Live Review: Tove Lo @ Forum Melbourne

Blusher has just released their first EP, Should We Go Dance?, and tonight they’ve got their dancing shoes on, ready to party. Playing the Forum in their hometown, is a dream come true for the girl power pop trio who bring their exciting sugary sweet electro-pop to the stage. They instantly hook us in with infectious fun and lively energy on tracks, including Limelight and Softly Spoken. 

Together Jade, Miranda and Lauren have undeniable chemistry with synchronised dance moves and sweet harmonies that intertwine so effortlessly around their sparkling synths. They put their best punch forward for Backbone and share a cover of Time To Pretend from their favourite indie-pop band MGMT. For a song called Hurricane Chaser, they throw on their coolest rave sunglasses and break it down with a slick dance routine for an absolute knockout.

On-screen visuals fly us through the clouds as queen Tove Lo emerges in a brand-new pink and silver robot-inspired leotard outfit to celebrate her Dirt Femme era. Kicking off with her playful dance-pop anthem Pineapple Slice, she cheekily shakes her booty at the audience as she moves across the stage from side to side. Attention Whore follows with plenty of sass and confidence for the crowd to lap up. 

The band encounters a few technical difficulties early on, so Tove Lo continues to show off her incredible vocal chops by singing Cool Girl acapella with the audience singing the chorus along with her. The show quickly resumes with dance-pop banger 2 Die 4. Having only just visited Melbourne late last year, she’s overwhelmed by the fact that people want to keep seeing her, and it shows that her fans care. Since her last visit, she’s dropped her fifth studio album, so she’s ready to play some new material, including one of her latest singles co-written with Dua Lipa, Borderline.

After a short break filled with an instrumental dance interlude, Tove Lo returns in a black lace outfit that shows plenty of skin. Talking Body is the next track, and she flashes the audience quickly before the final chorus before asking the crowd to then do her a favour by getting down really low and jumping up for one last verse.

Tove Lo whips her long high ponytail around to Disco Tits as she makes her way through the club anthem, riding a high-energy dance wave. “Are you ready for some friendship and fuckboys?” She continues the party with Glad He’s Gone and a brand-new unreleased track called Elevator Eyes that has the audience feeling themselves in no time to the sexy and infectious groove.

She takes it down for a couple of songs and transports us back to her first album with Moments. “It’s a song about not being perfect, which I think I’ve based my whole artistry and life around – accepting your flaws and all that.” The raw and brutally honest track Grapefruit follows, and Tove Lo admits that she wasn’t sure about putting it on the album, but she’s glad she did because the response has been so beautiful and vulnerable.

“You know I’m married, but I don’t want a traditional life,” Tove Lo reveals. She explains her reasoning through her song Suburbia that’s a fresh perspective on her modern relationship ideals. She then delivers an earth-shattering ballad (True Romance) that has to be one of her best vocal performances to date. 

Tove Lo delivers a superb encore starting off with her triple j Like A Version cover of Robyn’s iconic hit Dancing On My Own as a stripped-back solo version that brings a tear to the eyes of fans in the crowd. The band rejoins for Habits (Stay High) – a song she exclaims changed her life since it was released. The '80s-inspired club pop banger No One Dies From Love rounds out the set perfectly as we break out in one final sweat to dance the night away.