It’s often said that Pride month is a mix of protest and party. Last week’s Boston Pride for the People, a festival and parade that coincided with No King’s Day, had plenty of protest. In contrast, OUTLOUD Music Festival, which made its Boston debut at The Stage at Suffolk Downs on Saturday, was an eight-hour party with barely any political statements beyond an obligatory “happy Pride!” from most of the performers.
Then again, in the current political climate, one could argue that booking a high-profile trans singer (Kim Petras) and a drag queen (Trixie Mattel) as headliners was enough of a statement in itself.
While the venue was far from sold out, every act was greeted with enthusiasm by an audience that was generally old enough to drink but young enough to be active on TikTok, where many of OUTLOUD’s acts have strong followings. Boston’s Math3ca and LA’s Hannah Rad kept things moving during set breaks with tracks that gave the crowd plenty of opportunities to snap open their fans.
The performances started with impressive showings by a pair of local queer rappers: Dorchester-bred Big Body Kweeng (whose set was sponsored by Boston’s The Theatre Offensive) and Roxbury’s Oompa. Right from the drumline opening, Big Body Kweeng commanded the stage, shouting “Who says big girls can’t get down?” Oompa relied on her rhyme-making gifts with songs that she peppered with local references like the Citgo sign.
Advertisement
“It’s so important to gather in a time like this,” she said before announcing that it was time to dispense with “serious [stuff] — let’s get into the freaky [stuff],” deploying another track tailor-made for booty-shaking.
Advertisement
The day’s wildcard was Frankie Grande, the older half-brother of pop superstar Ariana Grande. His eclectic résumé includes Broadway work, podcasting, and being a contestant on “Big Brother,” although his debut album doesn’t arrive until the end of this month. With his revealing leather outfit and writhing male dancers, he joked that “this is kind of different from what I do on Nickelodeon,” referring to his recurring role in the children’s channel’s “Henry Danger” franchise. His first single “Rhythm of Love” echoed the best of classic gay dance music, but a cover of Corona’s song “The Rhythm of the Night” failed to capture the soul of the 1990s original.
Aside from the two Boston openers, the non-binary Australian pop-rocker G Flip was the only act of the day to use live musicians (including their own drumming and guitar playing). Performances of songs like “GAY 4 ME” and “Rough” explored the joys and perils of modern queer dating, as did a “cheeky lesbian version” of Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer.” “Disco Cowgirl” and “The Worst Person Alive” had the kind of universal appeal that makes it likely that G Flip will continue their deserved upward momentum.
The audience swelled for birthday girl Rebecca Black, a former viral teen star with a penchant for subverting expectations. Her recent dance-pop LP is called “SALVATION,” and her stage was full of mock religious placards and dancers with leather harnesses. The crowd favorite of the set was the clubbing ode “Sugar Water Cyanide.”
Pride events have long included allies in addition to openly queer artists as performers. At OUTLOUD, this slot went to rapper Flo Milli, who came onstage without dancers or screen projections. Her assertive and unapologetic rhymes and slinky beats proved to be more than enough, with celebrations of self-confidence like “Conceited.” Although she didn’t explicitly raise any LGBTQ topics, Milli exhorted her fans to “just keep doing your thing.”
Advertisement
A-list drag star Mattel presided over what she called a “solid pink disco,” DJing remixes of Blondie, Donna Summer, and Lady Gaga hits. With her fellow queens dancing onstage, beach balls in the air, and vintage pink-hued videos on the screen, Mattel made a strip of grass in East Boston feel like the coolest pool party in Palm Springs.
Closing out the night with a crisp set, Kim Petras emerged from a giant wooden shipping container marked “mail order bride” before launching into her 2017 breakthrough song “I Don’t Want It At All.”
Petras is best known to casual music fans for “Unholy,” her Grammy-winning 2022 collaboration with Sam Smith that made her the first openly trans woman to top the Billboard Hot 100. But guests only heard a few seconds of “Unholy” — and that was when a glam squad rushed to give Petras an onstage freshen-up midway through her set.
Instead, Petras’s track “uhoh” contained the lyrical assertion that “everything I drop is a banger.” By the end of her 70-minute set, it was impossible to disagree. And in a time when culture wars are raging, an inclusive, queer-friendly sunny day of dance music made its point as loudly as any political speech.
OUTLOUD
With Kim Petras, Trixie Mattel. At The Stage at Suffolk Downs, Saturday, June 21
Advertisement