MUSIC PREMIERES
We’re back, back, back! Day Two of Mad Cool 2024 saw triumphant sets (and frozen margaritas) aplenty, as a wealth of brilliant musicians kept the good vibes flowing at Madrid’s premier music festival.
Basking in the glow of a golden hour, Michael Kiwanuka delivered a stunning main stage set, followed by riotous moments from Kneecap and Nia Archives, among others. Check out Team NME‘s highlights below.
Words: Liberty Dunworth, Hollie Geraghty, Laura Molloy, Sophie Williams
There’s an air of mystery surrounding Merina Gris. The trio, hailing from the Basque Country of Spain, have managed to conceal their surnames and faces since their formation in 2020, in hopes that, by doing so, audiences will be able to approach their music without preconceived prejudice.
At Mad Cool, they made no exception, taking to the Mahou Cinco Estrellas stage in their bejeweled masks to deliver an intoxicating set, crafting moments of intensity that unexpectedly and suddenly collapsed into smooth, soft melodies. And, judging by the explosive reception from the Madrid audience, their anonymity hasn’t hindered any dedication from fans – perhaps encouraging greater dedication instead. (LM)
Summer nights in Madrid were made for moments like Michael Kiwanuka’s sultry evening warm-up. Fresh from releasing new single ‘Floating Parade’ – his first new music in nearly three years, which the crowd were treated to a dreamy live rendition of – the Mercury Prize-winner was on top form as he breezed through one hour on the main stage.
The north London singer commanded a sense of cool, soulful calm before he whipped up a funky frenzy with the help of skittering maracas and his velvety backing singers. Real highlights arrived in the stirring ‘Rule The World’ and bluesy ‘Rolling’, which featured a shredding guitar solo that sliced through the festival site just as the evening sun was descending low in the sky. (HG)
“It’s been 20 years, and we’re always still surprised to see that we have fans outside of the UK,’ Keane frontman Tom Chaplin quipped, looking out at an audience that stretched into the horizon. It may have been two decades since the band first broke onto the scene with ‘Hopes And Fears’, but last night, the energy and conviction with which they delivered their was just as powerful as when they first started.
Classic tracks like ‘Everybody’s Changing’, ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ and ‘Bedshaped’ came in thick and fast, and as each word was sung back to them during Madrid’s golden hour. This moment meant so much to band members and fans alike. (LD)
West Belfast’s rowdiest sons caused near-instant pandemonium on the Mad Cool site – even before they hit the stage. An hour before they took to the Mahou Cinco Estrellas tent – which has a strict capacity of 800 festival-goers – hundreds of fans were already waiting to be let inside, bedecked in tri-colour balaclavas and vintage Ireland jerseys.
Their patience was rewarded. Kneecap are pushing the Irish language into a space that it has never previously occupied, on a scale that even they could surely never have imagined. ‘Sick In The Head’ was an electrifying frenzy of pure energy, while anthemic calling card ‘H.O.O.D’ inspired moshpits galore, though not without Mo Chara running through some etiquette pointers first.
Though the audience for Nia Archives’ Mad Cool performance was sparse when she first stepped up to the decks, it only took moments of her infectious energy to conjure punters from across the field, with many sprinting towards the stage before immediately bursting into dance as the sun set. Spreading the gospel of jungle, Nia played homage to the genre’s history with videos of old ravers flashing on the screens beside her.
After first rising to prominence with the expansive, 1980s-inspired dream-pop of ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ and its standout tracks, Ethel Cain has spent much of her artistic journey trying to step away from that sound. She’s leaned into a moodier mix of drone, ambient rock, and raw analogue textures. “I’m not a fucking pop artist,” the Tallahassee singer once told The FADER, adding, “I reject that wholeheartedly.” Her experimental projects ‘Perverts’ and ‘Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You’ make that stance very clear, and her latest tour often feels like a firm break from the softer sounds that brought her into the spotlight.
For the first of her five headline nights at Hammersmith Apollo, Hayden Anhedönia builds a scene that feels like a slightly playful, gently eerie B-movie graveyard. She spends most of the performance tucked inside a moss-covered altar, surrounded by dramatic lighting and a crucifix mic stand. The show is nearly silent when it comes to onstage chatter. The rare moments she does address the audience are understated and easy to miss. When a fan shouts their love for her, she responds with a simple “Thank you!” from the darkness.
Instead of walking the stage to build energy, the lighting design carries that weight, mirroring the intensity of her songs. During the gritty, heavy ‘Dust Bowl’, she sings inside a slowly circling beam of light that sweeps across the Apollo with piercing brightness, while strobing green and white lights heighten the tension during long instrumental passages.
Ethel Cain. Credit: Connie Burke
As the warm, rough-edged guitars of ‘Knock At The Door’ fill the room, the production shows it can match the strange, atmospheric side of Cain’s catalogue, even if those moments are rare tonight. The set doesn’t lean heavily on ‘Perverts’, but brief pieces of ‘Houseofpsychoticwomn’ and the title track make their way in. The industrial ballad ‘Vacillator’ appears in full, bathed in stark white light as she softly sings, “If you love me, keep it to yourself,” on a track heavy with buried emotion.
For the most part, the night is devoted to ‘Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You’. The album slows the cinematic Southern Gothic of her debut ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ and explores the dizzying pull of a teenage love triangle. The shimmering synths of ‘Fuck Me Eyes’ and the lush strings of ‘Nettles’ bring an early glow, before the performance drifts into hazy ambient dream-rock reminiscent of Grouper. The mood is thick and steady, though it lacks big shifts in dynamics, leaving the set on a single emotional wavelength.
When ‘Tempest’ is briefly stopped and restarted so medics can help an audience member, ‘Waco, Texas’ follows as the main set closer. The encore then pivots toward older material, shifting the tone entirely. After a heartfelt ‘A House in Nebraska’, Anhedönia steps out from behind her green altar for the first and last time, moving into the brighter side of her discography with ‘Crush’ and ‘American Teenager’. Even though she has expressed discomfort with her most well-known tracks, their contrast with her darker material gives the finale a powerful lift. After holding the room in quiet tension for so long, their arrival feels like a release that lands with even greater impact.
