Photo Credit: Henry Redcliffe<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Review by James Klein<\/p>\n
After 2024\u2019s \u201cBrat Summer\u201d and \u201cSweat\u201d Tour, expectations were high for Charli xcx\u2019s next era. Returning to TD Garden, she announced, \u201cThe last time I was here, I was having a mental breakdown, but today I feel really, really good.\u201d That confidence shone throughout her 28-song set, balancing the jagged sound of \u201cMusic, Fashion, Film,\u201d the club classics of \u201cBrat\u201d and hits from her expansive catalog.<\/span><\/p>\n Opening for Charli was underscores, whose \u201cU\u201d album has seen popular and critical success since its March 2026 release. Charli\u2019s choice of underscores as an opener highlighted their shared roots in underground hyperpop and alternative electronic music alongside recent mainstream success. Recently, underscores has gained well-deserved recognition, and her talent was evident throughout the opening set.<\/span><\/p>\n Underscores took the stage to \u201cUnlimited Love,\u201d joined by flashy pixelated graphics on the screen behind her. Performing most of \u201cU,\u201d underscores kept the arena engaged with energetic choreography as fans sang and clapped along. Closing with \u201cMusic\u201d was climactic, as underscores jumped and twirled down the thrust stage while the crowd remained mesmerized through every beat drop. Underscores thanked Charli for \u201can opportunity of a lifetime\u201d before receiving a standing ovation.<\/span><\/p>\n As the lights went down, a three-level stage topped by a smoking speaker box appeared. Distorted guitars and synths accompanied the repeated phrase \u201cOblivion is freedom,\u201d from David Cronenberg\u2019s spoken-word addition to \u201cNo One Lasts Forever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Charli emerged in a burst of pyrotechnics for \u201cRock Music,\u201d backed by a live rock band for most of her \u201cMusic, Fashion, Film\u201d album cuts. She performed \u201cYeah,\u201d \u201cWink Wink,\u201d \u201cPersona\u201d and \u201cApple,\u201d which notably omitted the iconic \u201cBrat\u201d-era \u201cApple\u201d dance. Charli performed at a mic stand as flashing lights and guitar riffs accompanied her.<\/span><\/p>\n Charli leaned into the \u201cFashion\u201d portion with \u201cCard Declined,\u201d joined by more than a dozen dancers in matching heels, jeans, and white T-shirts who stripped to their bras by the song\u2019s end. She then crawled to the end of the thrust stage for a head-banging performance of \u201cI\u2019m Afraid\u201d in front of a live fire. The HD cameras artfully captured her raw emotion while reinforcing the album\u2019s film noir aesthetic. The song ended with a beam of light shooting from the bottom of the pyramid stage like a camera flash, another nod to Charli\u2019s recent cinematic influence.<\/span><\/p>\n The dancers returned for performances of \u201cTrack 10,\u201d \u201cGirl, so confusing featuring Lorde\u201d and \u201cpink diamond.\u201d Their sensual choreography was synchronized, particularly during the twerking in \u201cpink diamond,\u201d a song that self-assuredly goes \u201creal hard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Leaning back into the \u201cFilm\u201d aspect of the show, Charli performed two original songs from this year\u2019s \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d adaptation, delivering performances so cinematic that they could have been pre-recorded and edited. As \u201cHouse\u201d hit its peak, fire shot from behind her and fireworks exploded to the beat, creating a pyrotechnic spectacle I had no idea was possible.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDying for You\u201d featured some more club-like moves as the song transitioned into \u201cClub classics\u201d and the \u201cBrat\u201d rave began. The pit became a dance floor as \u201cClub classics\u201d seamlessly transitioned into \u201c365,\u201d \u201c360,\u201d \u201cSympathy is a knife\u201d and \u201cVon dutch,\u201d with each song perfectly balancing choreography and freestyle dancing. Charli leaned into the \u201cBrat\u201d era, with strobe lights, four-on-the-floor beats, and \u201cjump!\u201d callouts. \u201cVon dutch\u201d was staged like its music video, with intricate camera movements following the dancers as they strutted down the stage.<\/span><\/p>\n For her surprise deep cut, Charli chose \u201cSilver Cross,\u201d its first performance since 2019. Drenched in blue and pink light, she sang the 2019 track before rejoining her dancers for \u201cGuess featuring Billie Eilish,\u201d where cannons shot underwear into the crowd at the beat drop.<\/span><\/p>\n Her band rose from the stage for the loud, rock-heavy \u201cIf You Take Away the Music Then What Has She Got?\u201d and \u201c2007,\u201d complete with dancers drinking and smoking behind Charli. The dancers left as the show transitioned to \u201cCamera,\u201d where Charli performed in a torn-up shirt directly to a close-up camera, accentuating the moment with a smirk.<\/span><\/p>\n Next came two fan favorites, \u201cparty 4 u\u201d and \u201cVroom Vroom,\u201d each a defining track in its own right. Charli closed the set with more from \u201cMusic, Fashion, Film,\u201d with \u201cPlayboy Bunny,\u201d \u201cMagic Metal Montana,\u201d \u201cSS26\u201d and \u201cNo One Lasts Forever,\u201d all of which slowly descended into the album\u2019s nihilism and radical impermanence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On \u201cSS26,\u201d Charli sings, \u201cNothing\u2019s gonna save us, not music, fashion, or film,\u201d framing the album\u2019s elements of artistic expression as attempts to fill an existential void. \u201cNo One Lasts Forever\u201d ended with the cast frozen and pensive as Cronenberg\u2019s monologue repeated, \u201cThey are dead, they are gone, no one lasts forever.\u201d The show was bookended by more repetition of \u201cOblivion is freedom\u201d before the lights went back up on TD Garden.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Charli gave fans across her catalog something to latch onto, moving between older favorites, \u201cBrat\u201d classics, and the darker sound of \u201cMusic, Fashion, Film.\u201d By leaning into the new era, she contrasted the \u201cSweat\u201d Tour\u2019s party culture with a more introspective show without sacrificing the fun, moving effortlessly between pop, rock and electronic music.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo Credit: Henry Redcliffe Review by James Klein After 2024\u2019s \u201cBrat Summer\u201d and \u201cSweat\u201d Tour, expectations were high for Charli xcx\u2019s next era. Returning to TD Garden, she announced, \u201cThe last time I was here, I was having a mental breakdown, but today I feel really, really good.\u201d That confidence shone throughout her 28-song […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26292,"featured_media":54990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[855,327,192,2778],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54989"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54991,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54989\/revisions\/54991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}