But, no special guests joined Charli for her TD Garden show. Shygirl joined her for a “365” remix that had the crowd scream-singing along. “360” and “Von Dutch” were sung with equal vigor, fist-pumping, and jumping.

For “In My Room,” Troye sat atop a silky bed at the end of the catwalk, while the crowd shimmered with thousands of camera phone flashlights.

“Boston, you guys are so [expletive] hot tonight! I’m trying to find a boy from Harvard,” Sivan said with a laugh to the crowd.

Charli followed with Act II of the show, which featured back-to-back current headbangers (“club classics”) and older tracks (“Unlock It”).

“So who had a brat summer?” Charli asked the screaming crowd, before launching into “Sympathy is a Knife.” The crowd leveled up in volume and energy for the track, as Charli performed the song with emotional dancing.

‘I thought this song was big in Germany. Is it big in Boston?’

At each Sweat tour stop, a new fan appeared on the big screen of the venue to perform the TikTok-viral “Apple” dance. At TD Garden, the cameras panned to a fan who danced the Apple dance to TikTok perfection, hyping up the audience (he was so Julia).

Charli kept the high-octane energy of the audience going with a small request: “Boston, I need you to turn this place into a [expletive] club. Can you do that for me?” she screamed into her microphone. The crowd jumped up and down with fists pumping in response.

The pair performed their track “1999” together for the last song before both of their encores. Charli played “Track 10” from her album “Pop 2” and the Icona Pop, 2012 classic “I Love It,” Troye sang “Honey” and “Rush.”

“I thought this song was big in Germany. Is it big in Boston?” she said to the crowd as “I Love It” played. The quip is a reference to a years-old viral video clip in which she tries hyping up a lackluster crowd at a Lollapalooza performance in Germany, saying, “I thought this song was big in Germany?”

The show was alive and pulsing with energy from start to finish, and was made all the more special by Charli and Sivan’s appreciation for the crowd and the city of Boston. The pair truly turned TD Garden into a party for the ages — or a club classic, to use Charli’s words.

Charli shows no signs of slowing down after the success of “Brat.” She recently announced a collection of remixes from the album, including “Talk Talk” featuring Sivan, set to drop on Oct. 11. The next stop on the SWEAT tour will be in Chicago on Sept. 30.