Forget the talent-show clichés. Hard Rock Rising is putting Valencia’s emerging musicians on stage and offering something considerably more useful than a trophy: a genuine shot at going global. The global Hard Rock Rising competition arrives in the city this month, bringing four nights of live music, competition and audience voting as local bands battle for the chance to represent Valencia on an international stage. And this isn't going to be a quiet evening of polite musical networking. The first round kicks off on 2 September with Nohe, Sita Rizzi and Jhay Onex. Then, on 9 September, Moscow, City Of Fury and Horrorwolf take over. Protocol Shift, Santonegro and Reprise follow on 16 September, before everything comes down to the Final Brawl on 23 September. Nine acts. Four rounds. One local winner. May the most memorable, original, technically accomplished and impossible-to-ignore artist win. Because this is where things get interesting: the audience is the jury. Fans will vote in real time using a mobile app, scoring the artists on Musicianship, Fan Support, Vocal Talent, Originality and Stage Presence. So if your friend's band is playing, don't just stand at the back and watch. Get involved. Your vote could help send them through. And unlike the usual battle-of-the-bands circuit, where victory can mean little more than bragging rights and another poster on Instagram, Hard Rock Rising has some serious international muscle behind it. The competition is being staged across 34 countries and 64 Hard Rock Cafes, with Hard Rock International and Coca-Cola joining forces to search for emerging singer-songwriters, bands and DJs. The Valencia winner progresses to the global round, where the recorded performances of all 64 local champions will be judged by the Coke Studio team. The global winner gets a professional recording session at Coke Studio L.A. Live, with flights and accommodation included, plus music distribution across major streaming platforms. Then comes a performance at Hard Rock Orlando, a two-night stay at Hard Rock Hotel Orlando, passes to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, a $10,000 cash prize and an assortment of Marshall amplifiers and accessories. The recording opportunity could be particularly significant. Rather than simply handing the winner a cheque and sending them home, the competition connects them with Coke Studio's professional recording operation, led by multi-platinum, GRAMMY- and Juno-nominated executive producer Rob Rettberg. That's a serious platform for an artist who might currently be recording in a bedroom and wondering when the wider world is finally going to take notice. For Hard Rock Cafe Valencia, meanwhile, there's an obvious sense of pride in putting local talent under the spotlight. “Hard Rock Rising gives us the opportunity to showcase the incredible musical talent right here in Valencia,” says Vittorio Dugarte, Sales & Marketing Manager at Hard Rock Cafe Valencia, describing it as a genuine opportunity for local artists to be discovered on a global stage.And that's ultimately what makes the whole thing worth watching. Valencia has musicians everywhere. Bands rehearsing in garages, bedrooms and borrowed spaces; singers writing songs nobody has heard yet; DJs building sets and audiences one night at a time. The difficult part isn't necessarily making music. It's getting people to listen. Hard Rock Rising at least gives artists a serious opportunity to do exactly that. There will be a stage. There will be an audience. There will be competition. There will be votes. And, for one Valencia act, there will be a route into the global final. The surrounding celebration is suitably Hard Rock, too, with a limited-time menu, Coca-Cola cocktails, collectible merchandise and a limited-edition Hard Rock Rising collaboration with streetwear label Cult of Individuality. But none of that matters when the lights go down. What matters is what happens when the first band walks out. Who owns the room? Who has the songs? Who can really play? Who looks completely at home on stage? And who leaves you thinking, “Where did they come from?” That's the beauty of live music. You can polish a Spotify profile. You can build a social-media following. You can spend hours perfecting your online presence. You can't fake a room reacting to a great band. So Valencia, pay attention. Four nights. Nine acts. One winner. And somewhere inside that line-up could be the next artist Valencia starts claiming it discovered first. For more information: Hard Rock Cafe Valencia

September has barely got its shoes on and Loco Club is already coming out swinging. Valencia’s famously dependable little temple of live music has put together a September programme that refuses to sit still, cramming the month with everything from Mexican psychedelic tropicalia and New York art-rock to British soul, Spanish indie, rock’n’roll, Americana and a five-band Visor Fest Club spectacular. The month kicks off on 4 September with Buena Pregunta + Native Nomads, before Saturday brings the Fira Trovam 2026 presentation party, featuring Rumores, Bajo 79 and Malditas Gaviotas, followed by MVP DJs until 3am. It’s a particularly good showcase for Valencia’s emerging scene, with all three bands having been part of the Cànter artist accelerator supporting musicians affected by the DANA. On 6 September, Mexican outfit Sonido Gallo Negro arrive with their gloriously unhinged cocktail of psychedelic tropical music, eccentric guitars, analogue synths, organ and theremin, accompanied by live visuals from Dr. Alderete. This is music designed less for standing politely at the back and more for surrendering to the rhythm. Two days later, Bodega bring their New York take on alternative rock to the room, supported by Mallorca’s BAF. Bodega’s new album All Inside Aquarium moves beyond their earlier post-punk tag towards a more melodic and eclectic sound drawing on late-80s and 90s alternative rock. And then comes Tyla’s Dogs D’Amour on 11 September. If your idea of rock’n’roll involves battered leather, romantic disaster, dirty guitars and absolutely no interest in behaving sensibly, this is the one. Tyla returns to the stage with the legacy of The Dogs D’Amour firmly behind him and a promise of old-school rock’n’roll swagger. The following night, Mamá bring nearly half a century of Spanish pop songwriting to Loco Club, before British soul outfit Stone Foundation take over on 13 September. The latter arrive with their 11th album, The Revival of Survival, continuing their long-running mission to keep British soul sounding vital, energetic and danceable. Then, on 15 September, Sweden’s Diamond Dogs celebrate 35 years in the business. Their 17th album, Similar Shakes Different Distortion, draws heavily on early-70s British R&B, while their live reputation is built around frontman Sören “Sulo” Karlsson and a seriously energetic performance style. La Bien Querida arrives on 18 September as part of the Directos Vibra Mahou series, before the weekend gets a particularly interesting twist. Visor Fest Club returns to Loco Club on 19 September, bringing Apolo, Danny Mellow, Ghost Transmission, Iris a Secas and Los Belushi together for a night built around some of the great songs of recent musical history. The concept is simple and bloody good fun: five bands, four versions each and a trip through songs associated with artists ranging from Extremoduro and The Breeders to Foo Fighters and beyond. Apolo represent Valencia’s new alternative-rock generation, Danny Mellow return after more than two decades, Xàtiva’s Ghost Transmission bring their noise-rock-meets-pop approach, Los Belushi promise their trademark “elegantly dirty” sound, while Iris a Secas add a playful dose of English and Spanish pop-rock covers. Sunday brings Guillem Roma, whose music mixes Mediterranean influences, Latin American traditions and singer-songwriter sensibilities, before the month heads into its final stretch. The Speedways hit the club on 23 September, followed by Robert Grayd + André Urban on 24 September as part of the Cicle Cànter. Luke Winslow-King then brings his rootsy, soulful Americana to Loco Club on the 25th. On 30 September, The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band arrive with their ferocious take on country-blues and roots music. Led by Reverend Peyton, widely recognised for his fingerpicking, the band have built their reputation around old-school American blues traditions and an intensely physical live show. There is, incidentally, one cancellation on the published September calendar: Stone Senate’s 27 September show is listed as cancelled, so don't accidentally turn up expecting that one. What makes the Loco Club programme work is the complete absence of musical snobbery. You can come for the punk, stay for the soul, discover a Mexican psychedelic band you didn't know existed, stumble into an Americana show the following week and somehow it all makes sense. That’s the Loco Club trick. It remains one of those rooms where the emphasis is firmly on the music rather than the machinery surrounding it. No giant production required, no need for fireworks or video walls — just a good stage, a sweaty room and bands that actually want to play. And judging by September’s calendar, Valencia is going to get plenty of that. For tickets and more information: Loco Club You can see the full September programme on Loco Club’s official events calendar.

The Locos Por La Música festival is coming back to Roig Arena on 19 December, bringing with it a seriously heavyweight slice of Spanish pop and rock history — and more than seven hours of live music to get through. Headlining duties come courtesy of M Clan, Duncan Dhu and Despistaos, with Ella Baila Sola adding another major name to a bill clearly designed for anyone who thinks a great song should come with a chorus big enough for an entire arena. And that's only the beginning.... The festival has packed its seven-hour marathon with Los Toreros Muertos, Alejo Stivel, Guaraná, Melocos and Javier Ojeda, alongside La Banda del Pop, plus DJ El Pulpo and DJ Theo keeping things moving between the live sets. It’s a ridiculously broad musical cocktail, jumping between rock, pop, singer-songwriter territory and dancefloor-friendly anthems, with enough familiar names to make the whole thing feel less like a conventional festival and more like somebody has raided several decades of Spanish music history and put the highlights under one roof. For M Clan, it’s another opportunity to bring their big, swaggering rock sound to one of Valencia’s biggest indoor stages. Duncan Dhu bring an entirely different flavour, with their distinctive place in Spanish pop-rock history making them one of the most intriguing names on the bill, while Despistaos represent the more contemporary side of the festival’s guitar-driven sound. Then there's Ella Baila Sola, whose enormous catalogue of emotionally charged pop songs should provide plenty of ammunition for a crowd that knows every bloody word. The supporting line-up is equally loaded. Los Toreros Muertos bring their irreverent pop-punk spirit; Alejo Stivel arrives with decades of rock'n'roll history behind him; Javier Ojeda brings the legacy of Danza Invisible; while Guaraná and Melocos add further doses of Spanish pop nostalgia. And because seven hours is a long time to stand still, DJ El Pulpo and DJ Theo will be on hand to make sure the party doesn't lose momentum. This isn't really the kind of festival where you turn up for one band and disappear afterwards. The appeal is the whole sprawling package — different generations of Spanish music, multiple generations of fans and a huge indoor arena providing the setting for what should be one hell of a Saturday night. There’s also a genuinely worthwhile element to the event, with Asindown returning as the festival's charitable partner, continuing the connection established during the first Locos por la Música edition at Roig Arena. And the timing couldn't be better. With Christmas looming, Valencia's winter nights getting longer and the end-of-year calendar filling up, Locos por la Música offers seven-plus hours of big choruses, guitars, pop hooks and dancefloor classics without having to worry about what the weather is doing outside. The venue itself is perfectly suited to the job. Roig Arena is Valencia's major new indoor multi-purpose venue, capable of holding up to 20,000 people in concert configuration, meaning this is a festival that can think big without depending on sunshine. The only thing you need to remember is the date! For tickets and more information: Roig Arena

Some things become part of a city without anyone quite noticing it happen. Concerts de la Pèrgola is one of those things. For almost a decade, the modernist structure overlooking Valencia’s Marina has been the unlikely headquarters of Saturday-morning music: guitars, beers, sunshine, families, friends and the kind of crowd that understands there’s absolutely nothing wrong with starting the weekend before lunchtime. Now it’s back. And frankly, Valencia has been waiting. The Pèrgola isn’t just another outdoor stage. Its whole appeal has always been the slightly ridiculous but completely brilliant idea of putting live music on Saturday mornings, often outside the traditional summer concert season and even through the winter. What initially looked like a gamble gradually became one of the city’s most distinctive musical rituals. Across its history, the project has hosted close to 200 concerts, more than 300 artists and around 250,000 spectators. And the comeback is sticking firmly to the formula that made it work: matinal concerts at La Marina de València, with the music starting at midday after doors open at 11am. The first run of announced dates already looks seriously tasty: 14 November: Nacho Vegas + Ela Vin. 21 November: Sex Museum + Los Bengalas. 28 November: Quique González + Mendizabal. 12 December: La Habitación Roja + Salvana. 19 December: Joe Crepúsculo + Seconds DJ’s. It’s a typically eclectic Pèrgola bill, moving comfortably between established Spanish songwriting, indie, rock’n’roll, local talent and artists with enough personality to make the whole thing feel like something more than a standard gig series. The Pèrgola sits where the city meets the sea, its modernist architecture providing a backdrop that is about as far removed from the anonymous black-box concert hall as you can get. You can arrive in the morning, grab an esmorzaret, listen to a band while the Marina wakes up around you and still have most of Saturday stretching ahead afterwards. The official food offering runs from 10am to 12.30pm, because apparently Valencia has decided that a rock gig without a bocadillo is simply unacceptable. That sense of community has always been central to the Pèrgola. It was never really about standing in a dark room watching a band from a distance. It became a meeting point — a place where different generations and different corners of Valencia’s music scene could collide. The history makes its return even more significant. During the pandemic, when much of the live-music world was forced into silence, the Pèrgola’s open-air format allowed it to become the first proposal of its kind in Spain to return to making music, with distancing measures in place. Now the world is considerably less weird, but the basic idea remains wonderfully intact. There’s also a social conscience running underneath the party. The project’s reusable cup initiative supports Associació Àmbit and its Eolus and Papallona supported-housing projects, meaning the humble gig cup contributes towards social housing and psychosocial rehabilitation projects. So yes, the Pèrgola is returning. But calling it a comeback almost undersells what’s happening. This is one of Valencia’s most recognisable musical traditions reopening its doors, putting some serious names on the stage and inviting the city to do what it does best: eat, drink, listen to music and turn a Saturday morning into a full-blown social occasion. For tickets and more information: Concerts De La Pèrgola

Forget the sweaty club, forget the four black walls and a ceiling covered in cables. On Saturday 5 September, the stage is going green. Músiques i Art al Botànic brings live music to the spectacular Botànic Cullera, with Smoke J. Lawrence and Claptonians taking over the garden from 8pm. Doors open at 7pm, giving you plenty of time to settle into one of the region’s most distinctive settings before the music starts. Botànic Cullera is the kind of place that makes the standard gig environment look a little depressing by comparison: greenery, open air and the unmistakable feeling that someone has had the rather brilliant idea of putting guitars somewhere they can actually breathe. Botànic Cullera Smoke J. Lawrence headline a bill alongside Claptonians, bringing a blues-soaked edge to an evening designed around music, art and the atmosphere of the Botànic. Rather than another anonymous night of live music in another anonymous room, Músiques i Art al Botànic has the makings of something considerably more memorable: guitars, open skies and Cullera’s botanical surroundings providing the backdrop. It’s also the sort of event that makes perfect sense for a late-summer Saturday. The heat of the afternoon has started to fade, the garden takes on a different character and the first notes of the evening get to drift through something considerably more interesting than a concrete venue. And you don't need to remortgage the house to get in. Tickets are €8 plus booking fee in advance, €10 on the door, with under-12s admitted free. There’s something pleasingly simple about the whole idea: good music, a beautiful place and a Saturday night that doesn’t require fluorescent lights or a sticky floor. If you like your blues with a little breathing space, your guitars under the stars and your gigs somewhere slightly out of the ordinary, Músiques i Art al Botànic looks like a very good way to spend a September evening. Smoke J. Lawrence. Claptonians. Botànic Cullera. Saturday night. Sometimes the best venue is the one nature built first. For tickets and more information: Moving Tickets

There’s a point in ‘Sacrosaint’ where Slowly Slowly stop sounding merely pissed off and start sounding genuinely worried. It’s an important distinction. Anger is cheap; existential dread with a massive chorus is considerably harder to pull off. The Melbourne trio manage it. Their first new track since 2025’s ARIA No.1 Forgiving Spree, ‘Sacrosaint’ finds Slowly Slowly taking everything they do well — big melodies, bruised introspection, emotional honesty — and dragging it somewhere considerably darker. It’s restless, tense and gloriously unpolished around the edges, like a song being held together by sheer force of will. Frontman Ben Stewart sounds like he’s having an existential crisis in real time. His voice strains, cracks and climbs, deliberately refusing the safety of a clean, comfortable performance. There’s a sense that the whole thing could fall apart at any second, which is precisely why it works. The further ‘Sacrosaint’ goes, the more desperate it becomes, finally arriving at its blunt-force conclusion: “we’re running out of time.” Cheery stuff, then. But Slowly Slowly have always understood that misery is considerably more effective when you can sing along to it. The song’s target is bigger this time. Stewart moves away from the purely personal and looks at the wider mess: the erosion of the things we assume will always be there, the foundations we stop maintaining until suddenly they’re wobbling beneath us. The idea of billions of lonely people competing for something that increasingly feels finite gives ‘Sacrosaint’ its bleak centre, but the band never disappear up their own lyrical backside. Instead, they turn the anxiety into a fucking good rock song. That’s the trick. However grim the subject matter gets, Slowly Slowly remain obsessed with melody. The track keeps reaching for something you can grab onto, building tension until the inevitable release feels less like a conventional climax and more like somebody finally losing their shit. It also feels like a logical next move for a band who have spent the past decade refusing to sit still. Five albums into their career, with Race Car Blues and Daisy Chain both cracking the ARIA Top 10 before Forgiving Spree went all the way to No.1, Slowly Slowly have already established themselves as one of Australia’s more interesting propositions. ‘Sacrosaint’ suggests they’re less interested in consolidating that position than fucking with it. There’s a pleasing lack of caution here. The production allows the song to breathe before steadily tightening the screws, while Stewart’s performance provides the emotional chaos at its centre. It’s not subtle, and it isn’t supposed to be. This is a band taking the temperature of the world and discovering that somebody has left the thermometer in the microwave. Come December, they’ll be taking this new material to Good Things Festival alongside Limp Bizkit, Spiritbox, Simple Plan, Neck Deep and a sizeable chunk of the Australian alternative-rock establishment. ‘Sacrosaint’ already sounds built for that environment: huge enough for the festival field, damaged enough to make sense when the sun goes down. Slowly Slowly have spent ten years turning personal pain into songs that other people can recognise themselves in. With ‘Sacrosaint’, they’ve widened the lens and discovered there’s plenty of pain to go around. Bleak? Absolutely. Melodic? Fucking hell, yes.Worth turning up loud? Obviously. Slowly Slowly are back, and this time they’re looking at the wreckage rather than looking away. Check them out here: Slowly Slowly

Wendy James, Dave Parsons and a seriously heavyweight new-look Transvision Vamp hit Sala Moon on October 3rdThere are comebacks. There are reunions. And then there are the kind of returns that make you stop, turn up the volume and wonder how the hell it took this long. Transvision Vamp are back! And on Saturday October 3rd, 2026, one of the most gloriously provocative, hook-heavy and attitude-packed bands to explode out of late-80s Britain will bring their long-awaited return to Sala Moon in Valencia. This isn't just another retro-rock package wheeled out to cash in on memories of a particular decade. Transvision Vamp are returning after more than three decades away from the touring circuit, with original members Wendy James and Dave Parsons at the heart of a new six-piece lineup. Valencia is the final Spanish date of a run that takes in Barcelona, Madrid and Bilbao before the band head to the UK for their first British tour since 1991. Back in the late 1980s, Transvision Vamp didn't exactly arrive quietly. Fronted by the unmistakable Wendy James, the band smashed together punk attitude, glam-rock swagger, pop hooks and a healthy disregard for behaving themselves. They were loud, colourful, sexy, confrontational and — crucially — they wrote bloody great songs. Their debut album, Pop Art, arrived in 1988 and delivered a string of tracks that still sound tailor-made for a packed, sweaty club: “I Want Your Love”, “Tell That Girl to Shut Up” and “Revolution Baby” among them. Then came Velveteen in 1989, and suddenly Transvision Vamp weren't simply an exciting alternative band — they were massive. The album hit No.1 in the UK, while the single “Baby I Don’t Care” became one of their signature songs and remains an instantly recognisable slice of late-80s pop-rock. The band's appeal was never simply about what they wore, what year it was or which magazine put Wendy James on the cover. It was about energy. It was about the collision of pop melody and punk attitude. It was about songs that could be blasted from a car stereo, screamed back from a crowd and played with enough guitars to make the walls shake. 30-plus years later… here we go again Transvision Vamp officially called time on the band in 1992, after three studio albums: Pop Art, Velveteen and Little Magnets Versus The Bubble of Babble. For decades, the idea of a full-scale Transvision Vamp return seemed unlikely. Then came 2025. Wendy James and bassist Dave Parsons reunited the Transvision Vamp name, with a new musical lineup built around them. Joining them are Alex Ward on guitar, Pip Stakem on guitar, Matt Millership on keyboards and James Sclavunos on drums — a musician whose CV includes his work with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, while Ward has collaborated with Thurston Moore. And the early evidence from their 2026 comeback shows suggests the chemistry is very real. James has never been particularly interested in pretending that the past is the only thing that matters. After Transvision Vamp's original run, she continued to make music as a solo artist, working with musicians including Lenny Kaye, James Williamson and — once again — James Sclavunos. Her most recent studio album, The Shape of History, was released in 2024. That matters because this isn't simply an attempt to recreate 1989. There is history here, certainly. But there is also a musician who has continued developing, writing and performing for decades. And when she steps onto that Valencia stage, there is every reason to expect the attitude that made Transvision Vamp such an irresistible proposition in the first place. Valencia has always had an appetite for loud guitars, British indie, punk, glam, new wave and the glorious crossover territory where all of those things collide. A Transvision Vamp show isn't going to feel like a history lesson. After Spain, Transvision Vamp head into a major UK and Ireland tour, their first such tour since 1991. The run begins in Newcastle on October 6th and includes Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Oxford, Cardiff, Manchester, London, Brighton, Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin and Belfast. Three decades after Transvision Vamp disappeared from the touring map, Wendy James and Dave Parsons will walk onto stages across the UK with a new generation of musicians beside them — and with a catalogue that has stubbornly refused to disappear. Why this comeback matters There is a temptation whenever a band from the 1980s returns to describe it as a trip down memory lane. But Transvision Vamp were never particularly good at staying in their lane. They emerged from the London alternative scene with a sound that was simultaneously punky, poppy, trashy, melodic and rebellious. They were too loud for some pop fans, too pop for some rock fans and far too stylishly dangerous for anyone who thought they could be neatly categorised. That refusal to fit comfortably is probably why the songs still work. ered in the first place. And for everyone in between, it promises something even better: a room full of people who know every word, a band with something to prove, and a catalogue packed with songs that were built for the live environment. Transvision Vamp are back — and Valencia gets the last word before they take Britain by storm. For tickets and more information: Moon Valencia

If there was any doubt that Valencia has its own answer to the great British indie-rock tradition, City Of Fury put it firmly to bed on Friday night. The Valencian-based Britpop outfit stormed into Loco Club and found exactly the kind of audience they were built for: a packed room of indie devotees, Oasis fans and guitar-loving diehards, all ready for a night of swaggering riffs, big melodies and unapologetic British-inspired rock. From the first chord, City Of Fury looked completely at home. There’s a familiar flavour running through their sound — echoes of the golden age of UK indie and Britpop — but this is no nostalgia trip. The band have been steadily carving out their own identity, combining driving guitars, punchy rhythms and atmospheric synth textures with the kind of live energy that demands to be played loud. The real excitement came when the band unleashed their new material. “Somewhere We Belong” landed like a ready-made indie anthem, its soaring melody and optimistic message perfectly suited to a room full of people singing along and looking for the next big chorus. The track has already been described as an uplifting step forward for the band, and live it has the potential to become a serious crowd favourite. Then came “Let You Know”, adding another glimpse of where City Of Fury are heading next. Together, the new tracks suggest a band increasingly confident in their songwriting — polished enough to hit hard, but retaining the rawness and immediacy that makes a club show like this work. And the crowd? Absolutely bought in. Loco Club was heaving, with the atmosphere bouncing somewhere between a sweaty indie night and an Oasis singalong. For a band still building their name, City Of Fury already have something many emerging acts spend years chasing: an audience that believes in them and a live show that makes people want to come back. That momentum is only going one way. With more new music on the horizon and a forthcoming UK tour, City Of Fury are beginning to look less like Valencia's best-kept indie secret and more like a band ready to take their sound beyond Spain. Check them out on Spotify: City Of Fury

There is something wonderfully right about an Òscar Briz gig at El Café in Carcaixent. Put one of the most respected and enduring musicians in the Valencian scene into one of the town’s most characterful musical meeting places, add a lunchtime audience, a few cold drinks, some good conversation and a paella waiting in the wings, and you have the kind of Sunday that makes considerably more sense than spending it staring at a television. On Sunday 6th September Briz will be bringing his trio to El Café for a special lunchtime performance, offering an intimate opportunity to hear one of the Valencian music scene’s great survivors in a setting that feels made for this kind of show. This is an artist with decades of history behind him, from his early work with C.O.D.A. and Banderas de Mayo through The Beat Dealers and his time in Australia with The Whitlams, before returning to Valencia and embarking on his solo career at the end of the 1990s. Since then, he has built an impressive catalogue of albums and become one of the most important voices in contemporary music made in Valencian. What makes Briz particularly interesting is the breadth of that journey. His music has never been easily confined to one particular corner of the record shop, drawing on rock, pop, folk and the rich musical traditions of the País Valencià while retaining a distinctly personal songwriting voice. More than two decades into his solo career, he remains an artist who continues to write, record and perform rather than simply looking backwards. His official website currently lists a busy schedule of performances and projects, underlining just how active he remains. And then there is El Café. For anyone who knows Carcaixent, El Café needs little introduction. The venue has been part of the town's cultural fabric since Enric Casassús opened it in 1982, developing a reputation as a place where music, conversation, food and community have always sat comfortably around the same table. After various chapters in its history, Enric is once again at the helm, continuing the tradition of making the venue a home for live music. Enric himself is far more than simply the man behind the bar. A musician with a long and fascinating connection to the local scene, he has spent decades surrounded by performers, songwriters and artists, and that musical background is a big part of why El Café feels different from the average café that happens to put on a gig. His understanding of music, musicians and audiences has helped turn the place into a genuine community hub, with jazz, blues, flamenco, folk, rock and singer-songwriters regularly finding a home there. The lunchtime format is part of the magic. Rather than waiting until darkness falls and heading into a conventional concert venue, the El Café experience starts while the day is still young. Music happens at close quarters, people settle around tables, conversations continue between songs and, when the final notes have disappeared into the afternoon, there is no need to rush home — because there is paella afterwards. Music followed by paella? In Valencia, frankly, the argument is already won. There is also an important reason to come along and put something into the collection taking place during the event. Briz was recently the victim of a devastating theft in which two of his guitars were stolen: a Godin LGX SA and a Rickenbacker 330 FG, two distinctive and relatively uncommon instruments. The theft represents far more than the loss of a couple of valuable possessions; for a working musician, instruments are tools, companions and often part of a lifetime of creative work. A collection will therefore be held at the El Café performance to help Òscar replace what was taken. It is a small but very tangible way for the local music community to stand behind one of its own — and there could hardly be a more appropriate place to do it than a venue built around the idea that musicians and audiences should look after each other. Sunday 6th September - come for the music, come for Òscar Briz and his trio, come because El Café is one of those increasingly rare places where a live performance still feels like a gathering rather than a production. Come for Enric, the stories, the conversation and the atmosphere. Stay for the paella. And, if you can, bring a little extra with you for the collection. Because sometimes the best thing about a music scene isn't what happens on stage. It's what happens when everybody in the room decides that the person on stage matters.

Sunday,June have clearly decided that psychedelic pop doesn't need to float away into the ether. Sometimes it needs to get its boots dirty, grab hold of a guitar and wrestle with real life. ‘What If I Tried?’ is the result: three and a half minutes of shimmering guitars, hazy psych textures and indie-rock muscle wrapped around a song about the simplest and most difficult idea of all — trying again when everything is telling you not to bother. The Geneva-based Hispano-Swiss five-piece, led by Valencian musician Mario Peiró Espí, have coined their own wonderfully evocative description for what they do: solar psych. It fits. ‘What If I Tried?’ has warmth running through its circuitry, but there is nothing sugary about it. The guitars glint rather than sparkle, the rhythm section keeps things moving with a restless pulse, and the whole track seems to exist somewhere between a sun-drenched afternoon and the slightly uncomfortable realisation that you've been putting off the thing you really want to do. And that tension is where the song really earns its stripes. The lyric is deceptively direct, circling frustration, vanity, doubt and perseverance before repeatedly returning to that wonderfully stubborn refrain: “But I tried / And I try.” It sounds less like a motivational slogan than something muttered to yourself at three in the morning when the grand plan has gone sideways and you're trying to convince yourself that tomorrow is still worth having a go at. That makes it considerably more human — and considerably more compelling. Musically, Sunday,June refuse to sit obediently inside one box. The opening has a rawness that gives way to finely cut, glassy guitars, while the chorus brings a beautifully nostalgic pop sensibility into the mix. Shoegaze drifts around the edges, psychedelic flourishes blur the boundaries and there is an indie-rock directness that occasionally recalls the more expansive side of Arcade Fire without ever turning into imitation. Then comes the payoff: the outro gradually stretches outward, allowing the track to breathe and build rather than rushing towards an obvious finish. It's a smart move, because Sunday,June understand that atmosphere is part of the song. They aren't simply throwing effects at the wall and hoping something sticks; every texture adds to the sense of movement, as though the track itself is slowly discovering where it wants to go. That feels particularly appropriate for a band whose forthcoming second album is called Cinema. Recorded live at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire with producer Andy Savours — whose credits include My Bloody Valentine, Arctic Monkeys and The Killers — Cinema promises a bigger, more organic evolution from the band's 2025 debut Sun Glitter and Other Reflections. ‘What If I Tried?’ certainly suggests they've found a sweet spot between ambition and spontaneity. Most importantly, the track feels alive. You can sense the players rather than simply hearing the production around them, and that gives its polished psychedelic surfaces a human pulse underneath. It has enough hooks to pull you back, enough atmosphere to reward repeated listens and enough emotional ambiguity to stop it becoming just another pleasant indie tune. Sunday,June are making music for the space between giving up and having another go. ‘What If I Tried?’ lives precisely in that gap — wistful but never defeated, dreamy without disappearing up its own psychedelic backside, and warm enough to make the struggle feel strangely beautiful. If this is the first glimpse of Cinema, the album could be one hell of a trip. For more information: Sunday,June

Forget the glossy festival brochures, the VIP nonsense and the increasingly desperate race to make every Spanish summer festival look like Coachella with better weather. BrevaRock is something else. On Saturday 26 September, Albatera gets ready for twelve hours of guitars, attitude, sweat, pogoing and beautifully inappropriate amounts of noise as BrevaRock 2026 takes over the Auditorio del Parque de la Huerta. Doors open at 14:45, the first band hits at 15:00, and the whole glorious racket is available for €15 plus booking fee. Fourteen editions in, BrevaRock has reached the point where it doesn't need to shout about being an alternative festival. It simply gets on with being one. And this year's bill is a proper bastard. At the top of the pile sit three names that could turn a respectable Saturday afternoon into a full-scale public disorder incident: El Último Ke Zierre, Kaos Urbano and Def Con Dos. Alongside them come Laura DSK, Catalina Grande Piñón Pequeño, Afónica Naranjo, Jódete, Desklate and Error de Visión, creating the kind of lineup that understands exactly why people still travel across the country to stand in a field with a beer in one hand and somebody else's elbow in the other. This is punk rock without the museum glass. twelve hours of beautiful trouble BrevaRock's appeal has always been rooted in something increasingly rare: it actually feels like it belongs somewhere. Albatera isn't pretending to be Barcelona. It isn't trying to become Madrid for a weekend. It is a town in the Vega Baja putting its own stamp on the live music map, and after fourteen editions the festival has developed a reputation that stretches well beyond the comarca. The regional tourism site describes it as a consolidated rock festival, attracting audiences to Albatera for a day devoted to Spanish rock. The Parque de la Huerta isn't some anonymous industrial estate with a couple of food trucks dumped beside a temporary stage. There's a sense of place here, and that matters. Especially when you're spending twelve hours getting battered by punk guitars. And then there is the price - Fifteen euros! In 2026, when festival tickets can require the financial planning normally associated with buying a small car, BrevaRock is asking less than some venues charge for a couple of drinks and a suspiciously small burger. The organisers and Albatera council have been blunt about the economics. Maintaining festivals is getting harder as production costs rise and events disappear from the calendar, but the ambition is to keep BrevaRock alive and build towards a fifteenth edition and beyond. That deserves attention. Because independent-minded rock festivals don't survive on nostalgia. They survive because people turn up. El Último Ke Zierre are the kind of band BrevaRock was built for. Thirty-plus years of Spanish punk, political bite and street-level songwriting have given the Burriana veterans a catalogue designed for mass shouting. This is music made to be screamed back at a stage, preferably while several hundred people are moving in completely different directions at once. Then there's Kaos Urbano, bringing the Oi!/street-punk charge from Madrid. Their inclusion gives the bill an extra dose of danger and confrontation — the sort of band whose songs seem to arrive wearing boots. And Def Con Dos? Well, this is where things get gloriously weird. Their collision of hip-hop, punk, metal and political satire has always existed in its own slightly unhinged universe. They are impossible to file neatly under one genre, which is precisely why they work so well on a festival like this. Expect attitude, sarcasm, riffs and a crowd suddenly discovering that shouting along to politically incorrect lyrics is an excellent way to spend a Saturday evening. Catalina Grande Piñón Pequeño, Afónica Naranjo, Jódete, Desklate, Error de Visión and the rest of the bill ensure this isn't just a greatest-hits package for people who already know every band on the poster. There is a deliberate combination of established national acts, emerging artists and local/regional talent — something the organisers and municipality have identified as central to the festival's identity. That matters because festivals are supposed to be dangerous little ecosystems. You arrive for one band. You end up drunk, sunburned and emotionally attached to another band whose name you couldn't pronounce at lunchtime. There is also something wonderfully appropriate about a festival called BrevaRock happening in Albatera. The town's agricultural identity is closely tied to the breva, its celebrated fig crop, with the municipality continuing to promote the fruit as one of its signature products. Which means that, theoretically, BrevaRock is a celebration of two of the great forces of nature: figs and distorted guitars. One is sticky.The other is loud.Both can cause trouble if handled incorrectly. The Spanish festival landscape is changing fast. The giant events grab the headlines. The superstar bookings dominate social media. Meanwhile, smaller festivals are increasingly fighting a completely different battle — rising costs, logistics, infrastructure, artist fees and the simple question of whether enough people will buy tickets early enough to make the numbers work. Fourteen editions is no accident. It is the result of repeatedly persuading people that spending a Saturday in Albatera is a better idea than sitting at home watching somebody else's festival on Instagram. Expect guitars, political shouting, sweaty bodies, beer, bruises, bad decisions, excellent decisions, old favourites, new discoveries and the sort of communal chaos that makes live music worth leaving the sofa for. For tickets and more information: Breva Rock

On Saturday 12 September, Moon Valencia is getting a serious dose of Spanish heavy metal when Saratoga arrive with their ambitious “En Estado Puro” tour, a show built around three distinct chapters of the band's career and designed to give long-time fans precisely the kind of deep dive they have been asking for. After more than three decades of riffs, line-up changes, international tours and enough Spanish metal history to fill several encyclopaedias, Saratoga are approaching this particular chapter with the confidence of a band that knows exactly what its audience wants while still having plenty of new territory to explore. The current line-up features Tete Novoa on vocals, Charlie Parra on guitar, founder and bassist Niko del Hierro, and Arnau Martí on drums, the quartet responsible for the band's current incarnation. Saratoga celebrated their 30th anniversary with a sold-out show at Madrid's La Riviera in 2022, and the band have continued to build their international following, including a 2026 performance in Mexico City before more than 20,000 people. The clever thing about “En Estado Puro” is that Saratoga aren't simply touring a new album and throwing a few old favourites into the encore. The show has been constructed in three acts, each representing a different part of the band's story. First comes “Las Joyas Rescatadas”, a trip into the band's archive to resurrect songs that have been absent from the stage for years and, in many cases, have been repeatedly requested by fans. For anyone who has ever stood at a Saratoga gig wondering why a particular deep cut hasn't appeared in the set for years, this is the section where things could get interesting. Then comes the present: “En Estado Puro”, the band's new album and the beginning of another chapter. Released on 24 April 2026, the record introduces Saratoga's current creative direction while retaining the muscular, melodic heavy-metal identity that has kept the band at the forefront of the Spanish scene. Finally comes “La Gran Tormenta”, the big one: the classics, the songs that have become part of Saratoga's DNA and the material that turned the band from an ambitious Madrid metal outfit into one of the most recognisable names in Spanish heavy metal. In other words, this is effectively a career retrospective disguised as a full-volume metal assault. There is plenty of mileage in a band with Saratoga's history simply touring the hits, but “En Estado Puro” is more ambitious than that. The format allows the band to look backwards without getting trapped there, while the new album gives the current line-up something of its own to prove. Saratoga have been around for more than 34 years, and their history is inevitably tangled up with the development of Spanish-language heavy metal itself. The band have survived personnel changes, different eras and changing musical fashions, yet their central proposition remains remarkably straightforward: big riffs, powerful vocals, technical musicianship and songs designed to sound enormous when played at full volume. The arrival of Charlie Parra as an official member in Spain gives the current incarnation another significant twist, while Arnau Martí has been behind the kit since joining in 2023. At the centre of it all remains Niko del Hierro, the band's founder and long-term anchor. For a band whose history is measured in decades, Saratoga have managed to avoid turning that history into an excuse to stand still. Moon Valencia's relatively intimate setting should make this particularly interesting. Saratoga have played enormous stages and international arenas, including that 20,000-plus Mexican crowd earlier this year, so bringing the “En Estado Puro” production into a club environment should put the audience considerably closer to the machinery. There is something satisfying about that. Heavy metal works best when you can feel it physically: the kick drum in your chest, the guitar amp pushing air across the room and a crowd screaming a chorus back at the singer while the floor starts behaving like an earthquake. Saratoga aren't coming to Valencia simply to celebrate the past. They're bringing the past with them, putting it next to the present and then turning the amplifiers up until the whole thing starts shaking. Spanish metal has a long memory. Saratoga are about to make sure Valencia remembers it. For tickets and more information: Sala Moon