As the first (and certainly one of the most prominent) appointments in the international festival calendar, Primavera Sound celebrated it’s 16th year in style, hanging ‘sold out’ signs weeks before the festival had even begun. Taking place at various locations spread across the Catalan capital, this year looked to be bigger and better than ever. Despite the sheer scale of the festival, One Stop endeavoured to keep all bases covered with a crack team of musos on the ground.
Thursday presented a great musical introduction to the weekend, with LCD Soundsystem exceeding all expectations – not to be missed at Glastonbury. Earlier, Protomartyr – four chaps from Detroit – warmed up all the LCD-ers at the Pitchfork Stage with their electro post-punk proposal, leaving us with real good sensations. Elena Tondra’s band Daughter also gave an interestingly intimate repertoire, however, still failed in engaging the audience at the Heineken stage – maybe a smaller stage would have provided a better backdrop.
Friday’s line-up in Barcelona dominated any other festival bill out there. Donning our shorts and sandals, we headed down to Parc del Forum, wristbands in hand. Our day began hitting up the new beach B&W stage, a really nice place to have a few drinks, all whilst listening to a fine Black Lips DJ set, filled with rock classics old and new. En-route to our next destination, we came across Jack Carty for the second time in as many weeks, following his recent show at London’s Lexington. Despite the excellent folk songs, his set proved too early and pretty uneventful.
At the H&M stage, Titus Andronicus rocked the place with ‘indiecore’, topped off with a delicious “Hey Ho Let’s Go” cover. Their latest album, The Most Lamentable Tragedy, is certainly well worth a listen. Following on, Savages turned out to be one of the big surprises of the festival. Despite harboring a sound that is not always convincing, their show was pretty damn powerful, with Jehnny Beth delivering her usual kick-ass rock attitude.
We decided to stick around, retaining our prime positions for a little band you may have heard of from Oxford, going by the name of Radiohead. An hour ahead of time, the stage was already brimming with fans ready to hear the band’s latest studio album, A Moon Shaped Pool, performed live. Despite the new material lacking inspiration, they pulled out all the stops for a truly superb show, receiving a warm response from the audience in return. It was a hypnotizing scene; wherever Radiohead venture, their fans will surely follow. Epic highlights included, “In Rainbows“, alongside “Karma Police” and “Revisiting Kid A“, which definitely made for one of the most memorable moments in the festival’s history. And before too long, it was left to “Creep” to close the show – a track that everybody was left talking about.
Cutting out to catch Royal Headache was a great plan, as these Australians are a (not so) very well kept secret. A really fine cross of punk (The Jam), indie pop (The Smiths) and 90s Brit-pop (Oasis), their new album High is rough and fabulous. However, despite putting on a great show for fans, the poor sound made it pretty hard to connect with the newcomers in the audience. With the crowds thinning in the wee hours, we ended up at some stage in the back-and-beyond, witnessing a host of DJ sets from acts including Avalanches – a show which left us unmoved – and the more promising Kiasmus – where we danced until our feet gave out on us.
Saturday started off with Brian Wilson – a legend we couldn’t miss – at the Heineken stage. Despite his years, he managed to present Pet Sounds with all the dignity it deserves. Hearing those anthemic tracks one after the other (for what perhaps could be the last time), was a true delight. Glancing at my agenda, Drive Like Jehu was a band noted in capitals. Powerful, noisy and electric – three words that sum up their set, and hearing tracks from Yank Crime blew a few brains for sure. PJ Harvey failed to match the level of intimacy created by Radiohead the previous night, but PJ certainly pulled off a brilliant set-list. Seventy-five minutes of career-spanning tracks, from “50ft Queenie” to “The Community of Hope” from The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016).
Money For Rope is a band from Melbourne that came to the Primavera to add some more rock to our plates. A solid sound backed with not one but TWO drummers, plus keyboards, made us jump and head-bang to songs reminiscent of The Doors with a grungie, post rock flavour. Take a listen to ‘Easy way out’ or ‘Look until you die’ – go on, knock yourself out. The other big surprise of the night came from Ty Segall & The Muggers, who had what it took to become one of the best shows of the weekend. The electricity and abrasive guitars merged garage, glam and punk, turning the stage upside down. The prolific artist that is Ty Segall (at times disguised as Sloppo, his alter-ego, hidden behind an old man’s mask) presented his last album (2016’s Emotional Mugger) without ever losing his sense of humour – even diving into an already ecstatic audience. His interactions with the crowd reached their peak as a fan took over the stage, stepping up to take Ty’s position – centre stage.
An exhausting yet exhilarating weekend over, all too soon it’s time to wave goodbye to Barcelona, and back to London for the rest of a jam-packed festival season.
