Interpol played a secret warm-up show in Madrid before playing Mad Cool Festival with The Walkmen’s Matt Barrick on drums – check out what went down below.
On Thursday (July 9), the band announced a secret intimate show billed as Iron City, the name of their latest single. The track is the third to be taken from the New York band’s forthcoming ninth album, ‘This Mirror Weighs A Ton’. Set for release on August 28 via Partisan Records, you pre-order it here.
At the secret show in Madrid’s Sala But club, they were joined by Matt Barrick, of Muzz and The Walkmen, who appears to be stepping in as their replacement drummer while usual sticksman Sam Fogarino sits out their tour to recover from surgery.
Despite playing as Iron Lung, the band didn’t play the new track at Thursday’s gig, instead leaning on songs from ‘Turn On the Bright Lights’ and ‘Antics’ – check out footage and a full setlist below.
Interpol as ‘Iron City’ played:
‘Untitled’
‘No I in Threesome’
‘C’mere’
‘All the Rage Back Home’
‘Rest My Chemistry’
‘Wings on Fire’
‘Evil’
‘The New’
‘See Out Loud’
‘Obstacle 1’
‘NYC’
‘Not Even Jail’
‘PDA’
‘Roland’
‘Slow Hands’
Following that gig, they hit Mad Cool’s Orange Stage in the early hours this morning (July 11), opening with ‘Untitled’ and storming through tracks like ‘No I in Threesome’, ‘C’mere’
‘All the Rage Back Home’, ‘Rest My Chemistry’, ‘Wings on Fire’ – which the band debuted live earlier this year – and ‘Obstacle 1’.
They only made one alteration to the setlist from the intimate warm-up gig, with the addition of ‘The Rover’ in place of ‘Roland’ the only difference.
Interpol at Mad Cool Festival 2026 played:
‘Untitled’
‘No I in Threesome’
‘C’mere’
‘All the Rage Back Home’
‘Rest My Chemistry’
‘Wings on Fire’
‘Evil’
‘Obstacle 1’
‘The New’
‘See Out Loud’
‘Slow Hands’
‘NYC’
‘The Rover’
‘PDA’
Speaking to NME about the recently released ‘Iron City’, Paul Banks said: “That song is more a conversation between the human narrator and the future artificial intelligence that’s running things. Will this matriarchal tech be benevolent or angry? It switches between singing to it and it singing to us.”
Asked if he fears AI, Banks responded: “No. AI replacing art can only base itself on what we’ve made, so without new stuff it will devolve into a simulacra and have no bearing on the human experience. We need to be feeding it new real stuff for it to be doing anything of real note.
“There’s always been shit art that’s purposefully formulaic, now there will just be a computer trying to play the formula. When people get bored of the formula, you’re going to need a person to make the next leap and then the AI can mimic that.”
He continued: “It’ll be human creativity that’s always ahead of the curve. It’s the young artists’ job to work in reaction to the status quo, so they’ll always be breaking new ground that the computer won’t have the human side to make something that feels essential. In a military space is where it’s all a bit sketchier.”
‘This Mirror Weighs A Ton’ was produced by Andrew Wyatt [ROSALÍA, Charli XCX] and mixed by Dave Fridmann [Sleater-Kinney, MGMT], and utilises “strings, woodwinds, layered vocal harmonies, acoustic guitar and experimental sound design” to their signature sense of atmosphere and inescapable rhythms.
Interpol signed to Partisan Records earlier this year, and they will also return to the UK this summer for a special appearance at All Points East x Outbreak in London on August 23, supporting Deftones on a bill that also includes IDLES, Amyl & The Sniffers and others.
After a 23-date North American headline tour, Interpol will head out on a UK and European co-headline arena tour with Bloc Party later this year, including two nights at London’s Olympia on December 4 and 5. See the full list of dates here and find tickets here.
