Pride festivities kicked off a bit early this year in West Hollywood with a star studded line-up for Outloud Festival. It was hardly a soft open with Kesha headlining Friday night followed by a dazzling performance from Janelle Monae on Saturday night and a queen of queens, the one and only Kylie, Miss Kylie Minogue closing out the show on the second official day of Pride month 2024.
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| Big Freedia @ WeHo Pride Outloud Festival 6/2/2024 photo by Nikki DeMartini |
And it wasn't only the headlining acts slaying the stages.
Adam Lambert, Big Freedia, Diplo and friends, Doechii, Noah Cyrus, Trixie Mattel + more paved the way on the dance floor to the respective night's grand fianle.
And that was just the main stage! Across the way, the Summertramp stage hosted Hot Chip, Crystal Waters, Purple Disco Machine + more over the weekend!
While I missed seeing most of the show on Friday and Saturday, I did hear that Kesha did in fact changed the lyrics of her 2010 hit "Tik Tok" from "woke up in the morning feeling like P-Diddy" to "woke up in the mornning saying fuck P-Diddy".
There were murmurs of sound issues Saturday night as the non-bianary artist who goes by both she/her and they/them pronouns, Janelle Monae, and all of her dancers took over the stage. By the looks of it, the sound issues didn't lessen the crowd as I headed out of West Hollywood Park that night. As I was about to leave site to get some shut eye before the third and final show day, something told me to stay. So I turned around and found a spot on the edge of the crowd for a quick exit to beat egress. I told myself I'd stay for one song and eagerly waited in anticipation for what she was going to play next.
The Age of Pleasure artist teased with one of the longest song intros ever and when that distinctive chord finally hit it gave me chills. The one song I stopped to watch happened to be one of the Janelle Monae songs I know and really enjoy, "Make Me Feel". Her vocals did faintly cut in and out but it didn't take away from the performance, not for me anyway. Aside from that, she sounded great: smooth yet strong. Janelle Monae delivers a humble confidence and her dancing is as smooth as her voice. Watching her perform is spellbinding. From working the crowd and belting them out, instrument playing, chorographed dancing, costume changes and some personable banter Janelle Monae does it all with an unmatched style and grace.
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| Janelle Monae @ WeHo Pride Outloud Festival 6/1/2024 photo by Nikki DeMartini |
Seeing that one song live sent me to bed fully fulfilled.
So real, so good, so fuckin' real.
It's just the way it made me feel.
The nest morning the feeling of F.O.M.O was real upon hearing Janelle's special guest was Queen Latifah.
What a way to jump start Pride month 2024!
Janelle Monae set-list 6/1/2024
1. Float
2. Champange Shit
3. Black Sugar Beach
4. Phenomenal
5. Haute
6. Django Jane
7. Q.U.E.E.N
8. Electric Lady
9. Lipstick Lover
10. Paid in Pleasure
11. Make Me Feel
12. Tightrope
It had been years since I saw Big Freedia live and she was even better than I remember. In a bright, rainbow colored, layered tull high-low frock Freedia dripped with pride from the moment she hit the stage. While I hoped she'd play "Mo Azz" I honestly didn't really care what she played as long as there was twerking involved.
Oh lord was there twerking.
Freedia held it down on the mic while the crowd went wild. How anyone can move their body as fast as her dancers do will never not be awe-inspiring. They pop it, lock it and drop it. They move it, groove it and shake it.
It's rachet.
It's dirty.
It's such a good time.
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| Big Freedia @ WeHo Pride Outloud Festival 6/2/2024 photo by Nikki DeMartini |
Between drawn out intros, long interludes and boughts of playful banter songs seemed to morph into each other. The speed driven tempo of "N.O Bounce" and it's looped chorus lines was filled with plenty of eye ctaching dirty dancing as the Queen Diva asked her dancers "how you eat that d!ck, how you eat it?". Their intrepretive twerking ansered the question.
Next, Freedia invited a at least twenty fans on stage to shake their asses during "Throw it Back". It's an antic of hers that never gets old.
Freedia dropped a couple of her signature lines "You already know" through out the set and the unostentatious featured singer on Beyonce's albums Renaissance and Cowboy Carter covered Queen Bey's single "Formation" and a "Explode/Break My Soul" mash-up.
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| Big Freedia and Macy Grey @ WeHo Pride Outloud Festival 6/2/2024 photo by Nikki DeMartini |
Right as I was about to get back to work Macy Gray was brought out on stage. I had no idea that the two have a new single together "I AM" and they debuted it live at Outloud Fest 2024! It was very cool to be there for that and to say a big ol' fuck you to all the haters with these two unique powerhouses.
3. N.O. Bounce
5. Central City Freestyle
6. Nice for What (Drake cover)
7. Formation (Beyonce cover)
8. Explode/Break My Soul
9. Chasing Rainbows
10. I AM
11. Gin in My System
The grand finale for the whole weekend was of course the closing act, Kylie Minogue.
Naturally, Sunday night saw the biggest crowd...everybody wanted to see Kylie and who could blame them?! Her grandiose return marked her first live performance in the States since 2019 drawing an estimated twenty thousand people at Outloud Festival on June 2, 2024 by the time the dance floor queen hit the stage.
In a fringed sequence jumpsuit, care free strawberry-blonde hair and a genuine sincerity flowing from her mere existance, Miss Minogue stunned on stage.
A gig in the 1980's that found her on stage during a Fitzroy Football Club Benefit Concert for a duet of "I got You Babe" with Queer icon John Waters, Minogue herself has been in Queer eye since day one. The ever growing LBGTQIA+ comminuty continues to love and support Kylie and she them. Do you see a theme here? Give love. Get love. Spread love.
The single studded set-list showcased hits from her early, mid and later 2000s catalog plucked from Light Years, Fever, Aphrodite, Golden and Tension.
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| Kylie Minogue and Orville Peck at WeHo Pride Outloud Music Fesival 6/2/2024 photo by Nikki DeMartini |
Half way through her set she played a song I'd never heard before, I actually thought it was a song off of her new upcoming album but turns out it's off of her 2018 album Golden.
She'd already started down a country road so for Minogue's next trick she brought out the gay masked singer, Orville Peck for the live debut of their new single, "Midnight Ride". The juxtaposition of her sweet croons and his darker ones strike a beautifully balanced chord within the song's country-pop blend. And the chemistry between them as they performed teetered on a cuteness overload, an overindlugdence LA was ready was ready for.
Gays rejoiced as lesser known to me songs were qued. Again, surges of joy rushed through me as countless little cuties clacked fans, snapped fingers and sang along to "All the Lovers" and "Padam Padam".
What a jubilent experience it is to be able to embrace something unknown while feeling the love of being included with the freedom to enjoy it how you choose to enjoy it without judgement.
There I was, a 40 year old, straight, white, single, childless, cis-woman sailing solo in a sea of queers happy as a clam.
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| Kylie Minogue at WeHo Pride Outloud Music Fesival 6/2/2024 photo by Nikki DeMartini |
She closed out the show and the weekend with two hits that helped catapult her to stardom "Can't Get You Out of My Head" and "Love at First Sight". Honestly, kicking off Pride month with Kylie Minogue was simply the best. Period.
The Princess of Pop is slated to play the BTS Hyde Park Festival on Saturday July 13th. Rumors swirl around a 2024 tour annoucement from the Kylie Mingoue camp but with no further dates annouced we'll follow her lead and keep on dancing.
Kylie Minogue set-list 6/2/2024
1. Tension
2. Come Into My World
3. In Your Eyes
4. Get Outta My Way
5. Slow
6. Hold On to Now
7. Dancing
8. Midnight Ride
9. Spinning Around
10. All the Lovers
11. Padam Padam
12. Can't Get You Out of My Head
13. Love at First Sight
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