Charli xcx Made Panties Rain From the Sky at Outside Lands

Charli xcx is a pop star fully in control — obsessive, even. During her taut headlining set at Outside Lands Friday night, every vocal inflection, outfit change and firework explosion felt meticulously placed as she took her audience on an 85-minute ride through her mind, a hall of mirrors where existential questions about music, fame and greatness — and whether any of it really even matters — have become the art itself.

Charli emerged onto the dark stage, standing on a massive pyramid made up of metal cages, her back facing the audience. Strobe lights revealed her band, who launched into the guitar-heavy tracks from her latest album, Music, Fashion, Film.

True to the ultra self-referential record, Charli came off like a rock star playing a rock star as she head banged while singing the tongue-in-cheek lyrics of “Rock Music.” She followed it up with “Yeah,” a euphoric song about the “a-ha” moment in the songwriting process, when an idea finally clicks. The audience vibrated with palpable joy as they jumped up and down, losing themselves in the deluge of distorted power chords. 

The concepts in Charli’s Music, Fashion, Film are heady; it’s an homage to the creative process itself. Yet she turned out a high-energy, sexy spectacle, interweaving the album’s philosophical musings with revamped versions of her club bangers from Brat, the 2024 album that catapulted her to pop A-lister after years on the periphery of the mainstream. 

A cavalcade of runway models joined her for “Card Declined,” stripping off white T-shirts emblazoned with the names of high-end designers and revealing black bras and tight abs. They marched behind Charli as she strutted down the catwalk, singing depressive lyrics about whether her Brat money can buy her luxury brands, a new life and a new personality. Amid elaborate pyrotechnics and sensual choreography, these self-deprecating moments offered glimmers of vulnerability that allowed the audience to emotionally connect with her. 

With no banter between tracks, Charli performed at a rapid clip, her vocals strong as she writhed on the stage alongside athletic backup dancers or stationed herself at her mic stand, hitting dramatic model-esque poses as her band played. Brat favorite “365 Party Girl” got a tech house revamp, and panties (specifically, black thongs) rained down from the sky during “Guess,” her flirty song with Billie Eilish. 

Charli closed her set with “Nothing Lasts Forever,” the final track on Music, Fashion, Film. It felt like a full-circle moment. After pondering the point of it all (“We’re walking on a runway that goes straight to hell,” she sang on “SS26”), her upbeat live rendition of “Nothing Lasts Forever” was a liberatory reminder that all of this is temporary, and we can do whatever we want. 

This was Charli shedding the weight of massive expectations in her follow-up to Brat. The full main stage crowd, tens of thousands of fans deep, danced as if shaking their worries off, too. I left with the itch to go home and make something myself — encouraged to fall back in love with the act of creating.

In her charming Memphis accent, GloRilla remarked that Outside Lands brought out a “burrtiful” crowd. “I ain’t gon lie, I did not know y’all would be lit and turnt up like this,” she told the audience, pleasantly surprised. 

Her set of back-to-back baddie anthems kicked off with “Tomorrow 2,” her Cardi B-featuring track that put her on the map four years ago. During “All Dere,” her insanely fit dancers jumped into splits and back handsprings as GloRilla’s ode to booty shaking (“She deserve some hundreds, not no motherfucking ones”) hyped them up.

GloRilla’s confident rapping made me wish she didn’t have such an audible backing track of her vocals. Nonetheless, her sweet, down-to-earth vibe and high-energy performance of hits like “Whatchu Kno About Me” and “TGIF” made Golden Gate Park feel like a big, Southern house party, and the good mood was contagious. 

Wet Leg frontwoman Rhian Tisdale flexed her impressive biceps as guitars roared during “catch these fists,” the British indie rock band’s track about fending off creeps at a club. On stage Friday afternoon, Tisdale paired her strong voice with irrepressible charisma that made Wet Leg one of the most fun sets of the afternoon to watch. 

Whether rocking out on her clear green guitar or wetting her hair and headbanging, she continued to stay in the pocket as the incredibly tight band performed high-octane renditions of “CPR” and “mangetout.” During the latter track, Tisdale invited the audience to scream and let out their frustrations, and they happily obliged, shrieking into the ether.