Teddy Swims ‘I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy’ Australian Tour

Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney 14/10/2025.

Tonight, is the first of three consecutive nights, when U.S multi-platinum, Grammy nominated soul/pop singer/songwriter, Teddy Swims, walks through The Door of Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena some Aussie fans Lose Control over Teddy’s music from his latest album, ‘I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy’, and beyond. Having amassed billions of streams and captivated and delighted fans at shows all across the globe, including headlining the recent NRL Grand final, Teddy now brings his recipe of eclectic sounds spanning multiple genre’s like, Soul, Pop, Rock, Funk, Indie and more to Sydney for the full headlining arena experience.

So sit back, relax and bottoms up…

Just like the first sip of a quality whiskey, the first song of any performance sets the tone of flavours and elements on the palate, so the first taste of flavours/elements sets the mood and precedence for what’s to come. Normally, for a concert, the first song needs to hit hard, no matter what genre or musical mood, something to engage the audience and excite the senses. So when Teddy starts the show with the anthemic, danceable soul/rock hit ’Not Your Man’, on the heals of cinematic drums, bass-lines and pulsating lighting, it hits my musical palate with a strong, attention-grabbing potency just like that first sip of whiskey.

Let’s explore all those full-bodied flavours and musical elements Teddy's warm, smokey yet smooth voice is the constant for opening song ’Not Your Man’ and for all songs to follow, just like the smokey yet smooth potent bases of a rich whiskey.

’Not Your Man’ pleasantly snaps our musical taste-buds to attention with the previously mentioned attributes, accompanied by a woodsy smoke, with its upbeat attention-grabbing chorus’s and dynamic vocal drive. This makes me personally light up and fixes my attention on the flavours swirling around my taste-buds, setting a good precedence.

The following song ‘Hammer To The Heart’, sustains much the same qualities and driving flavours with its uplifting anthemic energy, pulling the audience into intoxication from the performance so far, leaving us urging for more. The third song however, ‘Apple Juice’, brings some new flavours to the blend, with its bouncy, sweeter major-tone, reminiscent of whiskey flavours like, I guess you could say apples and pears, but I was honestly going to go with more caramel and maple tones.

Instead of continuing a blow-by-blow retelling of every song, I think its a better use of time to go through the elements of the show on a whole. Whilst Teddy's warm, smokey voice is the constant undertone, having more of a bite in some songs, then sweet and delicate in others, it hold the focus no matter what flavours join his potent voice. Other accompanying musical elements include a keyboardist, with a stack of multiple keyboards at his disposal, drums to drive the intoxicating flavours, bass guitar to sustain the essences, guitars to add bright depth, and multiple backing vocalist, each having their own voices brought forth into the spotlight at times, just like when you start really getting carried away with your drinks and think, “I’m going to drink something else next to break up the constant on the palate, I’ll be right mixing drinks”. All of this is mixed sublimely to not overbearing and drown Teddy’s warm vocals, instead they complement, drawn back from Teddy’s voice being front and centre, just enough to always be a focus if one wishes to focus on each element and never being forgotten or overlooked, but not too far back from Teddy’s voice to lack sustenance.

Teddy speaks to us confidently, humbly and earnestly in well placed intervals in the set, just like having light snacks amidst the alcohol to not get swept away and lose sight of things… literally. On top of this, it appears, to me that is, that apart from complementing lighting, there seems to be semi-circular lighting spanning out like an upside down Wi-Fi symbol, at the stages back, with an oval-like changing light or screen above the lights, otherwise it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot going on, judging by how sudden and contentedly relaxed the crowd is around me, plus me not catching blurred streaks of movement, no matter, it let’s me really focus on the dazzling musical flavours, placed nicely throughout the set to build up, sustain, give needed respite in the hyped energy at times and all in all pull us further into aural intoxication. I guess this is like for sighted people, the bottle housing the whiskey might look exciting, with a cool pattern on the label, the hue of the whiskey might be really pleasant and the glass which you pour the liquid into might look nice, but the focus is on the whiskey, not the visual niceties.

However, my friend clarifies for me that there is actually a lot going on up on stage in fact. Those inverted Wi-Fi like lights? apparently they’re bracketing a large pyramidal ramp leading to a platform at the top, just below the oval shaped screen, and within the ramp, lies an elevator for Teddy to take up to the platform, and return to the stage proper at will. As well as that, Teddy is actually moving around a lot, which is truly impressive as his vocals never waver in exhaustion/effort. Teddy also leaves the stage to come up to us all nice and close for us at the front, high-fiving people, and apparently giving my sign a thumbs up, before returning to the stage. This is about three quarters into the set. Even with these exciting elements brought to my attention, the crowd are still really laid-back and not crowding in all around me in excitement like is typical for an excited audience here in the front row at a show. Adding another spike of thrilling flavour to the mix, is apparently for one song, a toilet appears on the platform on top of the ramp, where Teddy sings half a song whilst sitting on said toilet, and before leaving it, signs a roll of toilet paper to give to a fan in the crowd.

As the show goes on, we hear loved tracks like ‘Bad Dreams’, ‘Devil In A Dress’, ‘911’ and as the final song to really seal the deal for a musical hangover tomorrow, the emotive, potent soul, smokey ballad, ‘Lose Control’, which the whole arena consumes greedily, singing along to every word, carrying the vocals throughout the venue in sustained pulsing waves.

One more drink won’t hurt surely, or two, or three, I’m not as musically think as you drunk I am yet…

Oh what a surprise, an encore, not that I’m complaining, it’s just always makes me internally roll my eyes at the predictable, planned, rehearsed encores at shows. Before bartender Teddy sends our drunken asses home and closes up for the night, I can hear the raw earnest sincerity in the way he thanks us all for one last time, and tells us all about his son, how grateful for this life he is and how Australia is the best country in the world in his opinion, then finishes with fan favourite, ‘The Door’, which is capped off with not just typical confetti blasted out of a cannon, no, this time full long streamers shoot into the crowd covering us like snow.

Just like a quality whiskey, Teddy’s music and performance qualities should be given full attention to truly appreciate the depth and flavours, not knocked back straight down the hatch, missing the palate all together for the most part, nor should it be saturated in masking additives, no, this quality blend should be served neat, sipped not guzzled, and enjoyed in copious quantities… maybe not like whiskey for that last part.