25,000 People RSVP'd For Charli XCX's Boiler Room DJ Set. 400 People Got In. Here's What It Was Like Inside

Lea Garn / Courtesy of Boiler Room

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“Alex McDonald, front lines, in the cold, we’re in Normandy, cold as fuck, storming nonetheless…” A slightly damp man leaned into my phone, spitting out his words. The girl he was with begged him to stop invoking Normandy (“Alex, please—not Normandy”) but he soldiered on: “No, we’re still in Normandy. But we will survive.”

I was outside a warehouse in Bushwick, the venue for “Party Girl,” Charli XCX's Boiler Room set. Boiler Room, an innovative music platform, is famous for showcasing up-and-coming talent at parties livestreamed from directly in front of the DJ booth. For fans, this was an opportunity to see their idol in a relatively intimate performance space. Rumor had it 25,000 people RSVPed. Around 400 got in. Some people, like Jenna, 21, had been waiting since 5:30 pm in the rain. It was 8:30 now and the line sprawled blocks. Jenna shivered: “My toes are froze, but my spirit is lit.”

A lot of people didn’t get the lucky email confirmation and rolled up alone, with nothing but platform boots and a dream. JT, 28, came to the event solo sporting a thin paper sign that read “please bring me as your plus one :)” When I asked for a quote she sensed the opportunity to make a little trade: “If I do, can you get me in?” She wasn’t the only one. Olivia Cohen and Sabrina Finkelstein showed up hopeful for a way in. Olivia, 26, told me, “I am in Charli’s .03 percent top listeners on Spotify. Also, I went to a Charli XCX Soul Cycle ride at 7 AM on a Saturday!”

Some people had flown in just for the set, like model Ella Snyder’s roommate Tyra Booker. Tyra, the social director for Ilia Beauty, told me, “Our friend Addison Rae is debuting her new song with Charli, and we love Charli and Addison, so we’re honestly here as supportive friends and fans.” Which is how I found out Addison Rae would be performing—but as I walked down the line the gossip was quickly spreading.

The venue is run by SAA, which someone in the bathroom queue referred to as “the Soho House of Brooklyn.” Each bathroom stall door had a character on it; together they read 360 BRAT, a reference to Charli’s semi-private finsta.

Nearby, I find a dazed Jessica Menuck and Madeline Fisher, both 23. Madeline tells me they received an exclusive preview of Charli’s new album! “They asked if we wanted to listen to her album! They took us to a little room and they took our phones and they played like five bits of songs. Very cunty, very poppy, very A.G. Cook, very hyperpop. We got up and started dancing. I’m still sweating.”

I asked who “they” were. Jessica, lost in recent memory, said, “An old bald guy. I would have gone anywhere with him. And that’s how you get abducted.” Of the unreleased music Jessica said, “In one of her songs [Charli] was like ‘Are you in a sheer tank top, baggy pants, are your nipples hard?” Jessica frantically waved down at her outfit: sheer tank, baggy pants, hard nipples. Charli knows her girls. In fact, that was the uniform of the night, accessorized with black sunglasses. The room came to dance.

“These are the moments that ground me on a bad day,” Jessica continued, solemnly. “When I miss the train, I come back to these moments of pure luck. I was just lucky to be there, with one of my best friends. Electric. Nothing was wrong. Best night ever.” And to think the show hadn’t started yet! Jessica also bought merch. “I got a cutie little shirt.” She shows it – a basic plain black long sleeve that has Party Girl written on it. (“What? I’m vulnerable.”)

Outside, Tyler Bainbridge, creator of Perfectly Imperfect, the cult-favorite newsletter (and, as of last month, social media platform) smoked a cigarette. This was his first Boiler Room set. His friend asked, “Are they taping live?” Joking, Tyler’s eyes darted around: “Gotta be on high alert, can’t look stupid.”

I made my way to already-shaking risers. There behind the DJ booth was a cornucopia of New York’s most notorious club kids, It-girls, mean girls, dolls and gays. In the booth, by iPhone flashlight, someone cracked a handle of vodka and passed it around. A couple made out voraciously in the back. Then it was time! Charli strode past her friends to shrieks, wearing a large blue shirt that said “CULT CLASSIC.” White patterned tights under black panties. Curly hair slicked into a ponytail. Sunglasses. Green Post-it things strapped to her head to snatch her face. The look gave interrupted-in-the-middle-of-getting-ready couture. It was half-made glam. It was teenager-dancing-in-their-room chic. A vision of pop stardom.

Richie Shazam, Dasha Nekravsova (smiling beatifically the entire show), and many one-names—like Aquaria, Aurora (who goes by Fashion Faguette online), Linux, Blaire Spicer, and Prince Andru, in spiked sunglasses—took turns respectfully grinding on Charli. I texted Harrison Smith, The Dare, when I spotted him smoking in the booth and asked if he was DJing. He responded “nunya.” Thank you, Harrison! He DJed the afters.

At an energetic high point, Julia Fox crawled up onto the deck to sing her new song “Down The Drain,” named after her memoir. The lyrics (“I’m a bitch, I’m a girl, I’m a mother, I’m a whore,” felt like a frenzied ode to Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch”: “I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a mother, I’m a sinner, I’m a saint.” There are no saints and sinners anymore.

Between sets from A.G. Cook (who’s dropping a new album in May) and Charli’s fiance George Daniel, the drummer for The 1975, Charli DJed. She moved the crowd effortlessly, conducting a party-girl symphony. Robby, senior editor at sSENSE, admitted, “I wanted to see her DJ more than I wanted to see her perform. A lot of pop stars pretend to be messy and pretend not to give a fuck but she actually doesn’t give a fuck. I also think she lowkey invited indie pop, when she went from ‘Boom Clap’ to PC music. Nobody was doing that type of rogue, like, ‘Fuck my record label’ shit. She gets the internet. She did a Minecraft concert! Who does a Minecraft concert?”

Every so often, someone from Charli’s team tossed her an iPhone and Charli would spin, filming the booth, the crowd, herself, and then tossing it back. It’s apparent that the internet is an extension of her performance. It’s just another tool on her controller, as natural as turning up the bass or stepping up onto the decks. She climbed down the stairs and through the screen.

The much-anticipated Addison Rae arrived dressed in a leather bra with faux-pierced nipples. Clutching hands, Charli and the starlet writhed to an amped up version of Addison’s single “2 Die 4” (feat. Charli XCX), a sexy pop-star mess of gasps, thrusts and flying hair. Charli unzipped her boots, jumping barefoot on the tiny platform. The green post-its migrated off her face into her hair. Consider me an Addison Rae convert—she has charisma. To quote Ivy Wolk’s apt tweet on Addison coming to Bushwick, “Billie Eilish can’t even spell Myrtle Wyckoff.”

There was a frightening moment when Charli threw her arms back and looked like she might crowd-surf. This crowd of Von Dutch hat wearers would fold under a body! Then came the penultimate song – a fresh remix of Rihanna’s Bitch Better Have My Money, at turns slowed and then sped up so quickly it generated whiplash, a sputter of “Bitch better, bitch better.” Finally, she closed with Icona Pop’s “I Love It.” A sentimental full circle moment. The messaging was clear, she wants to hear club classics (a line from one of her songs) because she’s created a lot of club classics.

As the last bars faded and the green strobes stopped, Charli, shoes back on, darted away. E-girl Blizzy McGuire stayed behind, smiling placidly. A Blizzy chant starts up from the remaining crowd. “Okay Blizzy.” “Blizzzzzy.” “Not the Blizzy XCX concert!” Paper’s Alaska Riley told me, “I like how dedicated [Charli] is to having fun and making music that people can just fucking party to.” She added, “The room was definitely boiling, though.”

As I left the venue I saw a paramedic in her red work jacket still dancing in the aisle. Lisa, 56, was working this venue for the first time, and she loved the concert. “They just posted this job yesterday, and I was like gosh ‘Charli XCS! Let me have it!’

Originally Appeared on GQ