Another May, another hedonistic two weeks in Barcelona for Primavera Sound festival.
This is my third year visiting the festival, my boyfriend loves his music with the fire of a thousand suns and Parc Del Forum in the last week of May is his spiritual happy place. I lack the encyclopaedic musical knowledge and good sonic judgement but I do like to dance and judge bands.
Goat, Dead Can Dance, The Knife, My Bloody Valentine and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were my stand-outs, my disappointments were Solange and Animal Collective. It was such a packed line-up that we didn’t
see most of the headliners such as Blur
and Jesus and Mary Chain etc.
Below the cut are all the bands I saw and a line on what I thought of them. I have plenty more to write about Barcelona and Primavera, but we can do that another time.
WARNING: All opinions are arbitrary and snarky and may be revised at a later date! Snarky but informed views can be found here.
Wild Nothing – Tame indie. Struggled to make an impression but they were
playing early and in the daylight.
Tame Impala – Aussie John Lennon soundalike
with one good song. I’m afraid I would
describe this as ‘meh’ but all my friends seemed to enjoy this so I must just
be a joyless so-and-so.
Bob Mould – Former Husker Du frontman
rocking out. Enjoyable.
Hot Snakes – Former Rocket from the Crypt
frontman rocking out. Enjoyable and bonus points because he asked for the
feris wheel to be turned off before he played.
Death Grips – Missing their drummer so
basically two guys shouting at each other. We left early.
Killer Mike – Charming, fat guy with a
mixed up political message (lower tax AND better education- how?). He rather unfairly blames
everything on one of my personal political heroes, Ronald Reagan.
Fuck Buttons – Compelling.
Animal Collective – Confusing as ever. Their stage set was a giant mouth.
Kurt Vile – Muted.
Merchandise (twice!) – Catchy and charming
both times. Their bassist and lead
guitarist are an amusing contrast in physique and temperament. They talk about
being from Tampa Bay a lot.
Django Django – Fun and lightweight. They had matching DIY shirts.
Solange – Seems Losing You is her only good
song. She did a cover of a Dirty Projectors
song but had to have her backing vocalists sing the high notes.
Daughter – Didn’t hear much of this but it
sounded nice. They seemed very excited to be playing for such a bug crowd.
Tinariwen – World music phobia aside,
interesting north Africans who play in Bedouin robes and Nike trainers. Django Django all watched this together from
the crowd, standing in a line while off-duty like the Monkees.
Swans – Very long songs. I feel bad that I
fell asleep standing up during.
Goat – Swedes with a battery of great songs
who dress like Sultans and dance like dervishes. Recommended.
The Knife – Sounded great and I like the
Rites of Spring-style dancers. But did they even turn up?
Disclosure – Memories are hazy…
Pantha du Prince and the Bell Laboratory – Germans
in butchers’ aprons with bells stamping on the line between genius and
insansity.
Guadalupe Plata – Likable Mexican
rockabilly.
Mount Eerie – Very passive and very drowned
out by Adam Green and Binki Shapiro on the next stage. Meh.
Melody’s Echo Chamber – Hot French girl.
Said she was ‘pleased with’ her musicians.
I can’t help thinking the name of her act is a euphemism/heavy handed
subliminal marketing to the male demographic.
Dead Can Dance – Magical Game of Thrones
soundtrack style music. Includes an
opera singer who wears a cape. Compelling.
Thee Oh Sees – Good fun, but then we
watched them from the feris wheel.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Epic.
My Bloody Valentine – EPIC.
Hot Chip – Good dancing. However I wish they
had done the single version of Playback.
DJ Coco – V. good dancing. I love that this is one of the admin guys who gets the closing slot on the best stage.
Allah-Las – Memories fuzzy. But I had fun.
Deerhunter – Fantastic. Included a 16 min
wall of sound outro that sounded like the My Bloody Valentine private jet taking off.
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