Newdad Light Up Leisureland With a Triumphant Galway Homecoming

“It’s good to be home”, Newdad’s frontwoman Julie Dawson called out to the rapt audience in Leisureland on Sunday 2 November. 

The Galway band’s homecoming gig was the second-last stop on their Ireland/UK tour for their sophomore album Altar.

Corkonian indie-rockers Cardinals opened the evening with a brooding set reminiscent of early Fontaines DC, claiming their place as the one of the hottest burgeoning bands on the Irish music scene.

Opening with the smoldering “Other Side”, singer Julie Dawson had the crowd captivated from the first shadowy echoing notes, before smashing into a rush of noise as she was joined by drummer Fiachra Parslow, guitarist Sean O’Dowd, bassist Marie Freiss and Sam (Shrink) Breathwick on guitar and synth.

Brimming with pulsing drums, teasing synth and laced with Newdad’s signature hazy melancholy, “Other Side” set the theme for the evening: home, and yearning for it. 

Of course, home for these shoegazey rockers is Galway, which Dawson lovingly spoke about in between songs: “I think Galway is a very special place. Even in its dullest days it’s just full of magic.”

This magic seeps through the Galway native’s lyricism, inspiring tracks such as “Pretty”, “Something’s Broken” and “Everything I Wanted”. 

The September 2025 release of Altar had big shoes to fill – Newdad’s debut album Madra had critics raving, listeners obsessing, and received praise from the likes of The Cure’s Robert Smith, capitulating the band into a world of fame they could never have expected. 

With Madra’s success and a move to London, the band began recording their second album in a city far from home; this time, with the pressure of expectations. It’s this stirring sense of displacement and transition that preoccupies Altar.

Intro-ing “Everything I Wanted”, Dawson confessed: “This next song is about home. I mean they all are really.”

While Galway might not have changed much in their absence, Newdad’s success has turned them from local indie-rockers to a global phenomenon, a shift which Dawson playfully acknowledged. 

“It feels very strange and surreal to be doing this in Leisureland and not Róisín Dubh”, she admitted. The tiers of seating and packed standing crowd is certainly different from the intimacy of the Galway pub, yet looking around the space, it was clear Newdad were playing to a warm reception.

Call it appreciation, adoration or pure worship, every face was turned to catch the glow of the stage lights, eyes hooked on the band’s every move. 

Newdad is a band of contradictions. Fragile yet forceful, searing yet silky. The setlist interwove bracing heavy-rock tracks such as “Sickly Sweet”, with delicate lullaby-esque songs like “Mr Cold Embrace”, and sprinkled older fan-favourites such as “Blue” throughout. 

Newdad transformed the chlorine-soaked venue into a shimmering seascape of music. Bruising basslines, clanging guitar, a current of rhythm and a wash of synth enmeshed together, creating a pool of sound, to which Dawson’s soaring voice dipped and flowed and sailed upon.

From blistering rage to gloomy heartache to glittering bliss, Dawson’s ethereal vocals bathed each song with a misty distortion, wrapping a cloak of cohesion around the scope of their discography and lending a nostalgic softness to its harder themes.

A piercing love letter to Galway, Altar proves that Newdad’s Madra was not an anomaly, but a sign of things to come. With this homecoming gig, it’s evident: Newdad have nothing left to prove. 

Looking out into the spellbound audience, Julie Dawson said: “Thank you for having us. It’s a dream come true.”