MUSIC PREMIERES
Well, what fun we’ve had. As the sun set on Day Four of Mad Cool 2024, punters enjoyed performances from all across the musical spectrum: house, pop-punk, indie and more. A huge lineup, new names and cool vibes throughout made for a brilliant final day of this year’s festival.
The Killers gave us a headline show to remember, Bring Me The Horizon made sure to spread the love and Arlo Parks shared a sense of intimacy with her crowd. Over and out, these were our favourite moments…
Words: Liberty Dunworth, Hollie Geraghty, Laura Molloy, Sophie Williams
The bass vibrations from HoneyLuv’s pulsating set sent shockwaves beneath our feet before we were even inside Mad Cool’s transportive dance venue, The Loop. Beneath neon zigzagging lasers, the DJ and producer threw a party fitting for last day festivities with a sizzling mix of tropical dance tracks. A set highlight came in the shape of her remix of Cat Dealers and Lukas Vane’s ‘Hey Hey (Heard You Say)’, which she switched-up with an intoxicating trance twist. (HG)
As soon as she bounded onto the stage donning a Nine Inch Nails t-shirt, it was clear Arlo Parks was here to pay homage to 90s rock – a welcomed continuation from the more alternative soundscapes that defined her 2023 album ‘My Soft Machine’.
“This has been one of my favourite fucking gigs ever,” Katherine Parlour shouts into the microphone as Picture Parlour wrap up their set over at the Mahou Cinco Estrellas stage. There was a quiet confidence from the band throughout the performance as they effortlessly broke out renditions of tracks including ‘Norwegian Wood’, ‘Face In The Picture’ and even some unreleased material.
Start to end, they commanded the stage, and made sure to solidify themselves as one to watch out for next time around. (LD)
Avril Lavigne (8:15pm, Mad Cool)
“Here’s to never growing up,” toasted Avril Lavigne before spraying champagne all over the fans parked at the main stage’s barrier. Launching into her defiant track of the same name, there was a palpable feeling of elation from fans that we’re still getting to watch the punk-rock icon do her thing 22 years later.
Wrapping up the last European date of her ‘Greatest Hits’ tour under a perfect blue sky, she performed favourites like ‘Girlfriend’, ‘Complicated’ and ‘I’m With You’ for the sprawling Madrid crowd, before we were showered in a sea of red confetti while rocking out to ‘Sk8er Boy’. A truly joyful Mad Cool highlight. (HG)
“Sorry if we were late, it was not our fault. Well, it wasn’t the band’s fault,” said Oli Sykes by way of introduction to Bring Me The Horizon’s electrifying appearance on the Region Of Madrid stage. Arriving almost 30 minutes later than scheduled – with no real clarification as to why – the band still put on a blockbuster show, replete with confetti and flamethrowers galore.
But even with all the supersized production, the band remained self-aware, preventing proceedings from ever getting too cartoonish. A triumphant rendition of ‘Drown’ made for a real emotional highlight: wearing a fan’s fluffy Kuromi hat, Sykes exchanged hugs and selfies with the front row, making core memories by the second. (SW)
What better way to bring in the end of Mad Cool 2024 than with a huge set from Las Vegas rock icons The Killers. The band were on top form, with frontman Brandon Flowers delivering powerhouse performances of hits including ‘Somebody Told Me’, ‘Mr Brightside’ and more.
To top it off, the band even continued their longstanding tradition of inviting a fan onstage to perform ‘For Reasons Unknown’. After a finale like that, we’re already counting down the days to the 2025 edition. (LD)
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.
