Primavera Sound (I)

<<You get home with the feeling that in three days of partying you have lived 40 years of music, where past, present and future come together constantly.>> That's how Vincent Arquilliere, a music journalist from France, defined in 2008 San Miguel Primavera Sound Festival. And seriously, now I can say he was on the right track.

As usual, the festival brought to Barcelona (Spain) an amazing line up with most of the best international bands of the year. An unenviable experience to other capital cities which also organize such events. Maybe this is the reason why there were more foreigners than local people in most of the shows. 

I got the opportunity to participate in this jollification as an irrelephant correspondent. Yay! And I had firm intention of going to every concert I could. The festival would start on Monday the 28th of May and would finish on Sunday the 3rd of June. One week of live music! Does anything better exist?

This post will be divided into three parts, addressing each of the days in the report.

Monday: Indie Soul Day

Primavera Sound (PS) started with some indoor concerts at Sala Apolo (one of the most famous indie clubs in Barcelona). I've to confess that I didn't know anything about the bands that were playing that night, but is that really a problem? One of the things I enjoy the most is meeting new bands (sometimes some of them become famous after few months!). 

That night was the time to meet Lisa & The Lips from California whose music is a mix between soul and rock and the voice of the singer is rather than impressive. 

The following artist was James Hunter, Grammy Award-nominated English R&B musician and soul singer. One of the songs that they played was Jaqueline which I realized that was dedicated to his dead wife in 2011.

Wednesday: Free Music Day 

One of the particular strengths of the PS this year was that free concerts were offered in the city center during two days. Wednesday was one of those days and, in my opinion, the outfits that came were excellent for a non-paying event. 

The first band I could see was Jeremy Jay who has some similarities to Patrick Wolf and was my first great discovery of the evening.

Then, it was the time for The Walkmen, a band which I absolutely like, playing great hits such as The Rat or Little House Of Savages.

  

The next outfit was definitely the best of the night. The garage-flavored punk rock band Black Lips, made a great performance that day. I really love them. We could see the singer Cole Alexander many times in the festival that week. It's funny because he really dresses like a beggar. However, don't worry if you meet him! Cole is totally inoffensive.