If there was ever an artist who had “a moment,” it was definitely Chappell Roan.
The question now is whether this so-called moment can be translated into a kind of longevity in the music business.
Based on what we saw at the Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco on Sunday, the answer seems to be something like: well, quite possible.
After drawing what many believe to be the largest crowd in Chicago’s Lollapalooza festival history the previous weekend, Roan, 26, dominated the conversation and anticipation among Outside Lands attendees throughout the three-day run from August 9-11 in a way that is perhaps unmatched by any other artist in the event’s long and storied history.
From the moment the gates opened on Friday, everyone seemed to be counting down the minutes until the rising synth-pop star took to the big Lands End stage just after 4pm on the final day of the festival.
Roan’s rise has been nothing short of breathtaking: from a local club gig that drew hundreds of fans to San Francisco’s August Hall last year to becoming the de facto main attraction at Outside Lands, where she drew a crowd many times larger than that of Sunday’s official headliner, Sturgill Simpson.
And the interest was so great that when I searched for the latest information on Roan, Google returned the answer “Did you mean: your favorite artist’s favorite artist?” That’s weird, because I had no idea Bryan Ferry was such a big fan of Chappell Roan.
Could Roan’s actual set live up to the hype? No. Absolutely not. But could anyone?
Still, she put on an entertaining show for her adoring fans – proud members of the star’s so-called Pink Pony Club, many of whom wore pink cowboy hats – who turned out in large numbers, filling the polo field in a manner reminiscent of Metallica when they first headlined the festival in 2012. It seemed as though all 75,000 attendees had squeezed onto the field, although the actual number was surely far less.
Still, one had to wonder if about 14 people had seen BADBADNOTGOOD perform at the same time on the festival’s Twin Peaks stage – which, come to think of it, might still be too many people if the band actually lived up to their name.
Roan and her solid band jumped into the action, starting with an anthemic version of “Femininomenon” and playing ten more songs over the course of their hour-long set, all of which were equally well received by the audience.
Most of the songs are from The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Roan’s debut album, which came out in 2023 and initially had mediocre sales (but received plenty of critical acclaim) but went on to become a huge “surprise hit.”
With “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” “After Midnight,” and other numbers, Roan showed off her ability to incorporate a variety of ’80s-inspired sounds (dance pop, new wave, synthpop, etc.) into her music. She gave off a real Madonna-meets-Cyndi Lauper vibe as she got into the swing of things and showed that she just wants to have fun.
She performed this set on the one-year anniversary of her breakthrough hit “Hot to Go!” – released on August 11, 2023 – and to celebrate the occasion, she wore the same blue and gold majorette leotard seen in the video.
Of course, she would perform the number and lead tens of thousands through the accompanying dance craze (popularized by TikTok), in which fans form “HOTTOGO” with their arms in a way that one keen observer compared to a Gen Z “YMCA.” The dance was a huge hit in the general admission area, but the star pointed out that the VIP area definitely couldn’t keep up.
“It’s so weird that VIP thinks they’re too cool to do something like that,” Roan complained.
Overall, Roan’s stage performances were pretty generic – to give just one example, when she started singing “Naked in Manhattan” she shouted to the crowd, “Are you ready to get naked in Manhattan?” Still, her voice was pretty strong and she showed a lot of energy when she took the stage.
Closing out the set with “Good Luck, Babe!”, “My Kink Is Karma” and “Pink Pony Club”, Roan managed to deliver the signature set for the 2024 Outside Lands festival. That’s an impressive feat for any artist, especially one who practically nobody was talking about a few months ago and who went into the show as the most hyped artist of the summer season.
Setlist:
1. “Feminine noun”
2. “Naked in Manhattan”
3. “Super graphic ultra modern girl”
4. “Hot to go!”
5. “After Midnight”
6. “Casual”
7. “The subway”
8. “Red Wine Supernova”
9. “Good luck, baby!”
10. “My fetish is karma”
11. “Pink Pony Club”
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