Preview: Troye Sivan w/ Kim Petras and Carlie Hanson
Paramount, Seattle, WA
11.07.18
The personality of pop music is changing. It’s where, along with simple lyrics about first love and danceable beats that keep your toes tapping, you can find blatant self-expression, cultural discovery, and youthful experimentation. It’s where teen and twenty-something titans are calling society on its bullshit. And it’s where the youth of the world—and plenty of adults right along with them—are finding something, something that’s becoming increasingly inclusive every day.
That’s exactly what you’ll find next week, at Seattle’s historic Paramount Theatre, in the form of Troye Sivan’s Bloom Tour, with help from friends Kim Petras and Carlie Hanson.
Like so many others (including Sivan), Carlie Hanson got her start via YouTube, uploading pop covers until being discovered by producers with an ear for, well, earworms. The 18-year-old, who came out on Twitter earlier this year, proudly declares Justin Bieber as her inspiration and has quickly been making her own waves in the pop world. While her singles have racked up over 50 million streams, it wasn’t even two years ago that Hanson was working at a McDonalds in her small Wisconsin town.
While she may still be figuring out fame, Hanson is—like many of her generation, remarkably active with fans on social media, declaring everything from “canT sLeeP i want TacoS” to “I’m so fcking happy rn. just found out I’m able to pay off all my mom’s credit card debt!!!!!!!!” Despite the obvious grammatical liberties, it’s this same openness and honesty that comes through in Hanson’s music, all moody realness with tongue firmly in cheek.
With her song “Only One” prominently featured on Apple Music’s A-List Pop Playlist, Spotify’s biggest playlist Today’s Top Hits, and an Apple Music Playlist curated by Taylor Swift, Hanson is surely going nowhere but up,
Adding a serious helping of Paris Hilton-esque sass to the tour’s lineup is Kim Petras, who originally grabbed the limelight due to her transgender identity, but brings a very sparkly pop sheen—one that verges on absurd—to the table. Plus, she just dropped a mixtape which features Elvira in honor of Halloween, so that might be worth it in and of itself.
Headlining the night will be Australian electro-pop savant Sivan, in support of his sophomore album, Bloom, released this August. A storyteller at heart, Sivan puts coming out and coming-of-age into heartbreakingly pure context, weaving dance beats with plaintive hooks about self-realization and relationships.
Out and proud, Sivan is putting his identity at the forefront of his artistic work, and humbly citing the many other artists rising up the ranks doing the same. In a wave of pop culture that is rushing—albeit not fast enough—to inclusion, Sivan is a bright spot of songcraft and personality leading the way. Full of tender innocence set to vibrant synths, this is pop in its purest form. Identifiable, accessible, anthemic.
The Paramount Theatre
911 Pine Street, Seattle, WA 98101
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Doors at 6:30 pm | Show at 7:30 pm
Preview by Stephanie Dore
