Primavera : Volume 2
After a very late opening night (we caught the first metro home at 5am with the train seriously echoing scenes from the Playstation game Resident Evil) Friday was a bit of a blow out.
My friends purse had been stolen the previous night and, as it contained her Primavera card (to gain access to the festival you require a wrist band and a swipe card for security to scan/clock you in) and coupled with how unhelpful the staff were on the first day we enjoyed a long lie in and explored Barcelona a little later than planned.
However when we finally did arrive at the festival grounds (the metro stop being El Maresme Forum for anyone who is planning to go next year) the girl working in the ticket booth was extremely helpful and genuinely nice (the other guy behind the stall simply didn’t want to know). As we had brought my friends passport the girl was able to scan a new card and we were in. No queueing. No hassle. Excellent. On top of that we were directed to the Lost & Found (which we never even thought of to be honest) inside the festival grounds. The two people here were also fantastic and doo doo doo dooo (pathetic attempt at a trumpet blast), albeit minus the primavera card and e10, my friends purse was behind the counter. The feel good factor went up to about 12 on the 10/10 scale. To the Rock Delux stage!!!!!
Throwing Muses, an early nineties band fronted by Kristin Hersh, were absolutely destroying the myth that girls cannot rock as hard as boys. We caught only three songs or so but they were fantastic and managed to pull a large proportion of the mainly electronica-loving crowd.
I then wandered off to catch a bit of Jarvis on the main stage. The ex-Pulp singer began really well with a very rocky, uptempo feel emanating from his backing band but about half way through he decided to have a chat with the crowd and the momentum was lost. A Pulp number would have sent everyone crazy but it was never going to be. Enjoyable in the end I suppose but nothing special.
Dan Deacon on the Pitchfork Stage was a must see for me but half his set was full of instructions and gibberish aimed at a Catalan/Spanish crowd. I honestly was there for about 30 minutes and heard two songs as he attempted to organise synchronized something. What I don’t know. The grub in the food court was good and a couple of us polished off some noodles with our fingers after abandoning the chopstick idea quite quickly.
To end my night we caught 90’s poppers Saint Etienne at the Rock Delux stage. They were grand is all I can say and I did enjoy the expected Only Love Can Break Your Heart Neil Young cover but the decadence and bravado of the first night really hampered my Saturday resulting in us missing Damien Jurado, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Bat For Lashes, Magnolia Electric Co., Spiritualized, Jason Lyttle, and Sleepy Sun. Luckily enough I caught Jason Pierce and co a few months back and Bat For Lashes and Magnolia EC will play Electric Picnic in September so not a complete disaster. Still hadn’t seen a performance in the famous Auditori venue by this stage but time to go home and recharge the batteries for the final run-in.
