See our favorite moments & exclusive photos featuring the 1975, 5SOS, & more from Tecate Pa'l Norte
It can be hard to grasp just how massive the music festival circuit is across the globe. Even if you consider yourself a huge music fan and follower of festival season, there are more festivals than you can fathom outside of the U.S. that deserve your attention.
Take Tecate Pa’l Norte, for example — one of the biggest festivals in Mexico and Latin America, which goes down every spring in Monterrey, Mexico. Translated to “to the North,” the event has been around since 2012 and this year launched its biggest-ever iteration, expanding from two to three days and drawing 150 acts to the northern Mexican city from March 31-April 2.
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The festival, with its phrase “always powerful and rising,” is like a colorful celebration of music from across the globe — particularly the best that Latin America has to offer. With Tecate beer gardens always in sight, bountiful food trucks selling local delicacies like al pastor tacos, chicharrones, and chilaquiles, grounds decked out in Technicolor displays, and live music going until nearly 2:30 a.m., Pa’l Norte feels like a distinctly Mexican, wonderfully vibrant fest.
AP visited all three days of Pa’l Norte this past weekend — which featured headlining sets from Billie Elish, twenty one pilots, and the Killers, as well as a massive slate of alternative, pop, reggaeton, and electronic artists. Below, we rounded up our favorite moments from the festival, as well as original photos from backstage and live performances.
Friday
5 Seconds of Summer went hard
Pop-rock faves 5SOS came up from Down Under and played like total rock stars. They filled out their set with some of the edgiest tracks from their discography, from “Jet Black Heart” to “Teeth,” which the crowd couldn’t get enough of. It all culminated in the finale in which they played their biggest song to date, “Youngblood.” As soon as vocalist Luke Hemmings sang the first few words, the entire crowd joined in, and it was as if they were dying in anticipation for the high-energy chorus. For the last chorus, he instructed everyone to jump, and drummer Ashton Irwin elongated the ending by crashing down on the drums. You could probably feel the pop-punk bliss from the other side of the festival grounds.
[Photo by Jenn Five]
Franz Ferdinand brought their unabashed ’00s style
All of the indie-rock staples that blew up in the early ’00s were effortlessly cool then — and there’s no doubt they’re just as cool now. Franz Ferdinand were dripping in style during their Friday night set, as they appeared in front of a sleek set of visuals that often included solid red engulfing the stage, and Alex Kapranos brought a certain rock star swagger to match. Of course, they played hit after hit from their expansive discography, but they really wowed the fest during 2004’s “This Fire” when they dove into an all-band drum solo, as the whole group joined drummer Audrey Tait (who joined the band in 2021) to crash down on various symbols, sticks, and kits. Forever and always, they can “Take Me Out.”
[Photo by Jenn Five]
Billie Eilish remains an alt-pop superstar
Billie Eilish is one of the best pop stars that we have. We’ve known this for years, especially since her alluring, dark 2019 debut showcased her talent and exemplified what an influence she has over Gen Z. But seeing her live even further solidifies what a phenom she is. Her alt style and vision came alive in her festival set, from her visuals to the way she and her brother/collaborator FINNEAS give her tracks a bit of a moody, rock edge — like with “NDA” having a nü-metal-sounding mix, and her songs “Oxytocin” and “Copycat” blending together. The crowd was admittedly quite sleepy during her set, which she called them out on, but that didn’t slow her down. While the themes in her music can be quite dark, it’s as if her stage power conveys a resilience to try to persevere through that darkness — and in the fans who did show up for her, you can see just how much that matters to them. All in all, Billie, we’ll always see you in a crown.
Saturday
The Shelter are destined to break through
Much of the bill was made up of Latin talent, and we were lucky enough to walk away with a new favorite international alt-rock band on our radar. On Saturday afternoon, we caught Mexican band the Shelter’s set — perhaps catching a glimpse at the future of Mexican alt-rock. Their guitar-led music pulled from elements of garage-rock and post-punk, always carrying a riotous energy with it, although some songs even dipped into shoegaze-y tones. They were great to see on a major festival stage, but we can only imagine how thrilling it would be to see them packed into a club late at night.
Dayglow’s cover of “Funky Town”
If you were curious how the reach of some artists whose songs have found success on TikTok fair in the live setting — Dayglow’s proof that fans couldn’t be more thrilled to hear viral tracks offline. The indie-pop project fronted by 23-year-old Sloan Struble brought nothing short of sunshine to their Saturday afternoon set, and their giant crowd was absorbing all of their upbeat rays. Their viral hit “Can I Call You Tonight?” was of course a fan-favorite that got everybody dancing, but one of the standout moments from their set was their cover of “Funky Town,” which led right into their 2021 track “Medicine.” It’s something they’ve been known to play live, but how could you ever resist those instantly recognizable disco keys?
[Photo by Jenn Five]
The 1975 made everybody feel emo
First things first: The 1975 should’ve been billed as a headliner. Not only do they have the reach, but they know how to curate a spectacular setlist. Frontman Matty Healy even made the comment that the band planned on performing their very best songs, which ranged from early hits like “Robbers,” “Sex,” and “Somebody Else” to recent songs off 2022’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language. Their recent fave “About You” especially pierced hearts. The crowd was uproarious as soon as those synths came in and Healy melodramatically traipsed across the stage, later joined in by touring guitarist Polly Money. At one point, Healy said, “Sorry if we made you feel sad, but that’s kind of our job.” As cheeky as the comment was, they definitely delivered on making everybody dance and feel a whole gamut of emotions to their introspective, existential music masked as pop. For goodness sake, they’ve been beginning and ending their sets with “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)” and “Give Yourself a Try.” So, yeah, they definitely know how to curate a perfect, emotionally charged festival set.
[Photo by Jenn Five]
twenty one pilots covered blink-182
twenty one pilots have been filling in for blink-182 on a handful of festival dates, since the pop-punk icons had to cancel so drummer Travis Barker could recover from his recent finger surgery. At several gigs, like Lollapalooza Argentina, they’ve been playing “All the Small Things” or “First Date,” and at Pa’l Norte they whipped out the latter. “We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play for some of the best music fans in the world. We’re going to work very hard tonight to earn our spot at your festival. I hope you get everything tonight that you’re looking for,” vocalist Tyler Joseph said, before adding “just in case” and jumping into the cover. It’s safe to say the truly enormous crowd was stoked.
[Photo by Jenn Five]
Sunday
L’Impératrice gave the festival some French flair
One of the best parts of music festivals is when you’re walking across the grounds and hear something you simply can’t ignore. That’s how we came across L’Impératrice — in part because we were surprised to hear somebody singing in French at the fest. Hailing from Paris, the international hitmakers provided the fest with some very chic French flair. Dressed in matching outfits that included a light-up, color-changing heart across their chests and frequently moving in sync, the synth-pop six-piece were simply delightful. Their Euro funk and enthusiasm made it hard to not want to join in on the choreography with them — or hop on a plane to head straight to a Parisian disco.
Wallows gave their all on their last show for a long time
Last year Wallows released their album Tell Me That It’s Over, which they had been touring extensively for the past few months. That string of dates officially wrapped up at Pa’l Norte, though, and lead singer Dylan Minnette shared that they had been looking forward to the gig and were going to be sure to give it their all. That’s exactly what the indie-rock band did, charming the crowd with both their breakout early songs like “Pleaser” and “Pictures of Girls” and newer tracks off the album. As they stopped playing “Talk Like That” in the middle of the song, attendees were quick to start chanting, “Wallows,” before Minnette could jump in to give the crowd instruction to dance once the track resumed. “It’s the last time we’ll do this, don’t let us down,” he said. It’s safe to say neither the crowd nor the band disappointed.
[Photo by Jenn Five]
Brandon Flowers’ displayed his excellent showmanship
The Killers are the kind of band meant to headline festivals (which they do a lot nowadays). They’ve got a discography full of anthems and heart-wrenching jams, and they’ve got their charismatic frontman Brandon Flowers, who remains as entertaining as ever. Not that they needed any introduction, but the Sunday night headliners waited until multiple songs in to introduce themselves, with Flowers saying, “We’re the Killers, brought to you by the fabulous Nevada.” Immediately after, they jumped into “Somebody Told Me,” fit with a striking laser light show, like Flowers knew it was going to receive a rousing response. The frontman enamored the audience the entire night, but his persistence in getting crowd participation during “Runaways,” which then fed into “Read My Mind,” was a highlight. He is a Vegas man, after all, and we should always be thankful for any opportunity to see that come through.
Tecate Pa’l Norte 2023
Gallery Credit: Jenn Five
