Under a taunting blanket of grey skies, Brisbane's girlypops congregate for the most exclusive Y2K event of the year: Big Time Rush's (BTR) return down under.
Their In The Real World Worldwide tour marks their third visit to these shores since their debut at the 2013 Nickelodeon Slime Fest performance in Sydney.
Since their rise to fame, both individually and through their self-titled TV show, BTR have become trademark faces on teenage girls' bedroom walls since the early 2010s – and it seems like they have never left.
Walking into The Riverstage on Friday (20 March) felt like walking into a BTR episode – Stephen Kramer Glickman (BTR's manager, Gustavo, in the show) is belting his heart out to Olivia Rodrigo's 'Drivers License'.
It's an all too familiar scene with Glickman stealing the audience's attention with his ballads, all whilst dressed in full business attire. To make the situation even more nostalgic, Katelyn Tarver (Kendall's girlfriend in the show, Jo Taylor) appears onstage as the second opener.
Instead of belting covers like Glickman, Tarver performs tracks from her four EPs, offering more of a folk-pop feel to the night. The crowd begins to descend The Riverstage's hill during Tarver's set, amplifying the excitement within the air with every song.
Before BTR appears onstage, the small community amongst myself is already tight knit; we know all of Tarver's songs and laugh at Glickman's nonsense. It is truly a testament to BTR's successful accumulation of nostalgia among the fanbase.
Soon enough, the grey blanket is replaced with a glittery cocktail above the crowd as we all descend even closer to the stage. BTR's stage is theatrical itself, and I've never seen anything like it at The Riverstage; LED stairs are placed both left and right of the stage, meeting in the middle with a central staircase to an upper platform.
The stage is covered in a blue haze as the group's musicians begin the self-titled track 'Big Time Rush'. The crowd is crushed with nostalgia as the TV show's theme song is both performed by the band and played on the stage's screen.
Greg Garman (drums), Cody Perrin (lead guitar) and Vicky Warwick (bass, keys) nod their heads along to the theme as they serenade the crowd. At the end of the song, four black silhouettes emerge on the upper platforms, taking a moment to stand in the darkness.
The crowd screams at the silhouettes, impatiently waiting for their spotlight to be shined. After an intense ten-second pause, the spotlights reveal the four pop stars who sing the all-too-known theme's "oh, oh, o-oh, ooh".
They immediately follow into the reprise of the track, singing the chorus authentically alongside the crowd. Despite the intense screaming from all around, they jump straight into 'Windows Down'.
All four boys march across the upper platform, all whilst the song's lyrics beam on the screen behind them. Each member is dressed authentically as themselves with extra touches of black and red to suit the band's theme.
To amplify the theatrical sense of the set, they morph into the medley of 'Picture This/ Shot In The Dark/ Big Night'. During 'Picture This', the band is followed by a camera, displaying live camcorder footage from the stage.
The night becomes even more immersive as the camera faces the crowd: "Brisbane, let's get a picture!" With each individual vocal solo, the crowd yearns for the boys onstage.
The band's lead, Kendall Schmidt is met with a constant eruption of screams every time he is on the stage's screen. Regardless of the clear aging of the band (sorry Kendall), we are instantly transported back to 2010 again with the costumes, visuals and fan-girl behaviour.
The second set commences with the intermission video, a 2010-BTR-TV-show-esque skit of the four boys in an elevator showing their characteristic traits. It earns an uproar of laughs and a nostalgic "aww" from the crowd as intertextual props are used to nod at the show.
Brisbane is awarded with three new additions to the set list: 'This Is Our Someday', 'Paralyzed' and 'Halfway There', all from their 2011 album 'BTR'.
The stage design during the second set is on point – Y2K magazine-styled lettering of the lyrics is displayed across the stage during 'This Is Our Someday' as the boys dance synchronically together.
Soon enough the much-awaited performance of 'Worldwide' occurs, where each member chooses a 'Worldwide' girl to join them onstage. Girls from all around me run towards the barricade, each with individually made signs for the band.
The crowd's hero, Schmidt, brings up a young girl called Indiana who has Schmidt's name written on her shirt in glitter sequins. The crowd coos at the boys as they each take turns having conversations with the fans onstage; it's clear this is a sentimental aspect of the set list for both fans and the band alike.
The envious crowd gets over the tormenting jealousy of the 'Worldwide' girls as we are serenaded during 'Run Wild'. Carlos PenaVega and James Maslow serenade the crowd with the lyrics as Kendall takes a turn on the drums.
Logan Henderson on the other hand is spraying barricade fans with his drink in hand – it was an odd sight to see, but nonetheless the most Y2K fangirl scene I have seen in awhile.
My concern is masked as massive red and white balloons cascade the crowd from the top of the Riverstage hill. Fans take turns bouncing the balloons from side to side (I may have hit a few other fans in my attempts at pushing the balloon up).
During the much-awaited performance of 'Love Me Love Me', the balloons become part of the show, with fans singing and jumping to the props. The sense of involvement is heightened during these crowd moments, with each fan feeling personally invited to join the BTR experience.
As the four boys take a brief intermission before the encore, the crowd gees themselves up for the fan-favourite BTR track. Kendall, James, Logan and Carlos appear onstage one final time (with a quick costume change, of course).
The crowd is electric at the sight before us – we all know what's coming. "Who out here is looking for a boyfriend?" I am engulfed in screams. My best friend next to me, who isn't even into men, screams at the question beckoned to us.
The sound barrier breaks with the four-part harmony beginning of 'Boyfriend' as the crowd instantly loses it. The shes, gays, theys and even the nonchalant teenage boys a metre away throw their hands in the air at the synchronised four-part harmony – we're all looking for a boyfriend and BTR see that.
No amount of binge-watching Nickelodeon or streaming BTR's albums can account for the wave of nostalgia in front of us. It's a trip back to 2010 filled with fashion nostalgia, girlhood and teenage girls frothing at the mouth for dancing boys – what more could a girlypop want on a Friday night?!
