Esmeralda Road

This past week has been the beginning of the long-awaited headline tour for Belfast band Esmeralda Road. After an incredibly fruitful 2025, seeing massive growth from a memorable support run with Basht, these headline shows have felt a long time coming. I was fortunate enough to go to two of these dates, Leeds and Birmingham, with my friends, and the Belfast boys certainly didn’t disappoint.

I have said in the past that I struggle to categorise Esmeralda Road, and I still stand by that. The music they make spans so many boundaries, and it makes for one of the most unique, yet still short, discographies in this blossoming scene. This feels like the coming-of-age tour, though; these boys won’t be in 80-capacity venues like the Sunflower Lounge much longer. The set feels organised and like it takes you on a journey, compared to previous shows that fell victim to a jumbled setlist. More importantly, for me personally, this tour has seen the return to the setlist of ‘Park It’ and ‘To U’. Esmeralda Road don’t have much released media out, so when these two bangers were absent from previous setlists, I was confused. I think they belong on every set they play, and the reactions of the crowds and social media will hopefully convince the band of that too. It has been electric in there during ‘To U’ especially. The Leeds show was the first time that had been played in over two years.

The addition of the old songs to the already established fan favourites like ‘I Think’ and ‘Esmeralda’ gave the crowds more moments to exercise their voices, the best bit of any gig. Esmeralda Road’s best days are definitely in their future though, and it’s these future songs that bulk out the rest of the setlist. ‘Stuck’ and ‘Bleak’ have been around for a long time now, and will be shoe-ins for the eventual EP, but this tour has seen the addition of songs like ‘Concrete’ and ‘Mobile’. These songs definitely feel like a new direction for Esmeralda, a band who have had their difficulties with personnel changes. It feels like these songs will be the sound we can expect from the band going forward, which is only going to take them to greater prospects as a band. The pick of the bunch, and what looks to be their next release, is ‘Here Honey’. A song more in the mould of ‘Esmeralda’ in its emotional and acoustic nature, ‘Here Honey’ is a serious tune.

I really hope that ‘Here Honey’ is the start of the EP rollout for Esmeralda Road. It has been over a year since ‘Park It’ was released, and the band have been incredibly successful during that year. This EP has the potential to send them into rumours 10 times bigger than those they’re playing at the minute. The talent, stage presence and fanbase are all there. Esmeralda Road are a perfect storm for superstardom, and this EP just might be the flame that lights the explosion.