With a line that wrapped around the block an hour before doors, it was clear that Sydney was very excited to see Stephen Sanchez. Packing into The Metro, the sold out crowd were ready to be swooned by the king of TikTok swoon-pop, and singalong to his viral songs that have seen him sell out all three shows on his debut headline Australian tour.

On support duties for the evening was rising star Charley. Opening her set with her vibrant single “Hard For Me”, she ran onto the stage and delivered a highly energetic and emotional 30 minute set. Ahead of the release of her debut EP “Timebombs” out June 23, she used the set to premiere each of the new songs from the body of work. “Burnout”, “Running Wild” and single “Heartbreaker” were big punchy moments that were then complemented by a cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone”. She took a moment to strip things back with the country inspired “Stupid Thing To Say”, which she described as a hard one to sing for her that day. But the highlight of the set was title track “Timebomb”, which is a stunning indie-pop track that will have you covered in goosebumps by the lyric “I hate that we had the right amount of time it takes to fall in love”. Closing out the set with the EP’s lead single “Worst Taste In Girls”, she had the entire crowd dancing along with her before they immediately grabbed their phones and started following her on Spotify and Instagram after she said good night. 

With the venue at full capacity the lights dimmed and Stephen Sanchez finally made his way out onto the stage with his full-band for opening songs “Hey Girl”, “Hold Her While You Can”, and “Kayla”. Immediately he had the crowd in the palm of his hand, and he didn’t lose them throughout the 90 minute set. In-between songs they were yelling out to get their vinyls signed, tell them they love him, and thank him for coming to Australia. 

The first highlight of the set came with “The Pool” which was a genuinely stunning moment that had you in awe of his raw vocal talent, as well as the polished slickness of his band. The next highlight came from the unreleased track “Fame And Fortune” which he described as a song he wrote following his promo trip to Australia a few months ago after realising his band mates all had a partner to come home to, but he went home to no one. He played a few other unreleased songs throughout the set as he was teasing the release of his forthcoming debut album, which he revealed will have 13 songs. “There Must Be Something About Her” and next single “High” were highlights of the new material with their smooth hooks and hinted at a sonical evolution. 

“How is everyone’s hearts? Are they all mushy?” he cheekily asked the crowd before performing “Evangeline” and recent single “Only Girl”. With the crowd at an all time peak, he brought out Charley to close the show with him by performing “Until I Found You”. But the show wouldn’t be complete without his first attempt at a shoey which Charley orchestrated, and was preceded by an impromptu performance of “Bennie And The Jets” while she found a beer for Stephen.  

Returning to the stage for a lil encore, he left the crowd knowing a little bit more about him and the  future of what was to come from this global rising star. Stephen Sanchez is only at the very beginning of his career right now, and if he’s already selling out theatres across Australia before the release of his debut album then I’m excited to see what’s next as his live show continually transforms.