Over the course of six days, punks, e-girls, and club kids gathered at five venues across the Mexican capital for Pitchfork’s first festival in Latin America. Volcanic ash and hot temperatures enveloped the metropolis, but that didn’t hamper fans from getting their fill of post-rock, avant rap, and Detroit techno. Here are a few of the best performances we caught:
Rubio – Thursday, March 7, Foro Indie Rocks!
Songwriter and producer Rubio commanded the Indie Rocks! stage with a spectral versatility: One minute, her voice shivered in a horror-movie whisper; the next, she screeched like a banshee, her eyes rolling into the back of her head. Her talent as a multi-instrumentalist sparkled as she hopped between drum machines, electric guitars, and samplers, blasting the audience with twitchy garage breaks, dream-pop fuzz, and dirty dembow riddims. But the most remarkable part of her set was a moment of hushed intensity. During “La Especie,” a song from Rubio’s 2020 album, Mango Negro, the sound man passed her a lit sage stick, maraca, and feathers; she walked across the stage and shook the bundled items rhythmically, allowing the fragrant smoke to curl through the air. The purifying energy she brought to the room came as much from the pungent herb as it did from her own hypnotic stage presence.
Yeule – Friday, March 8, Frontón Bucareli
Yeule arrived for their performance in theatrical fashion, emerging with cartoonish eyebrows and Betty Boop hair. The 26-year-old noise pop musician’s set had all the wistful brokenness and emotional devastation that defined their triumphant 2023 album, Softscars. They switched between three guitars, emitting waves of corroded reverb, gently fingerpicking, and even using a cello bow to draw out distorted drones. The grungy excess of Yeule’s songs can be euphoric as well as doleful, and the crowd wasn’t shy about chanting and jumping along. Halfway through the set, Yeule demanded everyone in the room scream “I FUCKING LOVE MUSIC!”—a directive they dutifully followed.