Charli xcx headlines opening night at Outside Lands with era-bridging set

SAN FRANCISCO — Charli xcx’s Outside Lands debut began with a voice in the dark.

Pulsing synths boomed and flashing lights erupted across screens on Lands End stage. With her back towards the audience, a low, disembodied voice addressed the audience over the loudspeakers.

“Oblivion is freedom,” the voice said.

The singer turned to face the crowd, which erupted in cheers. She flipped her hair and grabbed the microphone as she swayed on the first layer of a structure in the shape of a tiered wedding-cake, with a giant speaker suspended at the top. “Me and my friends, we go out,” she sang, opening her 23-song set with “Rock Music,” the debut single from her latest album, “Music, Fashion, Film.” Raining lights danced across her frame as heavy pyrotechnics flared to the beat.

[Related: Concert review: Suki Waterhouse’s cheeky ‘Loveland Tour’ enchants the Hollywood Forever Cemetery]

The British singer-songwriter opened her set around 8:45 p.m., but for some fans, the wait to see the singer began hours before the first song. Nine hours prior to Charli xcx’s scheduled set, a smattering of fans wearing black leather jackets and sunglasses set up blankets alongside the silver barricade surrounding the stage.

Charli xcx wore a black and silver-accented minidress as she began her performance with two tracks from the album, released July 24. A three-piece band and roughly 15 dancers accompanied the singer, whose punk-influenced vocals collided with electronic beats. Following the global success of 2024’s “Brat,” which cemented Charli xcx into pop’s mainstream with its club-inspired sound and distinct green hue, “Music, Fashion, Film” takes a darker, more experimental direction.

The set moved across the singer’s catalog, weaving selections from her new album between “Brat” songs and earlier releases. As she sang “Apple” with her band, artificial fog spilled on stage – offering a brief return to “Brat” before she began another stint pulling from “Music, Fashion, Film.”

Charli xcx’s Friday performance marked the artist’s first appearance at Outside Lands and her second major festival headlining performance after the release of “Music, Fashion, Film.” The musician previously headlined Lollapalooza on July 31 in Chicago.

For Gavi Daio, who had waited at the barricade since the festival gates opened, the movement between eras made Charli xcx’s music all the more compelling. Daio added that while she enjoyed the singer’s new direction, “Brat” was the album that initially turned her from a casual listener of tracks like “party for u” into a true fan.

“Every album of hers is always different,” Daio said. “That’s really cool that she has variety like that.”

The set continued through “Wink Wink” and “Card Declined,” during which Charli xcx emerged from a cloud of smoke in front of the wedding-cake-shaped fortress, alongside dancers in jeans and baby tees with phrases such as “I love pink diamond.” As lights flashed, the singer descended down the catwalk while models migrated to dance on the various layers of the stage’s center structure.

The set’s first major transition came after “Card Declined,” a propulsive track about the emptiness of consumerism, as Charli xcx disappeared from the stage and reemerged on the side of the fortress in a white, short-sleeve minidress with a black mesh overlay and uneven hemline. She stood largely alone for “Track 10,” in a quieter, more exposed moment after the preceding song’s power. The artist clung to the metal walls behind her and, later, twirled across the stage as she revisited the 2017 fan-favorite off “Pop 2.”

“Girl, so confusing” saw the British popstar on the second layer of her set once more. As the intro of the Lorde collaboration began to play, she strutted to the platform’s center before a backdrop of dancers in black crop tops and dark bottoms. The singer raised her hand and pointed towards the audience.

“You ready?” Charli xcx asked.

After the “Brat” collaboration, she moved into “pink diamond,” the first track on her 2020 album “how i’m feeling now.” Lights illuminated the singer and her dancers in pink as hectic beats and digital percussion hammered.

[Related: Album review: Charli xcx’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ reaches peaks in production, falls in songwriting]

With “House” the set transitioned again – this time into the singer/songwriter’s “Wuthering Heights” era as she knelt on stage and belted into the microphone amidst sharp feedback and snappy drum beats. She wore a billowing cream-toned cropped ensemble and clasped a black beaded necklace as fireworks illuminated overhead.

“I think I’m gonna die in this house,” she sang.

“Dying for you,” another song from Emerald Fennell’s soundtrack, followed before the singer accessorized further with the addition of black sunglasses as she embarked on a run of bass-heavy “Brat” hits. The ground pulsed as her band left the stage. The crowd reached its loudest volumes of the night in moments of heated dancing and scream-singing with friends. During “Von dutch,” the singer walked along the barricade, moving within reach of fans who had spent the day waiting for her performance.

“Guess” featuring Billie Eilish sparked the crowd’s most energetic reactions as they danced to Billie Eilish’s vocals. A shower of underwear coming from the stage nodded to the track’s lyrics in a confetti-like formation. The set eventually moved to older material with “party 4 u,” before Charli xcx returned to her latest album for its closing stretch.

Elizabeth Hahn, a fan who arrived early to secure a barricade position, said she’s been following the singer for more than a decade. “Music, Fashion, Film” reflects where Charli is now after the cultural surge surrounding “Brat,” she added.

“After the whole ‘Brat,’ I feel like she’s talking about how she’s been feeling recently,” Hahn said.

In a hole-covered t-shirt, the singer performed “SS26” before ending with “No One Lasts Forever,” accompanied by the same David Cronenberg monologue that had appeared in the show’s opening.

“I’ve loved her for a long time,” Hahn said. “She’s always been famous but the way she blew up with ‘Brat’ – I was always waiting for her moment – and now it’s finally here.”

Charli xcx looked out towards the crowd as she stood on the metal structure, dancers gathered around her. As the stage went dark, the voice returned to the idea that opened the night.

“Oblivion is freedom,” it said.