Charli XCX Joins The Strokes at Outside Lands To Perform Take It Or Leave It

The Strokes brought out a major surprise guest during their headlining set on Saturday at the Outside Lands festival, welcoming Charli XCX to the stage to tear through ‘Take It or Leave It.’

A Surprise Collab in San Francisco

Golden Gate Park, venue for the Outside Lands festival. (Fred von Lohmann from san francisco, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Before welcoming the singer, frontman Julian Casablancas hyped up the crowd. “We got a special little guest. A big guest. A superstar,” he told the audience.

Casablancas also referenced the fact that both acts released new albums—the Strokes’ Reality Awaits and Charli’s Music, Fashion, Film—on the same day in July. “We had a great battle. Congratulations, you defeated us in the album sales. You’re new queen of everything, Charli XCX,” he said.

The band and Charli XCX—who had headlined the previous night of the San Francisco festival—then launched straight into the closing track from Is This It?.

Mutual Respect and Future Dates

After the performance concluded, Casablancas shouted out the singer again. “Charli motherfucking XCX,” he said, returning to the subject of their sales battle. “Yep, she won. She won by a lot.”

The pair previously worked together when Casablancas featured on a reworking of “Mean Girls” for Charli’s remix album, Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat.

Following the festival appearance, Charli heads to the U.K. to headline the Reading and Leeds festivals. Meanwhile, the Strokes are scheduled to head to Japan next weekend to play the Summer Sonic festivals in Tokyo and Osaka.