Stan Twitter came alive last night in Bushwick, where Charli XCX and Boiler Room threw a sweaty, floor-rattling rave we’ll be referencing for years to come. The event, which was fittingly dubbed “PARTYGIRL,” felt like the center of the world for an extremely online community of music lovers — and, according to Pop Crave, broke Boiler Room records with 25,000 RSVPs despite a limited guest list. Indeed, the lines to get inside were wrapped around a few Brooklyn blocks, where rumors swirled about Charli’s surprise guests for the evening and @FckyeahCharli was there to document every update (shoutout to these fans, specifically).
The Party
Charli has always stood on her own cultural intersection, dancing around the mainstage of mega-pop stardom while maintaining a real ear to the ground of what’s happening now and next. “PARTYGIRL” was this perfect mix materialized, pulling in her coolest collaborators and friends for DJ sets (Doss, A. G. Cook, George Daniel, Easyfun) with surprise cameos from two major celebrity fixations: Julia Fox and Addison Rae. If you weren’t thrashing your head and wiping off sweat, your phone was raised to document anything and everything that felt like a moment — mostly to prove you were physically there, but also to record the many scenes that seemed too insane to be real.
Fox, with new silver hair, climbed onto the stage at one point to formally debut her own song, “Down the Drain,” produced by bestie Ben Draghi. “I’m a bitch, I’m a girl, I’m a mother, I’m a whore,” she repeated like a spell, with Charli as her hype woman on the mic. “Destiny is yours to choose, come with me you’ll never lose,” Fox sang, touching her toes and teasing the sea of iPhones glued to her performance. This felt like the closest we’ve come to an unlikely muse-turned-musician since Paris Hilton’s cult classic “Stars Are Blind” — and, according to Fox, it’s not a one-off. She wants to start a whole band that explores multiple genres, including country.
Nearby, Rae was throwing her hair around and gripping the mezzanine as Charli DJ’d “Vroom Vroom,” before emerging to dance along with her own TikTok-viral track “2 Die 4.” Among the night’s many highlights, this stood out as the most surreal. A song that initially leaked online, became a fan forum favorite, then saw a surprise release with Charli as a guest feature being performed live — a win for those who’d consider Rae to be Britney Spears’ second coming (and many do!). Later on, she pulled up to the after party at Mansions in a black SUV, clearing a path to the entrance like a true legend.
At the core of the party, though, was Charli’s new music, featuring lead single “Von Dutch” (out February 29), which she’s been teasing for several weeks now. The next album is shaping up to be lyrically direct and dance-heavy with a clubby cockiness that matched the nightlife superstars crowding around Charli’s DJ booth in VIP: Aquaria, Fashion Faguette, Richie Shazam, Linux, Ty Sunderland and more. Songs with rumored titles like “Club Classics,” “Spring Breakers” and “Cute Clothes” all got previewed, with some callbacks to old favorites like “Party 4 U” and, of course, “I Love It.” Then when Charli finally left the stage around midnight, internet sensation Blizzy McGuire emerged as an impromptu grand finale, pretending to DJ as stans cheered for one last fever dream. Charli’s back, baby.
The Afterparty
Photography: Matt Weinberger
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