After a weekend of mostly sedate and typically older artists, watching the frenetic Lil Nas X feels like scrolling frantically through a TikTok feed, playing a YouTube video on 2x speed, and chugging a can of Prime all at the same time. This formidable 24-year-old with just one album to his name throws so many ideas into his work that he’s impossible to pin down – and sometimes impossible to review.
Between his furry boots and the set’s breakneck pace, the show has the energy and aesthetics of a gabber rave. His 2021 debut Montero is a warped kaleidoscope of a pop record, brimming with hooks. Lil Nas X’s closest influence is probably Atlanta hip hop outfit Outkast, but there are traces of dozens of artists in his work – all of whom he wears enthusiastically on his sleeve. Today he samples dozens of songs, deigning to play only a few in their entirety.
His stage shows have a reputation for being exciting and inventive, and this afternoon’s Pyramid stage offering is no different. It is ridiculously high energy. Lil Nas X bursts onstage with opener “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” – a viral TikTok smash thanks to its catchy “Call me when you want” refrain. The relatively laidback “Scoop”, a collaboration with Doja Cat from Montero, provides a rare opportunity to catch your breath.
“To everybody that supports me, I love you,” purrs Lil Nas X, posing in a metal breastplate and high-waisted white slacks with fur trim. “Dead Right Now” sees him flanked by dancers wearing white cutout vests and strutting across the stage. There is a pause as something special is prepared for gargantuan hit “Old Town Road” – an independent 2018 release that created a country-rap crossover smash nobody saw coming. Lil Nas X emerges on stage astride a huge furry horse that looks like Dougal from The Magic Roundabout. He blends this into the chorus from Ginuwine’s “Pony”, gyrating across the stage, before morphing straight into “Miserlou” by Dick Dale and His Del-Tones, a track made famous by the film Pulp Fiction. Improbably, this soon becomes Nirvana’s “Something in the Way”. It’s an unusual blend of samples, and yet somehow he pulls it off.
Lil Nas X disappears for a montage of raunchy R&B and hip hop samples, stretching from Rihanna’s “S&M” to Sza’s “Big Boy” – with plenty of klaxons in between. He re-emerges after another skimpy outfit change for 2019 banger “Panini”, taken from his 2019 EP 7. “My friends wanna shake they ass,” he tells the crowd. “But I told them, no it’s Glastonbury.”
A giant perambulating yeti (what else?) joins him for “That’s What I Want”. Afterwards, he snogs a backing dancer, before launching into “Lost in the Citadel”. “Industry Baby” follows, cut with “Beat It” by Michael Jackson, and Jack Harlow drops by in wraparound sunglasses for the rap in the middle eight.
If any of this sounds made up, I promise it isn’t. Lil Nas X is a Zoomer to his core; a TikTok algorithm made human, with a catalogue of bangers to match.
