There are certain artists whose music becomes something else entirely in person. Not necessarily louder or bigger, but more alive. The kind of performance that sends you back to albums you already love and makes you hear them differently. The xx delivered one of those sets Saturday night at Outside Lands.
Opening with “Crystalised,” the trio reached all the way back to the beginning. The song comes from their 2009 debut, xx, and immediately established that this reunion would not shy away from the material that first defined them. But the set never felt trapped in nostalgia.
That matters because The xx are returning after roughly eight years away from full live performances together. In that time, Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim, and Jamie xx each developed successful solo careers of their own. Romy had even played a DJ set at Outside Lands the night before, arriving at Saturday’s reunion performance fresh from a completely different side of her musical identity. Rather than pulling the trio further apart, those years seemed to feed back into the band. Their familiar restraint was still there, but so was a more contemporary pulse, especially in the moments where Jamie xx’s electronic instincts pushed the set into something larger.
“Loud Places,” his solo track featuring Romy, became one of the night’s most memorable examples. The song lifted the energy into something that felt almost like gospel worship, with Romy’s voice rising over the production while the crowd responded with the kind of communal release that can be hard to capture on record.
Still, the emotional center of the performance belonged to Romy and Oliver. Their chemistry was strong throughout, but “VCR” felt like the clearest reminder of what makes The xx so distinct. Their voices met with the same intimacy that has always defined the band, only now it carried the weight of years spent apart and the confidence of artists who had grown on their own.
Even “Intro,” one of the band’s most familiar tracks, felt refreshed live. The percussion seemed fuller and more forceful than on record, giving the song a renewed sense of movement without losing the minimalism that made it iconic in the first place.
That balance between past and present was what made the set so effective. The xx did not return sounding preserved in amber. They sounded current, shaped by the solo careers, club music, and experimentation that filled the years between tours, but still unmistakably themselves.
In a world where almost every song ever recorded is available instantly, live music still offers something streaming cannot: the chance to make familiar music feel unfamiliar again. Saturday night, The xx did exactly that. Their set did not simply remind listeners why these songs resonate. It made them feel worth revisiting and obsessing over again.
