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❷ Way Out West 2025
Cultural review - Article/critique

This cultural review of the music festival Way Out West 2025 was originally published in Spanish by Visto de Otro lado. The article is nuanced and high-impact critique that goes beyond a mere recap and delivers a critical analysis of staging, relevance, and sound for a key national publication. The piece captures the energy of diverse phenomena in an engaging and authoritative form, providing thoughtful cultural commentary.

Date: August 2025
Assignment: VDOL
Areas: Publishing, Content

Way Out West 2025, musical catharsis in Gothenburg

From Fontaines D.C. and Little Simz to Charli XCX and Chappell Roan

Way Out West 2025 challenged its own scale, becoming a critical testing ground for cultural relevance and the anatomy of modern artistry. I begin my musical catharsis by plugging into Fontaines D.C. The Irish band arrived boasting the masterpiece that is Romance, their acclaimed fourth album released last year. I was curious to see if that unique, nuanced sound, which subtly moves beyond post-punk and approaches shoegaze, could hold up on a main stage (after all, a live gig is what matters). And boy, did it... I enjoyed a raw and contemporary rock sound that managed to caress my soul.

We are talking about a band that is in its most splendid moment. Fontaines sounds forceful, honest, and above all, furious about current events and world issues (incredibly vocal about the genocide in Palestine). Grian Chatten, the frontman you are. How you move between rage and vulnerability. Hearing you speak about alienation, love, and - hey- reality, makes me tear up. The concert was an explosion of energy, but it climaxed when they dedicated their song "Favorite" to the friend band Kneecap.

Photo: Joel Eliasson
Photo: Joel Eliasson
Photo: Joel Eliasson

Bicep must have taken notes when Aristotle said the soul could never think without an image. What they brought to WOW was an absolute visual spectacle: a multimedia set measured to the millimeter, where the duo's sobriety was compensated for by a perfectly choreographed display of lights and visuals. Hits like "Atlas" and "Glue" resonated powerfully. 

This Swedish duo Kite brings the 80s pop sound into experimental and modern territory. The proposal is unmissable: nostalgic synthesizers and catchy melodies. The musical execution was impeccable ("Dance Again" sounded like an anthem). However, something about the staging didn't entirely work out. There was a certain difficulty in presenting such a complex and theatrical production in a festival setting. The choreography of the production got lost as the setlist progressed. The effort is appreciated, but I can’t help but wonder if going the maximalist route was a good idea.

Bicep / Photo: Joel Eliasson
Kite / Photo: Pao Duell

We started the second day with what many considered the festival's best set: Little Simz. Her sound flows with grace and perfection between rap, reggae, and synth-rock. Her lyrics are profound and complex. Her presence is titanic Seeing her so confident and the master of her project, with her soul poured into the new album LOTUS, was truly wonderful. I can imagine the pride and confidence of walking onto any stage with an album like that under your arm. The guests, Yukimi and Obongjayar, had a brilliant presence that made this concert even more special. As I said, many consider it the best show of the festival. And for good reason. 

I plug into Mk.gee, the guy who makes a broken and somewhat dirty sound into something celestial. Never has such a distorted guitar sounded so good and recognizable (with all due respect to Alex G). Mk.gee masters pitch-shifts, dragging and manipulating tones with mastery and caprice. It’s a style he also brings to his production work, making any piece he touches have an extremely recognizable stamp. Mike Gordon steps onto the stage without trying to draw attention, but he knows what he’s doing (yea, he knows he's cool). He is like his music: slightly listless and mysterious. It's like listening to the radio in an old car, with songs from a dust-covered cassette tape recorded in a basement. It sounds like 80s soft rock. But it also sounds like experimental pop or even R&B. Everyone screams when he drops the cosmic riff from "ROCKMAN."

Photos: Micke Sandström

I left Mk.gee early to catch Khruangbin, the band of funky bangs and pastel colors. Their aesthetic is so carefully curated it looks like it was signed off by Wes Anderson. Khruangbin is hypnosis, loops, and surf-rock (I love this word). Their sound is basically a genre itself (it's hard not to recognize one of their songs within seconds). The synergy of Laura Lee's bass melting into Mark Speer's guitars transported me to a Texas gas station in the 90s. 

The ending (with just a couple of shows left) of Charli XCX's brat tour didn't feel like a goodbye, but rather a culmination of the tremendous cultural victory this era has been. Charli brought to WOW a brutalist yet extremely minimalist show. A production with suspicious similarities to Rosalía's Motomami tour. Solitary but multitudinous. The crowd, in lime green, wrapped in a cathartic atmosphere, was constantly trying to catch their breath in a show timed to the very second. I started losing my voice to "Von Dutch" and won't deny the shedding of an introspective tear during "I Might Say Something Stupid." One thing is clear: Charli is the sole and authentic architect of her chaos. The queen of anti-aesthetics. The setlist paid tribute to her legacy with "Vroom Vroom," recalling her hyperpop roots, before ending with an inevitable "I Love It" and a moving and vulnerable "Track 10." The final message on the screen was: "brat summer wasn't just a summer thing. It's a forever thing," wrapping the tour. Now what, Charli? 

Photos: Henry Redcliffe

Lola Young's time at WOW proved that her strength lies in the brutal honesty of her voice. Lola embodies the new anti-popstar who succeeds precisely because of her lack of artifice. She presented a compelling setlist focused on her debut album but featuring new singles from her latest era ("d£aler" and "One Thing"). It was a journey through her emotions and vocal registers: from her rock fury on "Wish You Were Dead" to the piano-led vulnerability of "You Noticed." Lola attempted to balance a lack of visual ambition on stage with her iconic, charismatic, and erratic presence. The closing with the anthem "Messy" was a great collective catharsis. 

Photo: Pao Duell

The festival closed with the Chappell Roan phenomenon. Chappell’s unstoppable ascent has turned the concert for her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, into a full-blown phenomenon. She demonstrates with ease and great confidence that camp is the new crown of pop authenticity. And we already knew this from the moment she appeared on a gentrified music scene as a gothic musketeer-princess. Not many artists know how to pull off such a duality: an unheard-of vocal power mixed a raw vulnerability that allows her to confess her own insecurity without losing an ounce of glamour. The audience's ceremony, dressed in their finest glitter and cowboy hats, was complete, with songs like "Femininomenon" and "Hot To Go!" turned into choreographed anthems. Chappell was shinning especially in moments of vulnerability, such as the ballad "California," or the devastating cover of "Barracuda" (confirming that the artist has not only conquered the new generation but has also earned the respect of rock royalty). 

Foto: Jennie Sjölund

See you next year, Gothenburg.