Primavera Sound Festival Review – Part 2

26-28 May, 2011

Part 2 of our 3 part review. You can read Part 1 here. Don’t miss the final part tomorrow.

Friday

The best intentions go awry at Primavera, and you end up missing bands you want to see because it’s too damn early to stop sitting down and drinking cheap drinks outside the festival. Fiery Furnaces fall by the wayside because of this ruthless reality, and it’s James Blake instead at 8.30pm which kicks things off for me. He manages to surprise constantly during his set, and is like Gold Panda in that he has found a very legitimate way to perform his sample-based music live. Even the Burial-esque ‘Klavierwerke’ is performed entirely live, with Blake singing out the repeated sample whilst reproducing the sub-bass on his keyboard. His album might have been more potential than the finished product, but he is very impressive here.

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Primavera Sound Festival Review – Part 1

26-28 May, 2011

Part 1 of our bumper 3 part round up of Primavera 2011. You can read Part 2 here tomorrow.

With a typically amazing lineup, Barcelona´s Primavera Sound festival took place last weekend. A mix of nearly all the best bands doing the rounds, it often redefines the meaning of “painful clash” – Pulp versus Kode9 playing a set of Burial material, Low coming up against Belle and Sebastian, the fear in your mind over what major sacrifices would have to be made if the Champions League final ran into extra time and you had to make a choice between football and PJ Harvey. Luckily no matter what you see, you can be pretty sure it´ll be at least interesting, and it all takes place in a nice climate on the seafront, so you’re less concerned if a guitar freakout goes on a bit longer than it necessarily needs to if or you miss a band you previously thought helped define your life because your legs ache a bit. … Continue Reading