The Return of G-Man : volume 1

So I survived Primavera…barely.

Plans of seeing about 15 bands a day were optimistic to say the least. Barcelona itself being one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to resulted in a lot more sight seeing and general wandering than I had previously thought. Before I start rambling about Picasso, Gaudi and tapas here is my take on the festival itself.

All tickets had to be collected at the box office so we decided to head down early (when I say decided I mean I kicked up a bit of a fuss and demanded we head down as early as possible.) Luckily we did as the festival experience began on a bit of a sour note with large queues and then after queueing three times for different booths they finally found my friends ticket. The first 6 staff we dealt with were extremely unhelpful. Frustated we headed back to the apartment to booze it up before the music actually began.

…The boozing dragged on a little longer than expected so we stumbled into the festival to try catch the end of The Vaselines. We did catch their last two songs which were pretty good but the visual impact of the Rock Delux stage was the stand out factor. A glorious amphitheatre which seats a thousand or so on stone steps before venturing down into a general main stage area. Things were looking up.

Dashing off to catch some of Marnie Stern we heard a little bit of Lightning Bolt‘s havoc and mayhem but unfortunately were just a little too late to catch any of Marnie. Time to queue for beer tickets.

The process of buying alcohol/soft drinks/water was this.Automated ticket machines were used to select what drinks you required and how many. You put in your cash and tickets were printed. These are then exchanged at the bar for the actual drink. The idea is to cut down on queuing times at the bar. Although drinks were not too steep in price (e4 a pint, e2 a jagermeister, e6 a combo of soft drink and vodka/whiskey etc, e5 for jack daniels) the problem was the disastrous waiting times at the machines. Two hours we queued for these Willy Wonka-esque golden tickets and the rainbow mood that spread across our sky at the sight of the Rock Delux had disappeared into storm clouds. Let us move on….

To the Estrella Damm aka the main stage where Yo La Tengo were rocking it up. Very unlike their melodic, mostly gentle albums they were okay but I was expecting a far more impressive show. To the Ray Ban Vice Stage….

At the far end of the Primavera complex we found the Ray Ban Vice Stage. With a backdrop of Barcelona itself and a curious full moon this stage proved to be as important a performer as the artists who graced the platform. The first act we witnessed here was Andrew Bird and boy did he come up trumps. Performing solo to a foreign audience on a large festvial stage Mr. Bird blew the crowd away with his combination of folky guitar plucking, soaring violin and gentle whistling grabbing the most impressive performance of the festival so far award.

Smiles back in the right places and alcoholic intake going up a notch we scrambled back to the Estrella Damm stage to claim a good spot for My Bloody Valentine. To blatantly plagiarise a shit tv advert : “You want loud? You got loud”. Playing a greatest hits set (if one can exist for MBV) and ending with the usual Holocaustic noise MBV wrestled away the award previously bestowed on Andrew Bird. Sorry Andy but thems the kicks

Many jack daniels later and it was back to the Rock Delux for Aphex Twin who played a very surprisingly relaxed set which suited me nicely but a lot of dance fans who were all set to go into blurry dancey overdrive felt differently. It did pick up tempo near the end but just not in time for some peoples liking.

A brief visit to Wavves on the Pitchfork Stage was not nearly brief enough. I can honestly say that I was convinced his first song was a joke and kind of enjoyed it. I soon realised that he was not joking and I was no longer enjoying. I will never listen to Wavves again. Not a great feeling to take away from a live performance

Eh…….my body was present for Squarepusher and I did make the first train/metro home at 5am. More on Friday and Saturday to come….