quarta-feira, 4 de junho de 2008

Primavera Sound: the 30th of May

After not having that much sleep (Barcelona will do that to you), it was in total ecstasy that me and my friends headed to the architecturally astonishing Auditori (where we had already seen the magnificent Shannon Wright, Spiritualized and Kimya Dawson play last year) to see our beloved HOLLY GOLIGHTLY play. She is, blissfully, still a bit unknown, even after her duet with The white stripes, but after a marvellous and funny concert I don't think she will remain that way. She was accompained on stage by the guitarist from THE BROKEOFFS and amidst their wonderful dark humour ( 'so this is a song about domestic violence, cause we're so good at it' or 'never let your kids wear crocs' lol) Holly delivered songs from her new album with the brokeoffs as well as some older gems (didn't play 'walk a mile' though) with the charm of an english meets texan country rose. I would walk a mile in your shoes, girl! Love 'ya!
For the next hour or so I had no real plans so I just went around checking bands that might be good. First of I saw TRÄD, GRÄS och STENAR as I thought they were kraut-rocky... turned out they were elderly-rock lol. I don't know how they weren'e wearing any elderly diapers; and after that was time for the hedious RUSSIAN RED.
Then it was time for MV & EE accompained on stage by THE GOLDEN ROAD BAND, with the wonderful Samara Lubelsky doubling duties as bassist and violinist. Bursting through the folky core, MV&EE are two very interesting individuals that shed a light on good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll and country tunes. It was a great concert and the audience really enjoyed their honest and heart-felt offering. By the way, Erika is a beauty:)
Next on my list was one of my best discoveries last year: THE MARY ONETTES. With their sugary and dark hymns that bring Jesus & Mary Chain and New Order together, in songs like 'Lost' or 'explosions' they show why their considered one of the best bands of the new Swedish music invasion; not very expansive on stage, but they showed they know what they're doing.
Religious moment: BILL CALLAHAN. We went back to the Auditori to see Smog's mastermind ex-Cat Power's boyfriend and actual Joanna Newsom's sweetheart, only to confirm that it was going to be one of the best concerts of the festival. Potent, emocional and achingly beautiful. Songs like 'Sycamore', and 'diamond dancer' from his solo album and 'rock bottom riser' or 'cold blooded old times' from Smog really showed that this man, with that amazing deep voice and great guitar playing skills can make anyone cry. And I mean anyone.
After religion what comes? Fun, games and alcohol eheh And that's exactly what MAN MAN delivers. Their albums are wild and great, but their live performance is beyong anything you've ever seen in your life! They got the party started and they blew the shit out of barcelona with a concert that was both wild and furious and extremely well rehearsed and well put together. They danced, they jumped, they screamed and they made us dance, jump and scream like wild animals. At the end of the concert, the vocalist/pianist/dancer jumped not to the audience but to the ocean lol and then got back on stage for a rain of applause. Brilliant!
As the party had already started, we ran up the stairs just as DEVO were playing the hit 'Mongoloid' and in fact we did look like mongoloids dancing as we were so excited about Devo playing right there! We only listened to that one song because we wanted to see Man man from start to finish, but it was worth it:) They sounded way better than they do on album and apparently the years didn't change their crazed ways.
After Devo's wackyness I returned to Vice, this time on my own, as my friends went to check out Fuck Buttons to get my ears bleeding with the sound of A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS. The stage was completely dark and you could only see their sillhouettes ( like My bloody valentine or jesus & mary chain). Their album is amazing but i wasn't expecting that the self-procclaimed 'loudest band in NY' were really the loudest band. The audience was ecstatic and I was screaming my lungs out when they played ' to fix the gash in your head'. They rocked it out and the noise was so loud that people on other stages probably heard them.
I had the time to check two songs from FUCK BUTTONS and I really enjoyed it, although it seemed to me that their sound lost a little bit o power, compared to the recording; on my way dotn to see them I unfortunately heard CAT POWER. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of hers, but her latest offering Jukebox and they way she knows goes around playing makes me a bit sad; someone that wrote Myra Lee in one night and albums like You are Free or What would the Community think shouldn't be playing the kind of songs she's playing and even Jim White on drums didn't save her from looking and sounding ridiculous. It's as if she lost her way musically and she could be so much more now.

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