How Charli xcx Ate Up Brooklyn Barclays Center, Gen-Z (Live Review)

By Ida Gensler*

It wasn’t just a show, it was a cultural moment with months and months of build-up. Over the past year, Charli xcx completely took over pop culture, nightlife, my feeds and more. Last summer, Charlotte Emma Aitchison, 32, exploded onto the scene with the June release of her phenomenal sixth studio album Brat (Atlantic Records) with an unstoppable energy and banging dance floor beats that transformed the season into “Brat Summer.” Her influence seemed to touch every corner of the Internet, with her signature rebellious energy speaking directly to my generation, Gen-Z, which includes people born between 1997 and 2012.

What makes Charli so iconic, isn’t just how great her music is, it’s how over the last year nearly every day Gen-Zers engaged her and her music by ourselves, with each other and/or the larger world. On any given day you could hear her on Spotify, TikTok, YouTube or read her Instagram posts or even hear it coming from stranger’s AirPods, Charli and her beautiful voice were never far from any of us. We referenced her songs in conversation, the word “brat” became a part of our vocabulary and when the viral “Apple” dance blew up on TikTok we knew all the moves. Her collaborations with fellow pop icons with massive fan bases, like Billie Eilish, Lorde and the great Swedish pop queen Robyn only increased her fandom and cemented her place, not just as a solo act, but as a global superstar. Her shoutout last summer from presidential candidate Kamala Harris after tweeting “Kamala IS brat,” became a global moment.

Her touring journey for the album began from mid-September to late October 2024, when she co-headlined a tour with Troye Sivan, playing 22 completely sold-out shows. But things shifted when she launched her solo arena “Brat World Tour,” in late November. She hit major international stops in Europe, Australia, and Mexico before coming back to the U.S., capping it all off with high profile sets at Coachella on April 12 and 19.

Then came her Brooklyn takeover finale. On April 30th, she kicked off the first of four sold out nights at Barclays Center (19K-capacity) and the energy was electric. From the second the lights dropped the arena was transformed into a nightclub. As we heard the opening beats Charli screamed BROOKLYN, WHAT THE FUCK IS UP?!” setting the tone for the next two hours.

She launched right into 365, and from that moment on, no one sat. With minimal staging, no backup dancers and stripped-down production, Charli commanded every inch of the stage. Her raw charisma and intense energy held the crowd tight. She didn’t need theatrics, she was the spectacle.

“Girl,” “So Confusing,” “Party 4 U,” and “I Love It” were set highlights that had the whole arena screaming along. One of the most fascinating aspects of the Brat tour has been the evolving stage design. Throughout the tour, a massive green “brat” curtain behind her, has slowly started to “rot” a clever nod to her song “Apple“ and a sign that her “Brat Era” is coming to an end. Since her show in Illinois, the tear in the curtain has grown bigger and darker, visually signaling the decay and eventual close of this iconic chapter in her career. It’s performance art, storytelling, and stage design all in one.

The peak of the night came during “Track 10,” from her Pop 2 mixtape. As the beat built up, Charli walked slowly to the end of the catwalk, where artificial rain poured down. With the chorus blasting, she danced in the rain alone for almost a full minute, fully giving herself to the music. It was powerful and emotional. You could hear the crowd go silent in awe, then erupt as the beat dropped again.

Even after the show officially ended, the energy didn’t die down for a second. With mostly Gen-Z fans pouring out of Barclays and spilling onto the street, many of us staying to sing, dance, and relive every song on the setlist. It was like an unofficial afterparty, a DJ was blasting “Von Dutch” and “365” on a portable speaker, strangers twirling each other in the street and screaming lyrics into the night air. It didn’t stop until the NYPD showed up and gently asked us to disperse—but even then, the vibe was too strong to kill.

Charli XCX isn’t just putting on concerts, she’s curating cultural moments and powerfully impacting and connecting with my generation. She’s built an entire universe with Brat, and being a part of it, for the last year and especially on this night, was like being in the eye of a wonderful pop music storm.

*Full-disclosure: Ida Gensler is a high school junior, proud Gen-Z’er and Pollstar editor Andy Gensler’s daughter