In partnership with Mad Cool Festival

Another spectacular edition of Mad Cool is at an end, and it was a right good’un. Scorching weather, huge headline acts and a vibrant, diverse crowd of music lovers – the Madrid festival has been a massive triumph.

As the sun sets on Mad Cool 2023, here is our round-up of day three (July 8)’s biggest sets.

Words: Andrew Brown, Liberty Dunworth, Sam Moore, Sophie Williams

Belako (6:55pm, Ouigo)

Even before Belako play a single note, the Spanish rock band’s fans have occupied every inch of space before Mad Cool’s Ouigo stage. After a thunderous salvo of ‘Tie Me Up’ and ‘Sea Of Confusion’, the audience size swells until it spills outside of the tent.

When the four-piece launch into ‘Sangre Total’ – the first track they sing entirely en Español – the set reaches new, giddy heights. Playing before a hometown crowd, this feels like a milestone moment for Belako, and one of the week’s standout performances at Mad Cool. (AB)

Years & Years (7:00pm, Madrid Is Life)

“I’ve got a stitch, I’m so bloody excited to be here!,” exclaims a beaming Olly Alexander. The musician and actor has drawn a headline-sized crowd to the Madrid Is Life stage this evening – it’s a testament to the strength of his deliciously fun set, which comprises a near-decade of pop bangers into an hour of full-blown choreography and audience interaction.

A pulverising ‘Sanctify’ is sent skywards by the grinding synth beats of ‘Desire’; Alexander, looking resplendent in a pair of thigh high black boots, spins around while bathed in red light. Not even a friendly water gun fight – which breaks out in the front section of the crowd during a soaring ‘King’ – can dampen his light. (SW)

Touché Amoré (8:00pm, Ouigo)

Touché Amoré’s phenomenal fifth album, 2020’s ‘Lament’, saw the LA-based post-hardcore band step up a level, as they delivered their most resonant music to date. There are a few thousand fans at the Ouigo Stage that understand the magnitude of hearing these cathartic songs live: the band’s whole set – which is only a fraction over half an hour – passes in a blur of reckless, communal energy that reaches its peak with a sublime ‘Reminders’.

When vocalist Jeremy Bolm thanks the audience for continuing to support the band, it doesn’t feel like a line. As a model airplane circles over the crowd, he cups his hands over the mic and offers a nod of appreciation, drinking in the love flowing to and from the stage. (SW)

Liam Gallagher (8:15pm, Mad Cool)

It may be over 30 degrees here in Madrid, but that won’t stop Liam Gallagher from taking to the stage in his signature parka. Introduced with terms like “Godlike”, “Legend” and “Icon” flashing on the screens, and the Manchester City Champions chant playing over the PA, the set is everything and more you’d expect from Britpop royalty.

Not only can he cram an impressive number of solo tracks and Oasis classics into the set, he still manages to find time to try and convert some Real Madrid fans along the way… (LD)

Kurt Vile (8:20pm, Region Of Madrid)

The sun is beginning to set in Madrid and indeed on Mad Cool 2023. Kurt Vile and his live band The Violators take to the Region of Madrid Stage with a relaxed ease about them, undaunted by the distant sound of Liam Gallagher roaring his way through ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’.

The Oasis frontman may be drawing the bigger crowd this evening, but those who have elected to watch the Philadelphia musician instead are handsomely rewarded. The dreamy guitars of ‘Loading Zones’, ‘Check Baby’ and ‘Bassackwards’ provide an ideal hazy summer soundtrack, not least for a couple near NME who are tucking into a picnic. “Thank you for coming to our concert,” Vile earnestly tells the crowd at one point. The pleasure was all ours. (SM)

Red Hot Chili Peppers (10:55pm, Mad Cool)

Hours before the Chili Peppers kick off their set, hundreds of punters are waiting patiently by the Mad Cool stage, and nearly all are wearing merch branded with the band’s signature asterisk. It comes as no surprise, then, that a setlist full of back-to-back hits goes down a storm. The end of each song is met by either a jubilant “Olé, Olé, Olé” or a unified chant of guitarist John Frusciante’s name which is, at times, even louder than the band themselves. (LD)