BRAT State Of Mind: Four Sold Out Brooklyn Nights and Beyond

Was May 4th 2025 the end of brat summer or a new beginning? Inside Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, a chaotic energy swirled between the slime green accents and dark sunglasses buzzing about the stadium. Charli XCX’s final night of the US leg of the BRAT tour and four night stint in the city was about to take place, and the anticipation was palpable. “Who will she bring out?” we questioned. It was the night before the Met Gala – someone had to make a guest appearance, right? As I impatiently waited, sweating in my sweltering leather pants behind the stage – yes, I technically sat behind the stage, but I would do anything for Charli – I felt enormous pride. The entire weekend of shows was sold out after playing both weekends of Coachella less than a month prior. She created an entire world and mindset through an articulate album and expert marketing. The songwriting, fashion, social media posts and overall attitude permeated culture in a way that feels generational. It may have manifested originally in a summer vibe, but the continued celebration of BRAT’s ethos a year after its initial release proves it was never meant to exist in a singular season, year, or, dare I say, lifetime. 

The BRAT universe was fully realized as the rumblings of “365 featuring shygirl” poured into the room for the ravenous crowd. Charli immediately had us in the palm of her hand as she transitioned into “360” followed by “Von Dutch”, setting the ‘party girl’ tone for the rest of the night. She strutted about the stage, pushed the camera aggressively out of her face and licked the floor without an ounce of shame in the first 10 minutes of the show – all elements of her performance that have become synonymous with the BRAT tour experience people are desperate to witness live. The presence she exuded in this show was particularly unique, though – it seemed as if Charli had been feeding off the energy of the previous nights and completely unleashed a more confident and demanding performance than I had seen from her previously. I know, it seems impossible that she can be even more captivating, but she was more magnetic, and messier, than ever. 

I was surprised to hear one of the more blatantly intrinsic tracks from the album “I might say something stupid”, as it was a stark contrast to the nonstop dance environment she typically captures. Still, it was a lovely reminder of BRAT’s depth in the midst of the party haze. Her songwriting chops shone brightly as she contemplated the effects of fame, with vulnerability dripping out of every lyric. Though she has joked about her merit as a songwriter, songs in her set like “So I”, “Girl, so Confusing” and “Sympathy is a Knife” brought me back to the first time I listened and became obsessed with the album almost a full year ago. I was amazed by her abundance of honesty in dissecting topics like deep-seated insecurity, anxiety, family and womanhood that felt so specific to Charli’s thoughts and feelings that it resonated profoundly with me and, obviously, many others. The mix of thought-provoking lyricism with pulsing club beats made the album iconic and raw – an aesthetic Charli would uphold in every facet of the world of BRAT.

The party would, of course, resume with “Club Classics”, “Talk Talk” and “Guess” accompanied by almost 20,000 people screeching the lyrics. Blackpink’s darling, Rosé, slayed the “Apple” dance as Charli continued to shake and thrash to every song. She is an entertainer in every sense of the word, commanding her fans to “jump!” and “put your fucking hands up!”  – it felt shameful to ignore the party queen’s orders, a testament to her influence. At this point, I had a feeling she wouldn’t be bringing out any special guests to perform one of the BRAT remixes, but it didn’t matter. She proved she didn’t need a single collaborator to keep our attention. She was more than enough. 

The highlight of my night was witnessing “party 4 u” in all its glory as the first encore song, paired with a flexible light prop hanging from the top of the stage for Charli to play with. Her vocals stole the show as she belted the final line “Partyyyyyyyyyyy” with her entire soul. The song has had a recent resurgence online since its initial release from her 2020 album how i’m feeling now, and I could not be happier that it is finally getting its flowers. Charli’s yearning, paired with the song’s subtle musical build up, perfectly captures the gut-wrenching feeling of not seeing the only person you wanted to see on a night out. A song that feels inherently BRAT even before its inception, which is why I believe it was rediscovered by newer fans and reimagined during this era – anything that shares the same “brat DNA” is accepted and celebrated within the sphere. 

Charli continued the encore with three more pre-BRAT tracks from over a decade of hits like “Vroom Vroom,” “Track 10” and closed the night with “I Love It.” All three tracks were instrumental in cementing Charli in pop history, so they felt fitting to close out the night. During “Track 10”, Charli’s confidence and sexiness was undeniable, again completely owning the arena as she danced in the rain pouring down on her. She was unstoppable, and I was transfixed, hoping the night would never end.

I couldn’t believe it was over – it simply wasn’t enough! I know she’s playing more shows throughout the year, but was BRAT summer officially dead? Charli posted a TikTok a few days prior to the four nights in Brooklyn, pondering the longevity of BRAT and what that means for herself and the world she had been creating well before BRAT’s release. If her exorbitant attention to detail wasn’t evident enough in the marketing and rollout of this album, the video demonstrates just how deeply intertwined this album is to Charli as a person. She spoke about how she thought about every minuscule aspect of this album because it is so “inherently me” – there is no BRAT without Charli and vice versa, which makes it difficult for any artist to let go of a project, considering the massive impact of a piece of art. However, the comments came to reassure her that “brat summer” and the mentality around it was never going to fully go away, after all, Charli isn’t going anywhere, so how could BRAT?

Charli does have a legitimate point though – is there an artistic threshold you inevitably reach for the public to believe you’ve “stayed too long”? BRAT is inherently loud and in your face – all the way from the artwork to the lifestyle it has cultivated, which makes it more susceptible for people to become worn out, but I think Charli mastered the art of rejuvenation throughout the entire world of BRAT. The album’s remixes being “brat but different” was a spot-on concept, as the songs were completely re-envisioned with creative collaborators. Her pop-up shows when promoting the album were fresh and cool. It made you want to experience it yourself, not just through social media. The color associated with the album became synonymous with the term “brat green” which felt like a simple choice, but provided the framework for everything, from memes to culture defining moments, literally cultivating an entire mindset through a color. When an album defines culture in a way that is bigger than the music, it’s not a question of when it is over. It becomes a larger conversation surrounding the piece of art that continues to reshape and reinform for decades, and if you’re lucky, generations. In a world that is obsessed with short attention spans and oversaturation, BRAT was able to cement itself into our subconscious and create a universe that feels timeless and limitless. It’s not a matter of when it will end; it instead begs the question – will we ever see something to this magnitude and fall in love again and again? 

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