MADRID at El Mocambo Upstairs (464 Spadina), Thursday (June 17), 11 pm. $10 or NXNE wristband/pass. nxne.com.
Madrid are becoming more and more like Ibiza.
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For the past five years, live shows by the Toronto two-piece have had a psychedelic, shoegazing bent. Lately, though, the electronic duo have been taking trips to party island.
And that’s what they’ll do during NXNE, when they join bon vivants DVAS and Times Neue Roman at the Mile High Party hosted by Upper Class and YYZ Records.
“We like having people dancing at our shows,” says bassist/beatmaster Duncan Christie. “That [desire] sparked us to embrace the dance part of our music more when we play live.”
He says it was never a band decision to get bodies moving at shows. “When you add a live drummer and live bass, it just gets heavier and heavier,” he says. “We’ve always been an electronic band, so this is getting back to our roots.”
Being on YYZ, the local label making a name for itself on the party circuit, also helps Madrid attract a livelier crowd somewhere between concertgoers who stand with their arms crossed and drunk people who dance indiscriminately to anything.
“Five years ago we were playing with indie rock bands and we stood out a bit,” says Christie. “We’d always be the odd man out on the bill. It’s really good that we found this crossover audience. Now we stand out because we’re good.”
