It might not have been as vertiginous as Grace Jones’ entrance in a 40-foot hoopskirt, but Chappell Roan’s arrival at Outside Lands was just as bombastic. Some 15 minutes before her set, a big-band golf-cart parade trundled around Golden Gate Park’s Polo Field, announcing her presence.
Complete with drag queens, a full brass section and pink versions of Outside Lands mascots Ranger Dave and Ranger Ruth, it was a full-on Mardi Gras krewe, with jazzy renditions of “Hot to Go!” and other songs. Roan is known for featuring local drag queens as openers at her shows, but this was next-level crowd work (although she didn’t appear to be part of it herself).
She may not technically be a headliner, but Chappell Roan is the act of the moment, as much a “feminomenon” as the city’s biggest music festival has seen, getting hundreds of fans to wear pink cowboy hats largely on the strength of a single request via Instagram post. “If you’ve got something pink, get it up in the air!” she shouted at one point.
Catapulted to fame on her 2020 single “Pink Pony Club” and 2023 full-length album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” Roan has leveraged her popularity to become something that was very rare at festivals only a few years ago: an ultra-girly queer icon. With lyrics about ice cream, boys in fugly jeans, making out while the world collapses, moving to Saskatchewan and enticing a hot girl with the promise of a California king bed, Roan is a vulnerable, relatable star, charming fans enough to forget all about Charli XCX and brat summer for a minute. (The two get along, for what it’s worth.)
Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of the release of “Hot to Go,” the song that’s soundtracked a million Instagram stories this year. So, Roan said, she was wearing the same blue sparkly leotard with gold belt and ropy epaulets that she wore in the video.
Opening with “Feminomenon,” she tore through fan favorites like “Red Wine Supernova,” and “My Kink Is Karma” and “Pink Pony Club” (with the requisite sing-along moment). Halfway through, she played “The Subway,” a soaring, as-yet-unreleased song rumored to be part of a forthcoming second album. She’s big enough now not to need anyone’s encouragement — but good luck, babe.
Post Malone returns after two years
One of Outside Lands’ strengths its track record of booking acts for the Lands End stage shortly before they achieve critical mass — Tame Impala and Lizzo are among the best examples — and anticipating shifts in popular taste. But 2024’s country-heavy lineup took a lot of people by surprise. Post Malone’s whip-cracking, fiddle-filled and pyrotechnic set built on his 2022 Outside Lands appearance, an earnest and well-received debut that did a lot to build his credibility as an artist.
Not even 30, he seems to be comfortable in this second career act, his raw voice and slightly goofy charisma suited to a genre he may be introducing to new audiences. When he asked the crowd “Y’all like George Strait” before diving into a cover, the response was perceptibly muted. Sure, Strait holds the record for number-one singles by any artist (60), but even if San Francisco doesn’t know that legend, at least everybody loves Post Malone.
But not without some confusion. Owing to their scruffiness and facial tattoos, at least a few people thought Post Malone was Teddy Swims, with one running fan exclaiming “He went on early!” as she bolted to the front, a few hours before Posty actually took the stage.
Crystal Waters triumphs in a brief, high-energy set
Once upon a time, there was a monthly afternoon dance party called Hard French at Mission-Bernal dive El Rio that people waited hours to get into. Eventually, it became a periodic event with Pride Sunday editions that featured Black divas like Evelyn “Champagne” King or Ronnie Spector.
To cap off the weekend at the wonderful, high-energy queer dance zone Dolores’, Hard French brought out early ’90s house legend Crystal Waters, an 11th-hour addition to the festival lineuop. Along with two tightly choreographed male dancers, she positively annihilated “Gypsy Woman (La da dee la da da)” and her most recognizable hit, “100% Pure Love.” Waters fibbed that one of her boys had an injury as a pretext to summon dancers from the crowd, but that was 25 minutes of pure joy and mayhem, Dolores’ at its best.