Charli XCX made a surprise appearance during The Strokes‘ set at Outside Lands to play ‘Take It Or Leave It’ – watch below.
The New York indie greats were headlining the festival at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park last night (August 8), one day after Charli topped the bill on the same stage.
Midway through The Strokes’ set, frontman Julian Casablancas introduced their guest as a “superstar” and referenced the fact that they both released new albums on the same day last month and one record performed better than the other.
“You’re the queen of album sales,” he told Charli (via San Francisco Chronicle). “She won – won by a lot. She’s a giant pop star in our defence.”
The two then played ‘Take It Or Leave It’, the closing track from The Strokes’ classic 2001 debut album ‘Is This It’, with the two singers trading vocals.
Watch fan-captured footage of the performance here:
The Strokes played:
‘Ize Of The World’
‘Hard To Explain’
‘Going Shopping’
‘Juicebox’
‘Someday’
‘Dine N’Dash’
‘Take It Or Leave It’ (with Charli XCX)
‘Life Is Simple In The Moonlight’
‘Reptilia’
‘Threat Of Joy’
‘Bad Decisions’
‘Last Nite’
‘One Way Trigger’
‘What Ever Happened?’
‘The Adults Are Talking’
‘You Only Live Once’
It is not the first time the two artists have worked together, after Casablancas appeared on the rework of ‘Mean Girls’ for Charli’s 2024 remix album ‘Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat‘.
Casablancas described the collaboration as “serendipitous” and also spoke about his admiration for the way Charli dealt with her fame after the 2024 Brat Summer.
“I feel like fame has never hit someone at a better time, ’cause she’s been around a long time,” he said. “She’s aware of the moment, this huge social moment, but also not taking herself too seriously, she handles it well, but also is humble… that’s why I wanted to do it. She was so cool”.
Charli has also spoken about her love of The Strokes, describing them as a dance band. “It’s like you talk about New York downtown, it’s like people were partying then and really in a hardcore way, and so I think he of all people understands how to capture that kind of an energy in a room and on the songs. It was definitely crazy pulling that all together,” she said.
Both The Strokes’ ‘Reality Awaits‘ and Charli’s ‘Music, Fashion, Film‘ were released on July 24.
NME gave ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ four stars, noting: “‘Music, Fashion, Film’ can feel fragmentary and fleeting, distracted by its imagined, hyper-contemporary audience. But its celebration of art – and its capacity to let you transcend your bounds for something new – feels urgent and timeless.”
‘Reality Awaits’ also got four stars. “Whether unleashing disses or getting deep into the weird and wonderful, a quarter of a century on from their debut, The Strokes sound more alive and locked in than they have in years,” the review stated.
