Matt Maltese was finally able to attend his date at Barcelona, postponed from last December to this April, with a change of venue and an extra Madrid show the day before during his Iberian tour.
Matt Maltese, Sala La Nau Barcelona 2026 – Photo taken by Meritxell Rosell for Indieofilo©
Before Maltese’s appearance, Sophie May served as opener, accompanied only by her guitar and her debut album, Stars and Teeth (2025). Intimate songs about love, relationships that last longer than they should, obsessions, or existential angst in some of its forms, such as the unbearable pain adolescence can represent for some and the temptation to quit everything in “Real Life Angel“, or the emptiness caused by the vastness of the cosmos in “Brian Cox“, a track on which she had the invaluable collaboration of the English physicist in its recording.
Sophie, Sala La Nau Barcelona 2026 – Photo taken by Meritxell Rosell for Indieofilo©
After Sophie’s solid performance, Matt Maltese took the stage. He had come to Barcelona ostensibly to present his latest and wonderful album, Hers (2025), but considering he hadn’t played in the city for several years (although his most hardcore fans could travel to Vida Festival in Vilanova i la Geltrú two years ago to see him well accompanied by an excellent band), he decided to devote a large part of the set to revisiting some of his classic tracks.
Alone on stage, he began at the piano with “Buses Replace Trains“, from his latest album, before quickly moving to recall songs from the Krystal (2019) album, such as “Rom Com Gone Wrong” or “Curl Up and Die“, a song he dedicated to the woman who accompanied him on the long flight during where he wrote the song, having to suffer him recording it singing and recording it on his phone.
Matt Maltese, Sala La Nau Barcelona 2026 – Photo taken by Meritxell Rosell for Indieofilo©
Maltese was charming and cheerful, engaging a crowd that celebrated each track, introducing some of them with small anecdotes (the story of the flight companion, a love triangle, the times he has said “motherfucker” …). He returned to Hers with “Everybody Just as Crazy as Me“, changing after the piano for the synthesizer, with which he played songs like “Mystery“, “Madhouse“, or “Always Some MF“.
Matt Maltese, Sala La Nau Barcelona 2026 – Photo taken by Meritxell Rosell for Indieofilo©
Switching back to the piano to finish the performance and elegantly avoiding a request from a fan for a song he doesn’t usually perform live, Maltese played “Arthouse Cinema“, in which he replaced the clarinet from the Hers recording with Sophie May’s participation. In the closing stretch of the concert he revisited “Lobster,” a song he’s been playing again after many fans sent him messages asking for it, beginning then a final romantic crescendo, linking the melancholic epic of “As The World Caves In” and “Intolewd” with the exuberant elegance of “Anytime, Anywhere, Anyhow“.
Matt Maltese, Sala La Nau Barcelona 2026 – Photo taken by Meritxell Rosell for Indieofilo©
The encores, with the disarming “Cure for Emptiness” and the candid warmth of “Everyone Adores You“, closed a performance in which the British artist demonstrated the strength of his compositions even in their most bare versions, as well as the poise and charisma he brings to the stage. A night of chamber pop and sentimental indie pop to remember.
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