Slayyyter’s Last Minute Lollapalooza Upgrade Turns Her Wor$t Girl in America Set Into a Breakout Festival Moment
CHICAGO, IL — Lollapalooza’s habit of catching rising regional pop acts at the exact right moment continued with Slayyyter, who was moved at the last minute to a larger stage for her festival debut. The St. Louis native, whose real name is Catherine Grace Garner, drew a strong crowd that showed up ready for the singer’s newest bratty, gothic-pop era.
Garner acknowledged the moment as she opened the set, telling fans she had always wanted to play the festival and joking that recent attention was making her feel famous. That fit neatly with “I’m Actually Kind of Famous,” one of the newer songs that has already become part of her identity shift.
Her new album gave the set a sharper edge
The performance centered on Wor$t Girl in America, the album that has pushed Slayyyter into the biggest run of her career so far. After years of releases that built a devoted following but did not fully break through, the new project has landed on best-of lists, streaming platforms and festival stages, and it has also brought her first notable Billboard chart success.
That album reframes her glossy Y2K-pop instincts as something dirtier and more cinematic. Rather than just candy-colored hooks, it plays like a concept record about small-town frustration dressed in apocalyptic noise, and that shift gave the live show a stronger personality than her earlier material had on its own.
The stage design and live band pushed the performance into darker territory
Slayyyter leaned all the way into that vision with a set built around a dilapidated house, clotheslines with blood-smeared shirts and crosses propped against the walls. The look was more horror movie than standard festival pop, and her outfit, along with matching band styling, kept the whole show locked into the same trashy, theatrical lane.
Adding a live band changed the sound dramatically. Songs such as “Old Technology” and “Crank” hit harder with pounding drums, thick bass and sharper guitar, and the crowd reacted like the set had been turned into a mosh-pit-ready detour from the rest of the festival.
A new song hinted at more than one version of Slayyyter
Garner also used the closing stretch to show she is not staying in one lane for long. She debuted “Brand New Chanel$,” a newly released track that plays sweeter and lighter than the rest of the set, and it is tied to an upcoming companion project for the album.
Even so, the performance made clear why this darker phase is resonating most with fans right now. Slayyyter has long been good at toggling between extremes, but at Lollapalooza, it was her worst self — the snarling, feral, over-the-top version — that felt most like a star turn.
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