Rodrigo y Gabriela

On 20 March 2027 at Birmingham Town Hall, Rodrigo y Gabriela bring their acoustic guitars to center stage. Formed in Mexico City in the mid-1990s, the duo of Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero came up through a metal band before switching to nylon strings. After relocating to Dublin, they honed an instrumental voice in pubs and on the street, shaping a sound where flamenco-inspired rhythms and Latin pulses meet the drive of rock and metal.

Live, their music works as a dialogue: Rodrigo’s melodic lead lines weave above Gabriela’s rapid, percussive patterns and drum-like hits on the guitar body. Sets move between tight unisons, call-and-response riffs and folk-tinged themes, with dynamics and rhythm carrying the pieces rather than vocals. Across releases from re-Foc and their 2006 self-titled album to 11:11, Area 52 with the Cuban ensemble C.U.B.A., 9 Dead Alive, Mettavolution and 2023’s In Between Thoughts... A New World, the duo keeps refining this approach to acoustic interplay. Instrumentals sit at the crossroads of rock, jazz and world influences, from two guitars that carry both rhythm and melody.