Rewire 2025: “It’s hard to figure out what the highlights were, but I’m gonna give it a try”

Kianí Del Valle Performance Group, Hamill Industries & Tayhana (Photo Anton Teichmann)

This was my second time visiting the festival and it’s already turning into one of my favorite places to see boundary-pushing music. The Hague provides a perfect setting: venues are easy to reach (especially by bike) and the lineup is impeccable. It’s hard to figure out what the highlights were, but I’m gonna give it a try. 

For me, the festival started on Thursday evening at the Koninklijke Schouwburg. I had just arrived from overseas, but I dragged myself to see two performances there. First up was Kianí Del Valle Performance Group, Hamill Industries & Tayhana. The performance was originally commissioned by Sónar Festival and CTM. It was quite a spectacle and a full sensory overload—especially fresh off a plane, trying to stay awake. Kianí is one of the best in the game and it was beyond impressive to witness what the performers were able to do with their bodies.

Next up was Alessandro Cortini. The NIN collaborator performed an epic set, but I’m not sure the venue was the best fit—both for the sound and the visuals. Still, it was a great way to end the first day of the festival and it provided the perfect soundtrack to finally doze off after a long, long day.

Colin Stetson

FRIDAY

My festival day started at 7 p.m. with Colin Stetson. He played in the biggest room of the festival to a huge audience, but apparently only found out right before the show that his set was limited to 45 minutes. He ended up cutting it down on the fly, in a very charming manner, focusing on tracks from his latest album.

I hadn’t expected to even see Oklou, because at Rewire it’s sometimes impossible to get into the more popular shows. But my friend convinced me to give it a shot and we made it in. Oklou—who just released one of my favorite pop albums of the year so far—played her set heavily pregnant, warning the audience that she wasn’t sure how much energy she had. Still, she played all the way through and didn’t disappoint.

At one point, two people fainted and the set had to be briefly interrupted, but everyone handled it very well. Overall, it was one of the more accessible performances of the festival, but I’m glad Rewire offers that kind of range.

Oklou

YHWH Nailgun

I’ve seen YHWH Nailgun a bunch of times already, but they were still high on my must-see list. The AD93-releasing, experimental industrial post-punk band is one of the best live acts out there right now. Their energy is unmatched, the drummer is a beast and fans of This Heat will definitely find something to love.

What happened next was a classic Rewire experience: I tried to get into NYC electronic act Kassiet Krut (featuring former members of one of my favorite guitar bands, Palm), but people were already queuing up for Two Shell in the bigger venue. I had no interest in spending an hour in line, so I decided to try my luck with Clarissa Connelly instead. Unfortunately, the queue there was just as intense and they eventually stopped letting people in. Luckily, I had recently seen her beautiful show in Berlin and friends told me her Rewire set was just as magical, the church surely providing the perfect setting for her music.

Instead, I went to the Emptyset gig, which turned out to be exactly what I needed to stay awake—jet lag still hitting hard. They delivered their signature harsh, experimental techno sound, paired with minimal but effective laser visuals. To cap off the night, I spent an hour soaking in the Raime DJ set at the Grey Space basement, the official aftershow club spot of the festival—where you’ll inevitably run into most of the people you’ve met during the day.

SATURDAY

a good meal

The day started with great Indonesian food and doing my laundry and by late afternoon I was ready to see some music. No luck getting into Matmos—they had already stopped letting people in—so Arooj Aftab ended up being the first show of the night for me. Another headliner of the festival, she played the biggest room to a packed audience. As always, her backing band was made up of top-tier musicians, perfectly supporting her vocals. She delivered a beautiful set blending songs from her latest record Night Reign and her previous album Vulture Prince, all mixed in with some hilarious stage banter.

I left halfway through the set to catch at least part of Holy Tongue meet Shackleton, which I had missed at Atonal Festival—so I was happy to finally see it here. Anything involving Valentina Magaletti is a must-see for me at this point and this show did not disappoint. The artists interacted beautifully, blending percussive elements of dub and post-punk in a way that felt both tight and free-flowing.

Able Noise

I then saw Café OTO / World of Echo affiliates Able Noise, who I wasn’t all too familiar with before. But seeing this kind of re-interpretation of ’90s Chicago post-rock—similar to what Still House Plants are doing—is really up my alley, and it made this set one of my highlights of the festival. It reminded me a little of this meme that INZANE JOHNNY posted the other day, though.

Matana Roberts

I then caught a bit of Ex-Easter Island Head but it didn’t really click with me—so I wandered over to see a bit of Chicago free-jazz legend Matana Roberts before landing at the Spanish multi-genre artist JASSS who performed a very eclectic world premiere of the A/V set with Ben Kreukniet, who also does visuals for the likes of Massive Attack and Travis Scott.

Then came another highlight: Lord Spikeheart from Kenya delivered an unbelievably energetic set—somewhere between cybergrind and trap. I was already a fan of his band Duma and had seen him perform solo before, but this was on a whole other level. A full-on moshpit broke out in the crowd and honestly I could’ve ended the night right there—that’s how satisfying this show was.

But I didn’t and so afraid of missing out I witnessed an intense DJ set by Japanese trailblazer ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U who physically throws himself into his ever genre-shifting selections. Just watching him on stage was the perfect way to stay awake and alert until 3 am before finally calling it a night and wrapping up a packed third day of the festival.

Yousuke Yukimatsu

SUNDAY

The shows started early on Sunday, so I was already watching Danish dream pop act Molina at 2:30 pm. I’m a fan of everything coming out of the Escho Records-adjacent scene around artists like Astrid Sonne, Fine, or ML Buch so I was easily charmed by this set.

Next up at the same venue (Concordia) was Milan W., who released one of my favorite albums last year on STROOM. I was really curious to hear it performed live. The blend of dreamy instrumental parts and Kurt Vile-esque vocals was wonderful—it was definitely one of my favorite performances of the festival. I’m already looking forward to seeing it again in Berlin this weekend.

caroline

Two artists I wanted to see were scheduled almost at the same time, but luckily they played just around the corner from each other. Rough Trade signee, the eight-piece chamber pop band caroline, played their first show in a while—reminiscent of múm at times. I’m definitely looking forward to hearing more from them this year. I then went on to catch Body Meπa from New York City, performing the second of their two Rewire shows.
They’ve been around since the pandemic, but these were their European debut live performances. The four-piece featuring famed drummer Greg Fox, music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, Grey McMurray on guitar and Melvin Gibbs on bass delivered a spaced-out, energizing post-rock set. At one point, Greg Fox made a heartfelt plea, saying The Hague is a beautiful city that more people should visit but not just as tourists – a sentiment I fully share.

the author meets Body Meπa

another excellent meal

With a heavy heart, I decided to skip performances by Rachika Nayar, Yellow Swans and more eaze & claire rousay. One has to eat sometimes and I ended up spending the next two hours enjoying a wonderful Uyghur meal. The city keeps surprising me with its culinary offerings.

This break was also to prepare for one of the other highlights and headline sets of the festival: Laurie Anderson. Her performance was the typical mix of spoken word and multimedia elements, touching on timely topics such as the recent banning of dozens of words from official US government documents. It ended with a moving tribute to her late husband, Lou Reed, during which she invited the entire audience to join in doing some of his favorite Tai Chi moves. A touching and fitting end to a wonderful festival.

I’m happy I was able to catch so many sets despite being jetlagged—it was just too tempting to see as much as possible when given the opportunity. I would’ve seen even more if I didn’t also have to take breaks for food like a normal person and if it weren’t for those long lines!
It was also the kind of festival where I kept running into friends, old and new, from different parts of the world. Just another reason why I’ll definitely keep coming back in the years to come.