Primavera Sound is a friendly festival that's actually pretty exhausting

Saturday's line-up again provided a severe number of clashes and therefore little in the way of opportunity to explore new bands. Cuzo and Damo Suzuki (ex-Can) provided a heavier, guitar driven jam-set start to the evening. The quality of the few unfamiliar acts that I saw over the 3 days still has me wondering what I missed.

The promising new act, Yuck, performed their catchy alt.rock tunes on ATP Stage; I was reminded of the likes of Teenage Fanclub, Sonic Youth and even the Ramones at times; never a bad thing. I've been patiently waiting for the opportunity to catch Warpaint live for a while now, a great debut psychedelic/art-rock album, and was suitably impressed with their live performance too. Currently looking forward to not one but two performances at Glastonbury, one each on my favourite stages. A bit heavy on bass (I do understatement, me) where I was standing; looking forward to hearing some melody in the sound mix next time.

Phosphorescent turned in a predictably solid, heavy performance back at basecamp ATP Stage, special mention for some epic keyboards.

P J Harvey performed her new album to an adoring audience on the main stage (San Miguel). 20 years on she gets better and better, the theme and sound of the last album represents a departure from anything she has done before... business as usual for Polly Jean then. Impressively the Spanish audience already knew all the words to the new tunes, they started to simmer down after the first few tunes and listened intently instead. Set of the weekend for me, unsurprisingly though.

I caught a little of Mogwai, (great as usual), before heading to performances by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Pissed Jeans for a suitably loud, shouty climax to the festival. Cue much crowd surfing/moshing. I also heard good reports from Swans, and The Black Angels sets elsewhere.

A pleasant come-down from the excitement of the main event at Parc del Forum was the more sedate offerings of Sunday in Parc Central del Poblenou. A shady park not far from the main site, with a more chilled line-up to relax to, sitting under one of the many trees that offer shelter from the sun there.

No dud bands over the entire few days then and a brilliant line-up of alternative/independent artists. More urban, concrete jungle (think Modernism) than Green Fields overall, a friendly festival that's actually pretty exhausting given the sheer number of good bands they book. It's a festival that has me thinking "never again", though in a healthy, Glastonbury sort of way. My only advice would be to get there early and sort out wristbands, queue early for the events at Poble Espanyol or Auditori, and maybe stay near the Parc del Forum -taxis are almost impossible leaving the event and the tram doesn't run after 2am.

Latest Updates