Primavera : Volume 3
The conclusion to my wonderful journey!!
Plans were made to arrive much earlier on the Saturday. Much earlier. i.e. catch the very first act. Unfortunately I missed Alela Diane in the Auditori but we did make it in time to queue at The Auditori for The Bad Plus and boy was it worth it.
Firstly the venue itself is the best venue in which I have had the pleasure to witness a live performance. Torn between Shearwater, a favourite band of mine, and the legendary trio the latter just won out mostly because I had yet to venture inside.
Seated in the front row of the second tier of seats, the Bad Plus came out and blew me away with their very first track. The only English speaking band that bothered to speak some Spanish (and fluently at that) the acoustics of the auditorium elevated the chaotic crescendos to fabulous heights. A dip in tempo and effect with the introduction of vocalist Wendy Lewis was noticeable but the newly formed quartet gelled together for the last two tracks, New Years Day and Comfortably Numb, by U2 and Pink Floyd. Huge smiles. I will pay that place another visit sooner rather than later. I swear it.
Wandering into the Main Arena a friend and I opted for lemon and vodka before dipping back into the heavy swimming pool of Estrella beer. The shock on our innocent faces when the barmaid asked us to “say when” while pouring the vodka must have been priceless. Eventually, although all primal instincts fought the common decency and courtest, we did say…”when”.
A couple of numbers by The Jayhawks were audible during our stint at the bar and they really seemed to blossom in the Saturday sun.
Leaving the Jayhawks to their country rock we rushed off to bop away to final half of Kitty, Daisy & Lewis’ set. Every stereotype of 50s American rock ‘n’ roll worn unashamedly on their sleeves (and the falseness further intensified by the surprise that they are actually English) I quite enjoyed the various family members swapping their instruments for every song. Early sunshine festival music is what they were, what they are and what they will continue to be.
Despite no acoustic in sight all weekend The Black Lips were up next on the Myspace Acoustic stage. Well they were supposed to be up next. A fifty minute wait within a jam packed crowd at a tiny little tent was wasted when one of the “Lips” turned up at the microphone to say that they had taken shit loads of drugs the night before and that he coulnd’t find any of the other “Lips”. Nice one lads….
Next was the big one, Mr. Neil Young. I had spent the last month or so warning the friends that were with me that he would not play many hits, that he will play extended guitar solos and lesser known tracks. I shouldn’t have bothered as Neil came out with hit after hit which, at a festival should be applauded.
After that super set we legged it over to catch some of Liars who were ok but after the previous act was all downhill for me. Energy in abundance but messy messy playing (not necessarily a bad thing) and more a reliance on attitude than good songs meant this potential highlight for me kinda faded into the background
Deerhunter had started on the Rock Delux stage so we also caught some of their show which impressed me more than Liars. However the alcohol was reaching its peak at that stage and our group were more determined to get their impression of an airplane perfected than anything else requiring focus
We then decided to get a little bit of hip hop under our belts but Ghostface Killah either down to the sound or the fact that he just shouts alot or a combination of both meant this ship sank quickly.
Simian Mobile Disco topped off our festival with a frantic performance before we faded back to the Metro.
A proper music fans festival. Personally I recommend either going to Barcelona for at least a week if you wish to catch some sight seeing or not going sight seeing at all. Either way the three days/nights should be dedicated to just music and go easy on the sauce. Staying up until 4/5am every morning and then walking around a museum/zoo is not ideal for resting those weary bones.
There is so much to see and hear music wise that this newbie will have a completely different gameplan next year.
Primavera, I hardly knew ya…
