Charli XCX rolled out on stage like the London queen that she is and immediately told everyone to put their middle fingers up in the air before launching into the title tack from her newest album. I’m a huge Charli fan, but I haven’t seen her since Sucker came out, and it’s refreshing and a little exhilarating to see a pop star so proudly embrace the trappings of punk rock so well. All of her band members were on stage in zebra print, rocking out the fiery intensity of a real life Josie & The Pussycat Dolls. During “Break The Rules,” she howled a scream into the mic and layered reverb on her vocals, letting it echo out across the festival grounds. She started a chant of “pussy power” and a bunch of boring straight white men and a Kurt Cobain lookalike turned around and walked away from the crowd muttering “We’re getting the fuck out of here” under their breath. Charli was subversive and exciting in a non-obvious way, but what was obvious was that she was thrilled to be there. She claimed ownership over songs that are rightly hers, turning in a electrified rendition of “I Love It” and turning Iggy Azaela’s shit “Fancy” verses into gold. And when she ended the set with “Boom Clap,” her first of hopefully many No. 1 singles, there wasn’t any doubt in my mind that she could take over the world one day, and we’d be all the better for it. –James