Rodrigo y Gabriela

When: 17th March 2027
Location: O2 Academy

Rodrigo y Gabriela are the Mexican metalhead duo with an endless supply of collaborations, tributes and epiphanies to share with the world. Coming to Glasgow’s O2 Academy on 17th March 2027.

From busking on the streets of Dublin to selling out venues around the world, Rodrigo y Gabriela are the internationally acclaimed Mexican acoustic guitar duo known for their virtuosic performances, flamenco-inspired rhythms and metal-influenced sound.

Never let a musician blame their tools. Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero, two thrash metal players from Mexico City, sold their electric guitars to fund a pair of one-way plane tickets to Dublin. They’d become unenthused by their local scene, having done it to death in a band called Tierra Acida since their mid-teens. They brought two dimestore acoustics to Ireland – cheap, portable, better for busking. But they didn’t let nylon strings stop them from shredding like they’d made a deal with the devil on Grafton Street. Quintero was the de facto drummer, her strumming hand taking advantage of the acoustic guitar’s percussive qualities. Sánchez handled the melodic lines, zipping up and down the fretboard as though trying to set the thing ablaze. 

Reworkings of their favourite songs

Playing reworkings of their favourite songs by bands like Metallica in a style that the uninitiated might call ‘flamenco’ or ‘Latin’ – rapid, percussive, intuitive, but totally their own – Rodrigo y Gabriela were soon noticed by more than the tourists. First was fellow busker Damien Rice, who was starting to see some moderate success of his own and brought the duo on tour. Then there was David Gray, whose connections led to a label deal for their breakout album. Rodrigo y Gabriela – or the one with the dragon eye album art – is often called their debut. More accurately, it was their first album recorded outside of Mexico, now with some support behind them (they’d laid down recordings as early as 1997). Released in 2006, the album roared into the number one spot on the Irish albums charts, elbowing out Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. 

Over the following few years, Sánchez and Quintero – or Rod and Gab, as they often go by – would end up playing for Barack Obama at the White House, on Letterman, at the Royal Albert Hall, at the Sydney Opera House, at Glastonbury. They collaborated with Hans Zimmer on the score for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The song ‘Tamacun’ scored the moment Jesse Pinkman climbs out of the window in his underwear during the first episode of a little show called Breaking Bad. And in 2014, their story was told by Mexican music journalist Alejandro Franco in the documentary film For Those About to Rock: The Story of Rodrigo y Gabriela. 

Continue to evolve and thrive

In the decade or so since, Rodrigo y Gabriela have only continued to evolve and thrive. The duo have continued to release striking, singular work packed with epiphanies (‘Finding Myself Leads Me To You’) and collabs (the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra played on their 2023 album) and tributes – to the Palestinian oud group Le Trio Joubran or their late cat Pelusa. Pelusa helped them exit a period of writer’s block ahead of their 2026 album Our Home. “The day after she died, Rod wrote a song for Pelusa and suddenly everything started to flow,” Quintero said in a press statement. “It was like she was telling us, ‘Stop f*cking around and just do what you do best’ – which meant playing from our hearts with no agenda.” No matter how high they’ve flown, that’s what they’ve been able to count on since day one.