Troye Sivan. Wang Theatre/Boston. October 12, 2018

"Let's turn this gorgeous theater into a club," ordered Troye Sivan from the stage of Boch Center's Wang Theatre Friday night as his Bloom Tour arrived in Boston. And for the next 90 minutes, the crowd of over three thousand was happy to oblige, even if by the end of his dreamy, electro-pop set the old joint felt more like a church than a club.

Sivan, the South African-born, Australian-bred pop wunderkind who released "Bloom," his second studio album in August, is for several reasons a very different kind of pop star. To start, at age 18, Sivan publicly came out as gay, something few male musicians do during the critical ascent of their careers. But even more impressive is the way that Sivan, particularly on his latest album, has lyrically and musically distilled the experience of being young in a way that is fresh and honest, free of novelty or contrivance. A pop album free of cheap hooks and hollow confection? Yes, Virginia, they do exist.

At 23, Sivan leans into his youth but is more than willing to admit what he doesn't know. He's a little bit Bowie, a little bit Jagger, and a lot like Lorde, another enigmatic pop star with a gift for relaying her young anxieties in ways that are similarly surprising. I'd argue that the best pop stars are those that seem breakable and Sivan wears his fragility well, whether it be because of sex, love, lust, or simply being young.

Sivan opened with "Seventeen," a song that he wrote about being underage and pretending to be older so that men would be okay having sex with him. "I got these beliefs that I think you wanna break," are the opening lyrics. "Got something here to lose that I think you wanna take from me." It's that kind of vulnerability that Sivan subverts and turns into magic. A lot of young singers lose me when they write about their experiences too preciously which is why so many struggle to break into demographics much above their own. There's something valuable in Sivan's admission during the song's chorus that 17 may be young but it was real to him. And who can't relate to that?

Over the course of the 17-song set, Sivan used the stage as his runway, his own personal dance floor, and his pulpit. "This city's just full of legends," he said at one point after spotting one particularly decked out fan. "I'd say you're all wasted but you look underage," he joked. "Oh, not you," he added, pointing to a different fan. "You're definitely wasted."

The setlist included all ten tracks from "Bloom" and six from his last album, 2015's "Blue Neighborhood," including one – "Cool" – that he threw in just for Boston. He also performed "1999", his brand new single with Charli XCX, though it's an obnoxious little song that seems totally beneath him.

In a concert full of songs that revealed Sivan's most tender vulnerabilities, the most moving moment came during "Heaven," a song about the anxieties he faced when he started to come to terms with his sexuality. "Without losing a piece of me, how do I get to heaven," he wondered. As he finished the last verse – "so if I'm losing a piece of me, maybe I don't want heaven" – the stage transformed into a blinding rainbow, a moment of visceral empowerment both for Sivan and for the thousands of young, queer fans in the audience that look to him as a source of inspiration and strength.

Unbeknownst to Sivan, a group of fans canvassed the Wang before the concert and hid a construction paper flower under each seat with the instructions to hold it up during "Heaven" and to illuminate it using the flashlight on our phones. (The same fans, it seemed, pulled a similar stunt a few years ago at Sivan's last Boston appearance). The audience quite literally bloomed. Visibly moved and surprised, Sivan brought the "little twerps," as he called them, onstage for a selfie and a hug.

But even for those of us who didn't get a hug, by evening's end, it felt as if Sivan had forged a personal relationship with each of us. That's star power.

Troye Sivan performed at Boston Wang Theatre, Friday, October 12. Troye Sivan's "Bloom the Tour" continues in cities throughout the country through November. For upcoming dates, visit his website.