Adelaide Entertainment Centre. Frontier Touring. 27 Oct 2025
The Adelaide leg of Teddy Swims Ive Tried Everything but Therapy tour is opened by the consummate performer, Matt Corby, who—whilst perhaps being better suited to more intimate venues—receives great support from the audience as he warms us up for the main event with renditions of Brother, Resolution, and other numbers from his catalogue.
By the time Teddy Swims strides onto the Adelaide Entertainment Centre stage on Monday night, the air is thick with a rare blend of anticipation and affection. The Georgia-born powerhouse has always carried himself like a man who’s fought to earn every second of applause, and we are ready to meet him there.
As smoke curls upward from the edge of a vast, curving ramp that arches like a wave across the AEC stage, the highest point sits shrouded in shadow until, with a flash of pyrotechnic light, Teddy Swims appears—as if conjured from the fire itself. Clad in his signature casual swagger—half rock star, half preacher of feeling (and sporting a Rob Thomas singlet!)—Swims launches into Not Your Man with a grin that seems to say, “We’re gonna get honest tonight”.
The opener sets the tone for an evening of contrasts—swagger, surrender, bravado, and vulnerability, the unguarded tenderness that has turned Teddy Swims from an internet voice into one of soul-pop’s most magnetic live performers. The groove-heavy pulse of Hammer to the Heart follows. Its polished production given a raw, muscular energy by the live band. Swims’ voice—that gravelly, gospel-trained thunder—hits like a siren, shaking the room not just with power, but with control. Every note carries intent.
By Apple Juice, the crowd has fallen into his rhythm completely. What’s so compelling about Swims on stage is his disarming authenticity; he performs as if every lyric still stings a little, and maybe it does—for there is no doubt it comes from the bottom of his heart.
Then comes She Loves the Rain, which feels like a cinematic scene break. The lights are dimmed and the melody spills like mist through the space. There’s a kind of catharsis in the way Swims leans into heartbreak, never over-dramatising it, he just lets it breathe. Are You Even Real deepens the emotional groove and a stunning duet with backup singer Devin Velez contrasts beautifully with Swims’ voice, cracking on the bridge in a way that is now synonymous with his style.
Devil in a Dress and Bad Dreams up the tempo and remind us that soul doesn’t have to sit still. The former’s sultry swagger has the crowd moving, Swims’ channelling a modern tattooed Otis Redding. On Bad Dreams, his band, Freak Freely tighten the screws—drums crisp, guitar slicing through—until Swims’ vocals erupt into something close to defiance as the stage is cloaked in a thick blanket of smoke.
In a set filled with confessionals, there’s a new track called Free Drugs which lands like a moment of dark humour and hard truth. “It’s about trying to feel better the wrong way,” Swims says of the number, the audience falling silent as the song’s closing line “I just want to feel something real” lingers in the air.
Funeral comes next, slow-burning and devastating, with his backing vocalists, Jemila Richardson, Olivia Kuper Harris, and the aforementioned Devin Velez building a gospel swell that lifts the song from mourning to redemption. Then What More Can I Say offers something tender, almost conversational.
The emotional pacing of the set is impeccable. By the time we reach 911 and Need You More, Swims has the audience oscillating between heartbreak and release. On Black & White, he finds the balance again, Swims' phrasing in a duet with Jemila Richardson is gentle and precise.
Then comes one of the night’s most poignant and intimate moments: Small Hands. Swims pauses before starting, visibly choked with emotion as he dedicates the song to his newborn son. The crowd softens into complete stillness as Swims sits and sings, alone on the stage front stairs. “I’ll hold the world for you until you can,” he sings, and time briefly stops in the stadium.
The mood lightens with a heartfelt cover of ILLENIUM’s All That Really Matters. It is less EDM and more soulful testimony as Swims' strips it back into a piano-led anthem. Some Things I’ll Never Know and Northern Lights follow in seamless succession, the former as a wonderful duet with Olivia Kuper Harris, the latter blooming with an almost cinematic beauty as the lighting crew paint the stage like the illuminated night sky. Guilty is pure fire—tight, bluesy, and unrepentant—while God Went Crazy gives Swims a chance to stretch himself vocally, flipping between delicate falsetto and full-throated roar.
Then comes one of the night’s more playful moments. For You’re Still the One, Swims' turns the audience into a game show, having them pull random numbers and letters from a jar for a giant jukebox projected on the screens behind him. The combination, of course, lands on Shania Twain’s timeless ballad. Swims' wraps his soulful rasp around Twain’s country-pop and turns the chorus into a communal singalong.
From there, Your Kind of Crazy and the viral behemoth Lose Control bring the night to its emotional and sonic peak. Swims’ chart-dominating anthem of longing and addiction, Lose Control hits with the power of a confession shouted into the night. When he sings, “You’re breaking my heart // You make a mess of me,” thousands of voices join him.
As Swims leaves the stage in a cloak of darkness the crowd start chanting for an encore. Swims' obliges with Bed on Fire, his voice ragged with passion, the performance teetering beautifully between control and collapse, as the set’s pyrotechnic display slips into overdrive. Goodbye’s Been Good to You follows, and then The Door, a perfect closer, hopeful, restrained, and steeped in gratitude.
When the lights finally rose, Swims lingers at the edge of the stage, bowing low and pressing a hand to his heart. For an artist whose voice can level a room, it is his humility that leaves the deepest mark.
Teddy Swims’ Adelaide performance wasn’t just a concert; it was a masterclass in emotional generosity. After more than two hours in his company it’s clear that Swims doesn’t just sing songs, he lives them, bleeds them, and leaves a little piece of himself behind in every room lucky enough to hear him.
Paul Rodda
When: 27 Oct
Where: Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Bookings: Closed
