BarcelonaFirst day of Primavera sound In Forum Park he leaves at least three notes. The first that the festival was able to honor Steve Albini, producer and guitarist of the band Shellac, who died on May 7 Because of a heart attack. Logically, the trio, who had played there on every edition since 2007, canceled their performance by renaming the stage after Steve Albini and organizing a mid-afternoon listening session for the posthumous Shellac album: hundreds of people turned out for this concert. , which is as unusual at the festival as it is exciting. As a witness, a bouquet of flowers is on one side of the stage.
The second observation is that if we take the price of beer as a measure of inflation, life is 11% more expensive than last year: a glass that was worth €4.50 in 2023 now costs €5. The ingenuity is still in full form: in the truck they serve Brava del Rey fries, McCartney’s pork terrine and Nutella and coconut Taylor Sweets.
The third realization is that electric guitars still manage to anchor a significant portion of Primavera Sound’s programming, and even provide a consistent headliner like Vampire Weekend, which also doesn’t blatantly appeal to indie rock nostalgia and who just released a notable record, Only God was above us (2024). The group from New York, who performed at the festival in 2008 when they had just released their debut album, stripped down their indie rock stuff (sax, violin, piano and African-rooted rhythmic solutions) in one of the main acts of the stage, Estrella Dame, and in front of a crowd, Like last year, he was able to move reasonably smoothly around the place. Projections of paintings from the avant-garde (later some paintings from other eras appeared), The sky is white And the Caribbean touch vacation They had a consistent concert opening for these Indian kids that the Talking Heads didn’t have. Singer and guitarist Ezra Koenig is one of them Frontman Not much is given to the plays, but he has enough voice (precise and precise) and four gestures to do justice to such themes as communicate I classic (two new) Kawasa, Hall of Harmony Above all The unbelieversOne of the most prominent events.
The Magisterium of Jarvis Coker
A portion of the Vampire Weekend crowd stayed put waiting for the return of Pulp, the British band led by Jarvis Cocker. A loud, tense introduction in the style of Scott Walker preceded Cocker’s breakthrough as a the singer From the world of massage to singing I spy. Accompanied mainly by violins, he took it to an interpretive peak that not many artists can reach. How barbaric to start a concert like this! Suddenly, the register, the sweets, the screams were changed Disco 2000One of the wonders of the album Different category (1995) and at the same time an immortal piece of English pop music. There was perhaps a nostalgia for the third way of British pop, the most inspired social realism, but it was also respectful of legacy in the best way. It was only necessary to see Coker completely surrender to the cracks of escalation Bad shapeswith the whole group rowing with the same intensity.
Something changedwith its violins and acoustic guitar in sync, lowered the emotional temperature slightly, enough to gain momentum and continue to provide a lesson in how to defend with conviction a songwriter of this entity. Pink glove, Herbs (with Delaney blasting into super pop), Rated by E’s & Wizz (Where Pulp meets David Bowie and The Kinks)… The repertoire was impeccable and leaned towards big words: This is hardcore, with drums and violin prompting Cocker to sing from the eye of the storm; The contrast between lyrical cultivation and musical ecstasy Do you remember the first time? (He asked if anyone had attended a Pulp concert at Sala Zeleste in Barcelona in 1995); children, sunrise And of course the last section in which they did not fail underwear And one The general public, full of dignity and class discontent and made to be danced to even on the dirtiest of nights. A great concert, and definitely proof that Pulp songs were truly born for the youth and their era. Especially when they are interpreted with the conviction and respect with which they did it on Primavera Sound.
From Mujeres to Maria Heine, Maria del Mar Bonet edition
Before Vampire Weekend, on the other main stage, Santander and Australians Amyl and the Sniffers unleashed punk rock straight from a roadside bar. Singer Amy Taylor’s group of power and charisma returns to the crime scene, in the same place where… In 2022 they had a wild performance. As it happened at the time, the audience in the front rows had gathered a good idea Pogo. They can become regulars at the festival, like shellac.
More Guitars opened the festival. Mujeres, paying homage to the trio’s powerful lineage, rewarded a crowd that, at a quarter past six, wanted (and were able to, which for many were business hours) to be in the immensity of the main stages arena. The concert hall is the Barcelona trio’s natural home, but they’re not afraid of the abyss of Diplodocus festivals. They are at an unbeatable moment since their publication disk Of flowers and entrails. Drums, bass, guitar, and an inexhaustible catalog of dizzying tunes did the job, and the crowd, not much for Primavera Sound but large enough to fill a Razzmatazz, responded as if the first concert of the afternoon was already the best of Work day . It’s nice to see groups that know how to take care of audience loyalty.
Just before that, at 5.10pm, Maria Heine opened the Pull&Bear stage by stirring up emotional conflicts with a spoonful of electronic pop projected very well in a Mallorcan voice. In addition, he dedicated the festival’s first big moment: a stunning version ofExercisesWritten by Maria del Mar Bonet. In a similar tone, and well adapted to the heat of the afternoon, the Clara Viñals group of Leda, Rinaldo and Clara, performed on the next stage, Amazon Music, closest to the Besos family’s neighbours. Overall, Viñales dedicates a song to the duo Hidrogenesse “to be the best”, and delivers a very appropriate song Love is hotgreat dance fun that blends in musically very well with the songs from the latest album, Mouth watering. Rinaldo and Clara, a decade that was one of the great performances of Catalan pop music.
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