The xx Turn Twin Peaks Into a Nighttime Reverie at Outside Lands

There's a particular hush that falls over a crowd when The xx take the stage, a collective understanding that this is going to be a different kind of festival set, and that hush settled over the Twin Peaks stage at Outside Lands right on cue. Reunited for their Summer 2026 tour after years of celebrated solo work from Romy, Oliver Sim, and Jamie xx, the trio delivered a set that felt both intimate and enormous, proof that some chemistry only gets richer with time apart.

They opened with "Crystalised," its skeletal guitar line landing with startling clarity in the night air, before "Say Something Loving" and "Islands" pulled the crowd fully into that unmistakable xx atmosphere, all negative space and aching restraint. "Angels" and "Night Time" leaned into the quieter, more devastating end of the catalog, Romy and Oliver's vocals trading lines with the kind of intimacy that makes tens of thousands of people feel like they're eavesdropping on a conversation between two old friends. "Sunset" and "Fiction" kept that hushed intensity building without ever breaking it.

What made this set genuinely special was how the band wove in the years since their last tour together, folding in Jamie xx's "Loud Places," "Wanna," and "Treat Each Other Right," Romy's "Enjoy Your Life," and Oliver Sim's "GMT" alongside the group's own catalog, along with a gorgeous cover of Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx's "I'll Take Care of U." Rather than feeling like a detour, it turned the set into a fuller portrait of everything this trio has built, together and apart, over the last decade and a half. "Shelter" and "Infinity" brought the emotional weight back to the group's earliest work, and the crowd, by then fully surrendered to the mood, sang every hushed word back.

The lighting design matched the music's restraint beautifully, sparse washes of color against total darkness, letting silhouettes and negative space do as much storytelling as the songs themselves. "VCR" arrived like a warm memory, and the set built toward its close with "On Hold" and "I Dare You," the crowd's energy rising without ever tipping into chaos, before "Intro" closed things out instrumentally, sending the field off on a wave rather than a bang.

Around the Twin Peaks stage, Golden Gate Park had gone properly dark, string lights and stage glow the only real illumination, the crowd swaying together in that particular late-night festival stillness that only a handful of bands can conjure. The xx didn't need pyrotechnics or spectacle to close out their night; they just needed the songs, and they had more than enough.

If The xx are playing anywhere near you on this run, don't miss the chance to see this reunion live. Outside Lands got a set that felt genuinely rare, and we hope it's the first of many more nights like it.

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Photos by: Alive Media